Joseph Losey

14.01.1909, Wiscosin - 22.06.1984, Paris

 

Director

In 1930, Losey graduated from Harvard with a degree in literature. At the beginning of his career he directed for theatre. In 1945 directed his first feature film, The Boy with Green Hair. most interesting film is the remake of Lang’s M from 1931 (1951). In the 1950s he was on the black list of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He decided to leave the US and moved to Italy where he made Stranger on the Prowl (Imbarco a mezzanotte, 1952). In Great Britain he made two films under a pseudonym. His most important films of the criminal genre are Time without Pity (1957) and The Criminal/TheConcrete Jungle (1960), science-fiction The Damned (1961), melodrama Eva (1962), The Servant (1963), Accident (1967), which won an award in Cannes, The Go-Between (1970), which won the Grand Prix in Cannes, Modesty Blaise (1966), the female version of James Bond starring Monica Vitti, Monsieur Klein (Mr. Klein, 1976) made in France and Don Giovanni from 1979.

Filmography

Steaming (1985)
La truite (1982)
Boris Godunov (1980) (TV)
Don Giovanni (1979)
Putovi na jug (Les routes du sud, 1978)
Mr Klein (Monsieur Klein, 1976)
The Romantic Englishwoman (1975)
Galileo (1975)
A Doll\'s House (1973)
The Assassination of Trotsky (1972)
The Go-Between (1970)
Figures in a Landscape (1970) (as Joseph Walton)
Secret Ceremony (1968)
Boom (1968)
Accident (1967)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
King & Country (1964)
The Servant (1963)
The Damned (1963)
Eva (1962)
The Criminal (1960)
Blind Date (1959)
First on the Road (1959)
The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)
Time Without Pity (1957)
The Intimate Stranger (1956) (as Joseph Walton)
A Man on the Beach (1955)
The Sleeping Tiger (1954) (as Victor Hanbury)
Stranac u bijegu (Imbarco a mezzanotte, 1952) (as Andrea Forzano)
The Big Night (1951)
M (1951)
The Prowler (1951)
The Lawless (1950)
The Boy with Green Hair (1948)
Leben des Galilei (1947)
A Gun in His Hand (1945)
A Child Went Forth (1941)
Youth Gets a Break (1941)
Pete Roleum and His Cousins (1939)


Related texts

Films we loved

Author with an unbalanced opus

Films by this director

The Go-Between

(1970)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Gerry Fisher
Synopsis:

It is 1900. Leo is thirteen years old. He visits his rich friend Markus on his rural estate in Norfolk. Leo becomes good friends with Markus' older sister Marian, a beautiful girl engaged to young Hugh. Marian sends Leo as her love messenger to the slightly debauched neighbor Ted Burgess. Can a love affair between the two neighbors remain secret? This love drama is a fierce critique of the British aristocracy and the class-divide at the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century.

color, 118 min

The Boy with Green Hair

(1948)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: George Barnes
Synopsis:

When police patrolmen find a silent runaway boy with a shaved head, they seek help from a psychologist. It turns out that the boy’s name is Peter Fry and that he is a war orphan. Peter does not even know that his parents are dead. The morning after he finally learns the truth, his hair mysteriously turns green. The prejudices of the people around him make Peter run away…

color, 35 mm, 76 min

Time Without Pity

(1957)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Freddie Francis
Synopsis:

There are 24 hours left until Alec Graham’s execution. Graham was convicted for the murder of his girlfriend. His father David, an unsuccessful alcoholic writer, flies from Canada hoping to reconcile with his son, who he had neglected for years. Alec refuses to have any contact with his father. David, however, does his best to find the real murderer before it is too late.

b/w, 35 mm, 84 min

Blind Date

(1959)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Christopher Challis
Synopsis:

A man, a woman, a police inspector and a murder... Dutch painter Jan Van Rooyer is preparing for a night out with Jacqueline, an elegant French lady whom he has been seeing for a while. But instead of her Jan meets inspector Morgan who accuses him of her murder. During Jan’s struggle to prove his innocence it turns out that Jacqueline was supported by a highly positioned diplomat.

b/w, 35 mm, 91 min

The Servant

(1963)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Douglas Slocombe
Synopsis:

This film explores the twisted power games between a servant (Dirk Bogarde) and his master (James Fox). Tony is a rich young man who employs Hugo as a butler. Hugo immediately starts playing control games with Tony, testing his boundaries and getting Tony under his thumb. The only threat to Hugo’s dominance is Tony’s fiancée Susan, but she too gets entangled in the butler’s schemes.

b/w, 35 mm, 110 min

King and Country

(1964)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Denys N. Coop
Synopsis:

During WW I, Arthur Hamp is a soldier accused of deserting. His defender in military court is Captain Hargreaves, appointed on official duty. At first Hargreaves is disgusted with Hamp’s crime but soon, after finding out the reason why Hamp deserted, he develops empathy for his client. After a battle in which he was the only survivor and having just found out that his fiancée was cheating him, Hamp did not see the point of continuing to fight.

b/w, 35 mm, 80min

Modesty Blaise

(Great Britain, 1966)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Jack Hildyard
Synopsis:

This is a film adaptation of Jim Holdaway’s comic book. The main character is a secret agent, Modesty Blaise, whose services are required by the British government after they find out that the famous criminal Gabriel plans to steal a shipment of diamonds intended for a sheik from the Middle East. Modesty and her assistant Willie set off to stop the villain but they do not know that Gabriel already has plans for them. ..

color, 35 mm, 109 min

Accident

(1967)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Gerry Fisher
Synopsis:

This is a criminal drama about Stephen, a reverent, married professor from Oxford who is going through a mid-life crisis. This rocky period in his life seems to be getting better when he meets Anna, an attractive young woman engaged to one of Stephen’s students. By coincidence Anna is forced to stay alone with Stephen in his house.

color, 35 mm, 104 min

Secret Ceremony

(1968)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Gerry Fisher
Synopsis:

Leonora is an older prostitute convinced that Cenci is her daughter even though her daughter had allegedly died years ago. Cenci’s mother also died. Since Leonora reminds her of her mother, she lets her stay with her. The two of them live with the illusion of being a mother and a daughter until one day Cenci’s step-father Albert appears.

color, 35 mm, 105 min

The Assassination of Trotsky

(1972)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Pasqualino De Santis
Synopsis:

In 1929, Leon Trotsky was exiled from the Soviet Union. Eleven years later he finds himself in Mexico. This film shows the last few months of his life, from May to August 1940 when Frank Jackson assassinated him. We follow Jackson’s slow infiltration into Trotsky’s group of friends and collaborators.

color, 35 mm, 95min

The Romantic Englishwoman

(1975)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Gerry Fisher
Synopsis:

Englishman Lewis Fielding is a writer currently undergoing a bout of writer’s block. His wife Elisabeth is away on vacation in Europe and Lewis is convinced that she is cheating on him. Partly because she is frustrated, Elisabeth starts an affair with a German drug dealer, Thomas. After his wife returns, by coincidence Lewis invites Thomas to their house and asks him for help with his new script.

color, 35 mm, 106 min

Mr. Klein

(Monsieur Klein, 1976)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Gerry Fisher
Synopsis:

Even though the year is 1942 and Paris is occupied by Germans, Robert Klein is leading a pleasant life. He has a nice apartment, a lover and his business is flourishing. He is an art dealer who takes advantage of the despair of Jews who are fleeing the country, and buying their art for a song. However, his blissful life is upset when he finds out that there is another Robert Klein, a Jew with unknown intentions.

color, 35 mm, 117 min

The Way South

(Les routes du sud, 1978)

Directed by: Joseph Losey
PHOTOGRAPHY: Gerry Fisher
Synopsis:

This story takes place in 1975 while General Francisco Franco is dying. A couple, Jean and Eve Larréa live in exile in France. They are still helping the resistance. During one operation Eve gets killed. Jean and his son Laurent’s relationship has always been bad and now it gets even worse. On one occasion Laurent visits his father with his girlfriend Julie and everything gets complicated.

color, 35 mm, 100 min
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