Joseph Losey

Biography: Joseph Losey

Wisconsinite Joseph Losey entered the entertainment industry through the patron's entrance, writing book and theatre reviews in the early 1930s. Attaining work as a stage director, Losey prepared many of the early live presentations at the Radio City Music Hall, participated in theatrical tours of Scandanavia and Russia, and made his Broadway debut in 1936 with the first of the agit-prop Living Newspaper productions. His earliest movie work was as director of documentaries for the Rockefeller Foundation; he moved on to industrial shorts, a marionette film for the Petroleum Industry's exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and a staff director post on MGM's Crime Does Not Pay short-subject series. After radio work and World War II service, Losey directed the celebrated 1947 Hollywood stage production of Bertold Brecht's Galileo, starring Charles Laughton. This led to Losey's first feature-film directing assignment, RKO's The Boy with Green Hair (1949), a sentimental drama with pacifistic overtones. Losey's favorite of his Hollywood films was The Prowler (1951), which contained the quintessential Joseph Losey "hero": a man who knows he is orchestrating his own downfall, but can't stop himself. While in Italy filming Stranger on the Prowl (1951), Losey declined a summons to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Blacklisted as a result, Losey relocated in England, where his film career at long last shifted into high gear. With The Servant (1963), Losey directed from a Harold Pinter script for the first time, and thereafter his cinematic style changed radically; where once he had concentrated on fast action and clear-cut storytelling, his films became studied, ponderous, and sometimes downright dull. A muddled attempt to capture the "mod" audience, 1967's Modesty Blaise, only emphasized how out of sync Losey's work had become in this period. He regained his momentum with 1971's The Go-Between (another Pinter project), which, like The Servant, won several international awards. Moving from England to France in the mid 1970s, Losey returned briefly to the theatre, staging an elaborate production of Boris Godunov in 1980. While most of Losey's last film projects were shot in France, he went back to England for his final project, Steaming (1985); he died in London in 1984, with his fourth wife at his side. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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Steaming (1985)
Cast: Joseph Losey Vanessa Redgrave Diana Dors Sarah Miles Brenda Bruce
Tags: Feminist Film Drama Ensemble Film
Length: 102min
This is a story of a group of women overcoming several obstacles by helping each other out, even if that means just listening. Seven different women whose backgrounds are filled in by flashbacks and narration are together in a steambath on ladies'...
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La Truite (1982)
Cast: Jeanne Moreau Joseph Losey Isabelle Huppert Alexandre Trauner Jean-Pierre Cassel
Tags: Psychological Drama Drama
Length: 116min
This French sex farce is translated in English as The Trout. Joseph Losey directed and co-wrote the film, which stars Isabelle Huppert as Frederique, a young woman living on her family's rural trout farm. Frederique is trapped in a dull marriage to a...
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Don Giovanni (1979)
Cast: Joseph Losey Gerry Fisher Alexandre Trauner Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Ruggero Raimondi
Tags: Musical Drama Film-Opera Musical
Length: 184min
Joseph Losey's 1979 film adaptation of the Mozart opera +Don Giovanni adheres faithfully to the original Lorenzo Da Ponte libretto, with rakish Don Giovanni (Ruggero Raimondi) putting the make on the aristocratic Dona Anna (Edda Moser). Giovanni's...
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Mr. Klein (1976)
Cast: Jeanne Moreau Joseph Losey Alain Delon Alexandre Trauner Michel Lonsdale
Tags: Psychological Drama War Drama Drama
Length: 122min
Alain Delon plays Mr. Klein, a French-Catholic art dealer during the Nazi occupation. Strapped for cash, Klein takes financial advantage of his Jewish neighbors, knowing that they have no legal recourse. Ironically, Klein is himself mistaken for a...
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Les Routes Du Sud (1978)
Cast: Joseph Losey Yves Montand Gerry Fisher Michel Legrand Alexandre Trauner
Tags: Psychological Drama Drama
Length: 97min
Roads to the South is often omitted from the "official" lists of Joseph Losey's films, principally because it was made for French television rather than theatres. Conceived by screenwriter Jorge Semprun and star Yves Montand as a sequel to Alain...
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Galileo (1975)
Cast: Joseph Losey John Gielgud Clive Revill Michael Gough Topol
Tags: Period Film Drama Biopic
Length: 145min
Filmed in England, Galileo is based on Charles Laughton's 1947 adaptation of the play by Bertolt Brecht, which, like this 1975 film, was directed by Joseph Losey. Israeli film-star Topol plays the 17th century Italian astronomer, whose theories run...
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The Romantic Englishwoman (1975)
Cast: Michael Caine Joseph Losey Glenda Jackson Gerry Fisher Kate Nelligan
Tags: Comedy Drama Psychological Drama Marriage Drama
Length: 115min
Tom Stoppard and Thomas Wiseman's intricate script for The Romantic Englishwoman credibly explores the notion that a writer can manipulate the people in his life as deftly as he can manipulate the characters in his imagination. The title character...
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The Assassination of Trotsky (1972)
Cast: Joseph Losey Alain Delon Richard Burton Romy Schneider Valentina Cortese
Tags: Biopic Political Drama Drama
Length: 105min
This film is Joseph Losey's mood piece that delves into the psychological makeup of Frank Jackson (Alain Delon), the assassin of exiled Russian Communist leader Leon Trotsky (Richard Burton). The tale chronicles the final few months of Trotsky's life,...
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A Doll's House (1973)
Cast: Joseph Losey Jane Fonda Edward Fox Trevor Howard Delphine Seyrig
Tags: Psychological Drama Marriage Drama Feminist Film Drama
Length: 108min
This Joseph Losey-directed 1973 version of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House marks one of two cinematizations of the story released during the same year. Here, Jane Fonda plays Nora Helmer, the mousy Norwegian wife who eventually turns on her insensitive...
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The Go-Between (1971)
Cast: Alan Bates Julie Christie Joseph Losey Michael Gough Michael Redgrave
Tags: Period Film Romantic Drama Drama
Length: 116min
The third collaboration between director Joseph Losey and writer Harold Pinter, following The Servant and Accident, continues their exploration of class rituals and the darker recesses of desire. Pinter's script adapts the 1953 L.P. Hartley novel...
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Joseph Losey

Biography: Joseph Losey

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