Their work bound together two prevailing themes; an interest in and dissection of the British class system (devastatingly played out in The Servant) and a suspicion of the inherent struggle for control between people.

Dirk Bogarde stars as Stephen, a successful, middle-class Oxford psychology professor, father of three and closet malcontent. Through his tutoring he meets Anna (Jacqeline Sassard), a beautiful aristocrat who later falls for William (Michael York), another of his students. They spend a warm summer afternoon at Stephen's home with his pregnant wife Rosalind (Vivien Merchant) during which Charley (Stanley Baker), an Oxford colleague, arrives unannounced. As the day grows hotter, alcohol and emotional chemistry begin to take effect. The inebriated guests are forced to spend the night together, leading to repercussions which carry tragic consequences.

Filmed in flashback, the opening scenes demonstrate Losey's superb versatility as a director. Stripped of Pinter's suppressing dialogue, his disorientating camera angles and crosscutting close-ups espouse confusion. As the characters' psychological interplay takes shape, Losey then gives way to unobtrusive long shots, as if watching from afar, at pains not to disturb the unfolding power play.

Pinter's screenplay is littered with knowing looks and mannerisms, half-caught sentences harbouring hidden meaning. It's almost as if it were too vulgar for the middle classes to openly display their dissatisfaction, preferring instead to hint at petty jealousies belying their latent insecurities.

Praised for its multi-layered and complex psychological plot structure Accident is firmly rooted within the realm of European art house. The year of its release saw a plethora of outstanding examples from this genre: Alphaville, Pierre le Fou and Belle de Jour. Beaten to the Palme d'Or by Antonioni's Blow-Up, Accident came away sharing the Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Despite such successes Losey was never asked to direct an original Pinter play, a disappointment he was never able to fully reconcile.

Clare Norton-Smith

Pinter at the BBC homepage