Peter Gallagher

An out­stand­ing script by Harold Pin­ter, clev­erly and spar­ely directed with aston­ish­ing cin­e­matograpy for any era (from Ossie Mor­ris). Two scenes stand out. The main flash­back starts with a close-up of Anne Bancroft’s face framed by the brim of a felt hat; exte­rior light­ing. The back­ground, not in focus, fades to white and then fades in again to place her in a dif­fer­ent scene while the light­ing on her face remains unchanged. With com­puter graph­ics? Easy. But on film… A sec­ond scene: Ban­croft kneel­ing before a gas fire—we see her full face, weep­ing, by the flick­er­ing flame’s light. Deep in the richly-furnished room behind her Finch, lit from a win­dow to one side of the room, is stand­ing, argu­ing with her. Both char­ac­ters in per­fect focus.

Also, isn’t it com­fort­ing to know that Har­rods’ Food Hall has hardly changed in 45 years?