The Offence 1973, UK, Colour, Crime, Drama Running time: 112 mins. Last film in Rated 18. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Cast: Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, our Sidney Vivien Merchant, Trevor Howard Lumet This season was originally envisaged as a ‘Sidney Lumet
Season directs Sean Connery season’, with a choice of 4 other films
Tuesday 31st (other than The Offence) to choose from in which Lumet directed Connery including The Hill , The Anderson Tapes, October at 7.15 pm Murder on the Orient Express and Family Business. Alas the
only film available to InFiFa & Eden Court to show on the big screen was The Offence, and thus this season became a Film essay more general ‘Sidney Lumet Season’ (though this in itself is (with some help no bad thing!). Lumet claimed in later life that after directing from a Philip Connery (his favourite actor) for the first time in The Hill French review (1965), that whenever he received a screenplay, he looked to of the film from see if there was a part for ‘Big Tam’. the Guardian in I first saw this film well over 20 years ago and it has still left 2015) and notes an indelible mark on me – what has remained with me all this compiled by time (and precious little else about the film apart from some Mark MacLennan of the outside search scenes) is the absolutely electric and (InFiFa) . brutal police station scenes between Sean Connery as the detective and Ian Bannen as the suspected child molester that left me shaken, and which I recall to this day – this vividly came back to me when this film was suggested.
By the mid-1960s Sean Connery had completed his contract with Saltzman and Broccoli and feared being typecast as 007. So to lure him back to appear in a sixth Bond film (Diamonds Are Forever, 1971), United Artists promised him $2m to make two movies of his own choice. The first he Another Scottish acting great in the film, picked was This Story of Yours, a grim who also gives an outstanding performance police procedural based on a play by is the late, great Ian Bannen. A charismatic John Hopkins, one of the writing team character actor, and occasional leading man on Z-Cars, the realistic BBC TV series (and a regular drinker with Peter O’Toole taking Dixon out of out of Dock Green and Richard Burton until a spell of hepatitis and dropping him in a depraved new forced him to give up alcohol), who world. With the title changed to The tragically lost his life not very far from Offence, Connery bravely discarded Inverness and Eden Court Theatre in a car his toupee (but kept his licence to kill crash in 1999, on the South side of Loch hidden in his wallet) to play the middle Ness. He had just starred in the feel-good aged, bitter, hard-drinking plain- comedy Waking Ned, as a lovable clothed Detective Sergeant Johnson, pensioner who persuades his village to on the edge of madness after two claim a big lottery win after the ticket's decades investigating rape, murder owner dies of shock. The film was a hit in and child molestation in an both Britain and the United States and won anonymous Home Counties estate. Bannen international acclaim. He also received a best supporting actor Oscar nod for his role in Flight of the Phoenix (1965) and received a BAFTA Award nomination for his performance in The Offence.
Connery brought in Sidney Lumet from the States (their third collaboration to date) to direct a film that combined a complex theatrical form with starkly naturalistic performances. It was one of the few times that Lumet directed a film outside his native New York and indeed outside America. Connery, to this day, views Lumet as one of the best directors he ever worked with.
Brief Synopsis performance (Connery has repeatedly
stated that Johnson is his best screen The Offence plays out over a couple of dark rainy days in which Johnson role) in The Offence seems a real pity. confronts his inner demons, as a 12- year-old girl is abducted and a There is usually no unique truth in suspected pedophile, Baxter is Sidney Lumet’s cinema, the limit brought in for questioning, and who between good and bad is always really gets under the skin of Johnson blurry, and appearances are deceptive. for no apparent reason (Johnson is a Lumet constantly plays with doubt and highly experienced Policeman in this this is the case in The Offence: Is sort of case). Initially the viewer is Baxter guilty? Is Johnson a drawn in by a menacing opening police schizophrenic criminal? What is the station scene that culminates in an act part of reality and fantasy in what we of unexplained violence, in which his see? Who is the predator? As colleagues (including his Chief discussed earlier, with the sudden end Superintendent, played by Trevor of the film, Lumet doesn’t give easy Howard) treat the troubled and deeply explanations but leaves the doubt damaged Johnson as if he were an work on us, thus creating a strong uncontrollable animal. feeling of uneasiness; that uneasiness will surely rest with you for some time to come after watching The Offence (as it has with me!).
The atmosphere and performances are sustained at a terrifying pitch, and the film ends suddenly, leaving the audience to deal with the ideas and emotions aroused. It didn’t appeal to Trevor Howard, Sidney Lumet and Bond fans, the lack of success meant Sean Connery in a script discussion United Artists got out of their deal for a second film (a version of MacBeth Sidney Lumet (June 25, 1924 – April 9, which Connery planned to direct 2011) was a prolific American director, himself), and The Offence took more producer and screenwriter with over than a decade to recover its modest 50 films to his credit. His films included budget. Never again would Connery 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker, Dog take such a risk with his on-screen Day Afternoon, Serpico, Network, and persona; which, once you see his The Verdict amongst many others. complex performance (he has often stated that Johnson is his best screen
Our next screening.……… Le Quattro Volte
The first film in our…….. Members Choice Season
Michelangelo Frammartino's Eden quietly mesmeric. drama sees the Court turning of the seasons and the cycle of life through the eyes of Cinema an ageing, ailing Calabrian shepherd. And sharing equal th billing with the work's near-silent 14 November www.facebook.com/infifa central human protagonist are 2017 the goats of the flock he is at 7.15 pm nominally in charge of (though in reality the issue of who is caring Inverness Film Fans (InFiFa) for who is rather blurred), and the meet fortnightly at Eden Court Cinema for screenings and post man's mischievously intelligent film discussions. To join us for sheep dog. free and for more info go to: www.invernessfilmfans.org