Joseph Losey

Date of Birth: 14/01/1909
Date of death: 22/06/1984
Joseph Losey was born Jan. 14, 1909, Mr.. La Crosse (Wisconsin), died June 22, 1984, Mr.. London. He grew up in a family with Dutch roots and strict Puritan tradition. Subsequently, it was manifested in his penchant for solving moral problems in the form of parable or allegory.


One time Losey studied medicine at Dartmouth College, however, fascinated by the theater, entered the Harvard School of Art and worked at the same time in the company "Studio 47". In 1930. Losey dropped everything and became a theater critic, leading New York newspapers, and then returned to the theater, but as assistant director and director.


In 1935. for the sake of studying the latest theories of theatrical Losey went to Europe as a correspondent Verayeti ". He visited the Soviet Union, was present at the rehearsals Okhlopkova and Meyerhold, as well as several classes directing class Eisenstein. Returning to the United States, Losey is releasing so-called "Living Newspaper" journalistic theater performances, along the lines of the theoretical line Piscator and Brecht.


End of 30's - early 40-ies are dated and the first experiments Losey in the field of documentary and popular science films. Called in 1943. military service, he continued making training films for the military department. After the war, Losey returned to the theater and in 1947. raised in Los Angeles, his most famous play "Galileo Galilei" in Brecht's play. Her dream to move the play to the screen Losey was able to realize only in 1974


The first full-length feature film Losey "The boy with green hair" refers to 1948. In this parable of the right to be different, as everything is already laid the main motive of further creative director: careful study of human behavior in exceptional circumstances, reveals their essence. In the ensuing debut of a series of "black films", . filmed in Hollywood with extraordinary rapidity, . quite vividly manifested features of "Baroque" Losey: sharp contrasts of shadow and light, . emphasized expressive arrangement of actors in the frame, . unusual shooting angles.,


. In 1951, Mr.
. When Losey was in Italy for shooting the film "Stranger in search of prey," he demanded to to testify before the Commission on Un-American Activities. The occasion served as a denunciation of his former membership in the Communist Party. Director, did not hide his leftist views, chose to remain in Europe. After that, he was immediately entered in the Hollywood blacklists. Losey settled in England, but the first film was forced to withdraw under a pseudonym so as not to interfere with their American rental.


In Europe, Losey went on to shoot for the most dyed bitterness and hopelessness thriller with rare lyrical episodes. The most famous of them, . "Damned" (1961) - a thriller with elements of science fiction, . directed against the threat of nuclear war, . in which the goodwill and the art resist secret experiments to create a new population of people, . survive in radioactivity,
.


From "Eve" (1962) began a new period of creativity Losey. Now the focus of the director - the psychological state of characters facing crisis of identity under the influence of a hopeless passion or corrosive traditional society of decadence


. In "Eve" all focused exclusively on the conflict between the heroes Stanley Baker and Jeanne Moreau, . accompanied by a Venetian architecture, . statues and interiors with multiple mirrors (mirrors - one of the key visual motifs of most films Losey),
. In "Servant" (1963) and "accident" (1967) personal crisis heroes reflects the collapse of traditional values of English social structure. In "Servant, Losey has brought world fame, the life of a young aristocrat (James Fox) is subject to the will had been trained, but vulgar servant (Dirk Bogarde). In the "accident" (Special Jury Prize Cannes film festival) through the external signs of an idyllic life by Oxford tragic event comes through a painful drama begins to age intellectuals (Dirk Bogarde), . torment his mediocrity and envy of the success of a successful male colleagues,
. The apogee of Losey's reputation was the "agent" (1971, Palme d'Or, Cannes Film Festival), where the nostalgic flair "beautiful era" beginning of XX century, opening up the fatal passion, pursues the hero through many decades.


The success of the director in all three films on the right divided screenwriter, famous playwright G. Pinter, master of laconic dialogue, a rich set of hidden meanings, which are the most expressive pauses and silences. The general crisis of the British cinema in the 70 years of forced Losey to work in different countries of Europe and the world. In Spain, he took off his allegorical drama of persecution "Landscape with Figures" (1970), . in Mexico and Italy - "The Assassination of Trotsky" (1972), . tribute to the onetime political preferences, . in Norway - "A Doll's House" (1973) by Ibsen, . France, . where the director had settled after 1976, . - "Monsieur Klein", . drama of personal identity, . placed in a Kafkaesque atmosphere of Nazi-occupied Paris,
. For the French company Gaumont was created on location in Italy, one of the best films of operas - Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (1979). After the complete failure of adaptation of the novel, Roger Vaillant "Trout" (1982) Losey returned to London, where he died while working on the installation of his latest film "Steam Room"

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. 1948 - "The Boy with Green Hair" (The Boy With Green Hair)
. 1950 - "Without the Law" (Lawless)
. 1951 - "M" (M)
. 1951 - "Marauder" (The Prawler)
. 1951 - "Big Night" (The Big Night)
. 1952 - "Stranger in search of prey" (Stranger on the Prawl / Imbarco a Mezzanotte)
. 1954 - "Sleeping Tiger" (The Sleeping Tiger)
. 1956 - "intimate stranger" (The Intimate Stranger)
. 1957 - "The pitiless time" (Time Without Pity)
. 1958 - "Gypsy and a gentleman" (The Gypsy and the Gentleman)
. 1959 - "blind date" (The Blind Date)
. 1960 - "criminal" (The Criminal)
. 1961 - "The Damned" (The Damned)
. 1962 - "Eva" (Eva)
. 1963 - "The Servant" (The Servant)
. 1964 - "The King and Fatherland" (King and Country)
. 1966 - "Modest Blaise" (Modesty Blaise)
. 1967 - "Accident" (Accident)
. 1968 - "Secret Ceremony (Secret Ceremony)
. 1968 - "Boom!" (Boom!)
. 1970 - "Landscape with Figures" (Figures in a Landscape)
. 1971 - "Intermediary" (The Go-Between)
. 1972 - "The Assassination of Trotsky" (The Assassination of Trotsky)
. 1973 - "A Doll's House" (A Doll's House)
. 1974 - "Galileo" (Galileo)
. 1975 - "Romantic Englishwoman" (The Romantic Englishwoman)
. 1977 - "Monsieur Klein" (M
. Klein)
1978 - Roads of the South "(Les Routes du Sud)
1979 - "Don Giovanni" (Don Giovanni)
1982 - "Trout" (La Truite)
1984-85 - "Steam Room" (Steaming)