ACCIDENT

Year: 1967
UK: BFI Films
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Jacqueline Sassard, Michael York, Vivien Merchant, Delphine Seyrig, Alexander Knox, Ann Firbank, Brian Phelan, Terence Rigby
Director: Joseph Losey
Country: UK
UK: 105 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains moderate language and sex references
UK Release Date: 5 June 2009 (Limited Re-release)
UK Distributor

Synopsis

Set during a few languid, hot summer weeks, ACCIDENT centres on three men who vie for the attentions of the same woman with devastating consequences.

An academic, Stephen (Dirk Bogarde) is in his 40's and married. Despite his wife being pregnant with their third child, Stephen is captivated by one of his students, Anna (Jacqueline Sassard), a beautiful Austrian princess.

However, he discovers that another of his students, William (Michael York), is also attracted to her and not only that but she is also having an affair with his middle-aged, married colleague Charley (Stanley Baker).

The three compete for Anna, which culminates in a disastrous power struggle to win her.

ACCIDENT was Losey's second collaboration with Harold Pinter and Dirk Bogarde, and many consider this subtle, witty study of simmering class conflict and sexual tension to be Losey and Pinter's finest work together.

Based on the novel by Nicholas Mosley, British classic ACCIDENT won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967 and is now considered one of the great British films of the era and has been recently restored by the BFI National Archive to mark Joseph Losey's centenary this year..