The Servant

A film that takes place in one house in London. Tony is a wealthy young man. He buys a new house and hires a manservant to look after him. Barrett does the work perfectly: cooking, cleaning, order and a quiet courtesy. Barrett also brings a woman into the house, introduced as his sister. She is not his sister. From there the balance inside the house slowly reverses. Who serves whom becomes uncertain; Tony becomes the one asking permission in his own home. The method is staging: staircases, mirrors and doorways constantly show who stands where. The camera places one figure low in the frame and the other high, and the relationship is told by position rather than speech. Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay; the source is Robin Maugham's short novel. What is not said in the dialogue outweighs what is. Dirk Bogarde plays Barrett, James Fox plays Tony, Sarah Miles the woman and Wendy Craig Tony's fiancée. Joseph Losey directed. The film counts among the harshest works written about the English class system and caused argument at the time. An important production for anyone who likes psychological tension and films about class. For a viewer expecting a clear plot, the narrative is slow and the reversal advances almost invisibly.