Diana Tuova
Spotlight on Film
Aug 9, 2024
4.5/5
Its theme of roles’ reversal, intriguing character studies and subtle politics of power and control make it one of Britain’s most memorable cinematic creations.
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Penelope Gilliatt
Observer (UK)
Mar 7, 2024
The thing that is most exhilarating about the film is that it has been written by someone who is obviously excited by the cinema and made by someone who obviously respects words.
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James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk
Oct 6, 2023
3/4
a twisted, dark, and wildly unpredictable psychodrama
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Yasser Medina
Cinefilia
Jun 15, 2023
7/10
A rather intriguing psychological drama about power relations and the vertical line of social classes. [Full review in Spanish]
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Judith Crist
New York Herald Tribune
Aug 15, 2022
A "fascinating" film, one from which it is virtually impossible to turn our eye or our attention, for we are watching a snake at work, a poisonous worm of corruption disguised as a servant and brilliantly played with a vicious servility by Dirk Bogarde.
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Neely Swanson
Easy Reader (California)
Apr 12, 2022
“The Servant” is a remarkable feat of storytelling, a shot over the bow of class structure, all the more remarkable because there are no sympathetic characters.
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Steph Green
WeLoveCinema
Feb 10, 2022
5/5
A rarified experience in masterful manipulation and thrilling commentary on the waning power of the social elite in the Swinging Sixties.
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Catherine Bray
Film of the Week
Nov 12, 2021
Probably one of the sexiest, sourest and most beautifully photographed British films of all time, The Servant is a masterclass in sadistic power games, thrumming with poisonous erotic energy.
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Ben Turner
The Pink Lens
Sep 16, 2021
4/5
A superb performance from Bogarde, this icy but complex character maintains the homoeroticism of its origins, even if it doesn't play them out literally.
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Amber Wilkinson
Eye for Film
Sep 13, 2021
4.5/5
Bogarde, proving not for the first time that he was a whole lot more than just a pretty face, brings a real subtlety and edge to Barratt, letting just enough of the Machiavellian glint through to let us know there's more to this than first appears.
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Kevin Maher
The Times (UK)
Sep 10, 2021
4/5
The drama is masterfully done and exquisitely played...
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Rob Aldam
Backseat Mafia
Sep 8, 2021
The Servant is a masterpiece. A brilliantly acted and beautifully shot drama which tackles class and power dynamics, all to a backdrop of bristling sexual tensions.
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Eddie Harrison
film-authority.com
Sep 8, 2021
5/5
...one of the great iconic British films, although, for once, there's not a shred of patriotism or jingoism to be found...
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Robert Dunbar
Philadelphia Gay News
May 28, 2020
This script is a masterpiece of homosexual antagonism. Or is it merely class enmity?
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Michael Wood
London Review of Books
Apr 8, 2020
Joseph Losey's The Servant hasn't lost any of its mystery over the years since 1963; it might even have gained a bit.
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TIME Staff
TIME Magazine
Apr 8, 2020
The film on its most meaningful level is acid splashed into the wound of class distinction. But it is best enjoyed simply as a slick, spooky, frequently spellbinding study of corruption.
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Wendy Michener
Maclean's Magazine
Apr 8, 2020
The Servant summons up all one's irrational fears and its baroquely sinister atmosphere invests the most ordinary event with middle-of-the-night creepiness.
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John Russell Taylor
Sight & Sound
Apr 8, 2020
Even at his worst Losey is never dull, and here he is pretty consistently at his best.
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Ian Cameron
The Spectator
Apr 8, 2020
The transformation of behaviour from seedy man- servant to slatternly, domineering wife is brilliantly handled by Losey and Dirk Bogarde, an actor whose work has always gone beyond the call of duty in a long line of undistinguished films.
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Zachary Wigon
Village Voice
Apr 8, 2020
The viewer is left with not only a portrait of the haves and the have-nots, but a glimpse of what such social stratification provokes -- an all-consuming madness as powerful as it is hidden.
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