criterionforum.org

John Schlesinger (1926-2003)



The most expensive three words in the business are:
"Let's try this," but you can't stop using them. You
mustn't. You know, I'm impatient with the business side
of things. I'm impatient with Big Brother watching as
you work for a big studio. And why does one need six
accountants? It's ludicrous. Why are we paying for this
when it's not on the screen? But you've got to fight the
system as best you can.

~ John Schlesinger
(from MovieMaker, 15 Sept 1995)


Filmography

Sunday in the Park (1956)

Monitor (TV series, 1958)

Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (TV series, 1960)

Terminus (1961) BFI (R2 UK) – included in British Transport Films Vol. 3: Running a Railway

A Kind of Loving (1962) Momentum (R2 UK)

Billy Liar (1963) Criterion (R1) / Optimum Releasing (R2 UK) – also as part of Julie Christie: Screen Icons

Darling (1965) MGM (R1) / Optimum Releasing (R2 UK) – also as part of British New Wave, Vol. 1 Double Feature with The L-Shaped Room and Julie Christie: Screen Icons

The Wednesday Play (TV episode, 1967)

Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) Warner (R2 UK) / Optimum Releasing (R2 UK) – as part of Julie Christie: Screen Icons

Midnight Cowboy (1969) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) MGM (R1)

Visions of Eight (segment, 1973)

The Day of the Locust (1975) Paramount (R1)

Marathon Man (1976) Paramount (R1) / Paramount (R2 UK)

Yanks (1979) Universal (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) Anchor Bay (R1)

Separate Tables (TV, 1983)

An Englishman Abroad (TV, 1983)

The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

The Believers (1987) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Madame Sousatzka (1988)

Pacific Heights (1990) Warner (R1) / Warner (R3 KR)

A Question of Attribution (TV, 1992)

The Innocent (1993) Buena Vista (R1)

Cold Comfort Farm (TV, 1995) Universal (R1) – also as double feature with Casual Sex? / Acorn Media (R2 UK)

Eye for an Eye (1996) Paramount (R1)

The Tale of Sweeney Todd (TV, 1998)

The Next Best Thing (2000) Paramount (R1)


Recommended Web Resources

The Guardian – “Midnight Cowboy” Review by Derek Malcolm (25 September, 1969)

MovieMaker – “John Schlesinger Speaks No Evil” Interview with Schlesinger by Tim Rhys and Tom Allen (15 September, 1995)

The Observer – “A Gifted and original vision” Article by Philip French (27 July, 2003)

Screenonline – Career overview with synopses of key films by Erik Hedling

Senses of Cinema – Schlesinger Profile by Béatrice Schatzmann-von Aesch

Senses of Cinema – “You Wouldn't Even Believe What Your Eyes Can See: Cinema's Messianism and Fascist Reflection in John Schlesinger's The Day of the Locust”

According to Beaver R1 CE is pretty bad (interlaced, etc.).

Can anybody comment on either R2 or R4 CE/SEs. Do they exist? Are they better?

Thanks in advance!

Just for the sake of completeness, Billy Liar will also be included in the "10 Years of Rialto Pictures" boxset, to be released late next month.

Great looking trailer of A Kind Of Loving by Rialto Pictures.

I love that you barely see Thora Hird in that trailer, only in a framed photograph! Yet somehow it all feels like an ominous carefree opening, just waiting for her to pop up!

Buried deep in this otherwise fluffy interview about Morgan Creek is a brief tidbit about the Schlesinger-directed Pacific Heights being adapted for television.

The film is junk, but I actually love the brutal fight scene with Michael Keaton and Matthew Modine that culminates with them being propelled out of a window. Schlesinger has a cute Hitchcockian cameo in it as well.

Hilarious opening to Cahiers du cinema's capsule review of Darling

Already more boring than the famous Victorian universe that it would— it seems— be keen to sweep away, the “young” English cinema is in the process of installing the worst of conformities. Darling is, in a way, its masterpiece. The ingredients are already as conventional as the old ladies, cups of tea and lawns of yesteryear: fashion photographers, cover girls, orgies...

beamish14 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 10:22 pm Buried deep in this otherwise fluffy interview about Morgan Creek is a brief tidbit about the Schlesinger-directed Pacific Heights being adapted for television.

The film is junk, but I actually love the brutal fight scene with Michael Keaton and Matthew Modine that culminates with them being propelled out of a window. Schlesinger has a cute Hitchcockian cameo in it as well.

As does Griffiths' mother Tippi Hedren! Although its not their most famous appearance together!