The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Country: GB
Technical: bw 118m
Director: Jack Clayton
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Richard Johnson, Maggie Smith, Cedric Hardwicke, Eric Porter
Synopsis:
A woman marries three men and has eight children with them, but her third husband is unfaithful and she suffers a nervous breakdown.
Review:
The most banal, or bizarre, of subject matter becomes a fascinating film thanks to brilliant performances, Pinter's uneasy, lapidary dialogue, and direction that favours close-ups and mid-shots, but also uses elegantly achieved deep frame compositions. As a picture of pre-swinging era female lack of empowerment, it is a valuable social document: we see her in home-knitted woollens and in fine hats and pearl earrings, but always subject to her husbands and acceptingly so. But more than that it is a paean to woman as instinctive mother, capricious lover and, ultimately, loyal wife.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 118m
Director: Jack Clayton
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Richard Johnson, Maggie Smith, Cedric Hardwicke, Eric Porter
Synopsis:
A woman marries three men and has eight children with them, but her third husband is unfaithful and she suffers a nervous breakdown.
Review:
The most banal, or bizarre, of subject matter becomes a fascinating film thanks to brilliant performances, Pinter's uneasy, lapidary dialogue, and direction that favours close-ups and mid-shots, but also uses elegantly achieved deep frame compositions. As a picture of pre-swinging era female lack of empowerment, it is a valuable social document: we see her in home-knitted woollens and in fine hats and pearl earrings, but always subject to her husbands and acceptingly so. But more than that it is a paean to woman as instinctive mother, capricious lover and, ultimately, loyal wife.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 118m
Director: Jack Clayton
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Richard Johnson, Maggie Smith, Cedric Hardwicke, Eric Porter
Synopsis:
A woman marries three men and has eight children with them, but her third husband is unfaithful and she suffers a nervous breakdown.
Review:
The most banal, or bizarre, of subject matter becomes a fascinating film thanks to brilliant performances, Pinter's uneasy, lapidary dialogue, and direction that favours close-ups and mid-shots, but also uses elegantly achieved deep frame compositions. As a picture of pre-swinging era female lack of empowerment, it is a valuable social document: we see her in home-knitted woollens and in fine hats and pearl earrings, but always subject to her husbands and acceptingly so. But more than that it is a paean to woman as instinctive mother, capricious lover and, ultimately, loyal wife.