To Dirk, With Love

bogardeyum!
Originally uploaded by livingfilm.

Today would have been the 84th birthday of legendary British actor and Knight Sir Dirk Bogarde!

About a year ago, I lent my dear friend Lauren Hunter my DVD of John Schlesinger's Darling, starring Julie Christie, Laurence Harvey and you guessed it Dirk Bogarde!
Now, I had been a fan of Dirk's oeuvre, and even owned a few of his movies, but let me tell you after watching Darling Lauren was never going to be the same.

The Eyebrow. The Pinkie Ring. The Seven Volume Autobiography. These were the ingredients to send dear Lauren into a cosmic fit of joy.
First she studied his filmography, then watched every one of his films that she could find. I was excited to delve with her, into the career of one of Great Britain's most charming actors. Then things began to get scary.

Lauren and I planned a day to stay at home and watch a bunch of his films, it was actually our friend Sweet's birthday, and while we watched the films Lauren made him a God's Eye to bring to his party later that evening.

The first film was directed by Anthony Asquith called The Woman in Question. It was very charming and witty, but had very little Dirk, unconvincingly playing an American murder suspect. Next was a film directed by Joseph Losey credited as Victor Hanbury (it was right after he fled America during the blacklists) the film was called The Sleeping Tiger, it might have been called The Sleeping Derek because I thought it was pretty boring, though Lauren was pleased because there was more Dirk and even a scene where he charmingly seduces the wife of his psychoanalyst. Lastly we watched another film directed by Joseph Losey -this time under his own name- The Servant. Now, The Servant is one of those movies that is so great that people can forget and forgive Joseph Losey for the many awful sins that he has brought to the screen, and uphold his position as a great director. I won't go into the details of the film, partly because I haven't watched it in a year, and I really doubt I could do the film justice right now.

Lauren would continue to watch his films from the Doctor in the House series, to the films that Dirk himself would described as " A Paralyzing Non-Event". I would escape a few of these films, but there are others that may Haunt me forever.

While reminiscing recently about the many tortuous films we endured during this stretch Lauren was right to point out that even the worst of those films contained scenes that made them worth while, such as what is possibly the greatest slap ever seen in a movie -Timothy Dalton slapping Ava Gardner in Permission to Kill. Ultimately, this is the legacy of one of the biggest wastes of talent I can think of.

Happy Birthday dear Knight, you will be missed.


P.S. The title is a link to the Dirk Bogarde Homepage