Tag: film

Dirk Bogarde: Film History Series

Photographer Unknown, “Sir Dirk Bogarde”, circa 1950s, Studio Portrait, Gelatin Silver Print, The Rank Organization, London

Born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde at West Hampstead, London in March of 1921, Dirk Bogarde was an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. After becoming a matinee idol through his work in such films as the 1954 “Doctor in the House” and 1958 “A Tale of Two Cities”, he made a bold and provocative career decision to accept those challenging roles that pushed the scope of cinema. 

Dirk Bogarde was the eldest of three children born to Ulric van den Bogaerde, the art editor of London’s “The Times”, and former Scottish actress Margaret Niven. When living conditions became crowded at the family’s north London home, he lived for a period with relatives in Scotland where he attended Glasgow’s University College School and Allan Glen’s High School of Science. Under a 1937 scholarship, Bogarde completed a two-year study of commercial art at the Chelsea College of Art where he attended classes led by draftsman and sculptor Henry Moore.

Bogarde worked as a commercial artist and set designer in the late 1930s. Interested in acting, he apprenticed with Sally Latimer and John Penrose’s Amersham Repertory Players and made his acting debut, albeit with only one line, at the small, independent Q Theater in west London. Bogarde’s stage debut in London’s West End occurred a few months later in John Boynton Priestley’s 1939 comedic drama “Cornelius”. In the same year, he made his film debut as an uncredited extra in Anthony Kimmins’s 1939 musical comedy “Come On George!” which starred George Formby and Patricia Kirkwood. 

After Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, Dirk Bogarde joined the Queen’s Royal Regiment in 1940 as an officer in the Air Photographic Intelligence Unit. He eventually achieved the rank of Major and, in his five years of active duty, was awarded seven medals for his service. In addition to his military duties, Bogarde painted and wrote poetry during the war; his paintings of England’s war effort are housed in London’s Imperial War Museum. As a member of the Photographic Intelligence Unit, Bogarde, at the age of twenty-four, was at the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, an experience that had a profound, lasting effect on him. 

Bogarde returned to acting after the war and made his first appearance, under the stage name of Dirk Bogarde, in the 1947 BBC studio production of Michael Clayton Hutton’s “Power Without Glory” held at London’s Fortune Theater. After signing a contract in 1947 with the entertainment conglomerate The Rank Organization, he was given the role of a police radio caller in John Carstairs’s 1947 film noir “Dancing with Crime”. His first credited role was that of the sweet-talking footman William Latch in Ian Dalrymple and Peter Proud’s 1948 drama “Sin of Esther Waters”. Initially given a supporting role in this proposed Stewart Granger film, Bogarde was chosen for the lead role after Granger left the production. His acting skill opposite Kathleen Ryan in this 1948 film led to a long-term contract with the Rank studio.

After three years as an apprentice Rank actor, Dirk Bogarde was given the role of a young criminal in Basil Dearden’s 1950 crime thriller “The Blue Lamp”. The film became the most successful feature of the year and established Bogarde as an actor of note. His role as the cop killer Tom Riley was the first of many intense but fascinating villains he would play. A few years later, Bogarde became one of the most popular British actors in the 1950s through his role as a medical student in Ralph Thomas’s 1954 light comedy “Doctor in the House”. One of the most successful films in the Rank Organization’s history, the comedy spawned six sequels and both a television and radio series. . 

After meeting black-listed American expatriate director Joseph Losey, Bogarde appeared as convict Frank Clemmens in Losey’s successful 1954 crime film noir “The Sleeping Tiger”. Their association would result in several important films a decade later, most notably the 1963 chilling British  drama “The Servant” and the 1967 Cannes Film Festival Special Jury winner “Accident”. Bogarde starred in over a dozen films during the 1950s including Philip Leacock’s successful 1956 “The Spanish Gardener”, Ralph Thomas’s 1958 adaptation of “A Tale of Two Cities”, and Anthony Asquith’s 1959 “Libel”, in which Bogarde played three different roles opposite Olivia de Havilland. 

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Bogarde acted alongside many renowned stars and under many talented directors. He played the decadent valet Hugo Barrett in Losey’s 1963 “The Servant” which earned him a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award. Bogarde starred as a German industrialist in Luchino Visconti’s 1969 “The Damned” which also featured Swedish actress Ingrid Thulin. Two years later, he portrayed Gustav von Aschenbach in Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novel “Death in Venice”. For the Charles Vidor/George Cukor 1960 biographical romance film “Song Without End”, Bogarde portrayed Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt; his co-stars were French actresses Capucine and Genevière Page.

Dirk Bogarde left acting in 1977 and began a second career as an author. The first work published was a memoir that described his childhood and early career as an actor entitled “A Postillion Struck by Lightning”. Highly literate with an elegant and thoughtful style, Bogarde wrote over his twenty-year literary career fifteen best-selling books of which nine were memoirs and six novels. He was also the author of numerous essays, reviews and poems for print publications.

Bogarde had a minor stroke in November of 1987. Nine years later, he underwent angioplasty and suffered a major stroke following the operation. Although paralyzed on one side and his speech affected, Borgarde completed the final volume of his autobiography and also published an edition of his journalism. In 1992, he was created a Knight Bachelor in the United Kingdom. On the eighth of May in 1999 at the age of seventy-eight, Sir Dirk Bogarde died in his London home from a heart attack. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at his former estate, Le Pigeonnier, in Grasse, southern France. 

Notes:  Dirk Bogarde was in a life-long relationship with English actor Anthony Forwood, who was born Ernest Lytton Leslie Forwood in October of 1915 as a descendent of the Forwood Baronetcy, an English landed-gentry family. After Borgarde had gained success in his acting career, he moved to a cottage at the Forwood family home, Buckinghamshire’s Bendrose Estate. Bogarde eventually bought the adjoining estate where he and Forwood lived in its renovated main house until 1960. After residing in both France and Italy for many years, they returned to London in early 1988. Anthony Forwood, who had been previously diagnosed with liver cancer and Parkinson’s disease, passed away at the age of seventy-two in May of 1988. 

An extensive history of Dirk Bogarde’s film career, written by feature correspondent Sophie Monks Kaufman for the BBC, is located at: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210322-why-dirk-bogarde-was-a-truly-dangerous-film-star

The official website of the Dirk Bogarde Estate, which contains his book illustrations, personal recordings and home movies, is located at: https://dirkbogarde.co.uk

The Key Military website has a 2021 biographical article in its “Britain at War” series, written by Ellie Evans, on Dirk Bogarde’s service during World War II:  https://www.keymilitary.com/article/military-man-behind-matinee-idol

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Sir Dirk Bogarde”, circa 1950s, Studio Publicity Photo, Gelatin Silver Print

Second Insert Image: Basil Dearden, “Dirk Bogarde as Matt Sullivan”, 1952, “The Gentle Gunman”, Cinematography Gordon Dines, Ealing Studios

Third and Fourth Insert Image: Director John Schlesinger, “Dirk Bogarde as Robert Gold”, 1965, “Darling”, Cinematography Kenneth Higgins, Vic Films Production, Appia Films, and Joseph Janni Production 

Fifth Insert Image: Director Basil Dearden, “Dirk Bogarde as Melville Farr”, 1961, “Victim”, Cinematography Otto Heller, Rank Film Distributors

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Dirk Bogarde and Anthony Forwood”, Date Unknown, Gelatin Silver Print, Dirk Bogarde Estate

Massimo Girotti and “Ossessione”: Film History Series

Luchino Visconti, “Ossessione (Obsession)”, 1943, Film Gifs of Massimo Girotti as Gino Costa, Cinematography Aldo Tonti and Domenico Scala, Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane

Born at the Macerata city of Mogliano in May of 1918, Massimo Girotti was an Italian film and stage actor whose career spanned seventy years. A swimmer and polo player, he was brought to the attention of film writer and director Mario Soldati who gave him a small part in his 1939 comedy “Dora Nelson”. Girotti began to be taken seriously after his appearances in Alessandro Blasetti’s 1941 adventure film “La Corona di Ferro (The Iron Crown)” and Roberto Rossellini’s 1942 war drama “Un Pilota Ritorna (A Pilot Returns)”. His rise to fame began with his role opposite Clara Calamai in Luchino Visconti’s 1943 crime drama “Ossessione”.

After the war years, Girotti was starring in several movies each year, among which were Roberto Rossellini and Marcello Pagliero’s 1946 melodrama “Desire” and Pietro Germi’s 1949 Mafia drama “In Nome dell Legge (In the Name of the Law)”, co-written by Federico Fellini. In 1950, Girotti starred in Michelangelo Antonioni’s first full-length feature, “Cronaci di un Amore (Story of a Love Affair)”. After playing Spartacus in Riccardo Freda’s 1952 “Spartaco”, he rejoined Visconti for the 1954 “Senso”, a historical melodrama co-written by Visconti, Suso Cecchi d’Amico and Tennessee Williams.  

In the following years, Massimo Girotti worked with several directors including Mauro Bolognini, best known for his 1960 drama “Il bell’Antonio (Handsome Antonio)” written by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Mario Alberto Lattuada who co-directed Federico Fellini’s 1950 “Luci del Varietà (Variety Lights)”. Girotti starred with Terence Stamp and Silvana Mangano in Pasolini’s 1968 surrealist psychological drama “Teorema (Theorem)”. He was cast two years later for Pasolini’s “Medea” in which he played opposite opera soprano Maria Callas. 

In 1972, Girotti had the role of Marcel in Bernardo Bertolucci’s erotic drama “Last Tango in Paris”, which starred Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider. Although he appeared mainly in character roles for the next thirty years, Girotti was in such notable films as Joseph Losey’s 1976 mystery drama “Monsieur Klein” nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as Visconti’s final film, the 1976 period drama “The Innocent”, an adaptation of Gabriele d’Annunzio’s novel “The Intruder”. 

Massimo Girotti had a starring role in Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Özpetek’s 2003 mystery drama “La Finestra di Fronte (Facing Windows)”. After completing the filming of his role, Massimo Girotti unexpectedly died of a heart attack in Rome on the fifth of January in 2003. “La Finestra di Fronte” was released at the end of February. For his role in the film, Girotti won the David di Donatello Award for Best Actor given by the Academy for Italian Cinema. 

The 1943 “Ossessione” is an Italian crime drama directed and co-written by Luchino Visconti for his directorial debut. Considered by some critics as the first Italian neorealist film, it was an unauthorized and uncredited adaptation of James M. Cain’s 1934 novel “The Postman Always Rings Twice”. Inspired by the details of the 1927 Ruth Snyder-Judd Gray case, the novel was adapted seven times as a film, twice as a play, and once as an opera and radio drama. Visconti’s unauthorized version was the second time as a film adaptation and followed French director Pierre Chenal’s 1939 “Le Dernier Tournant (The Last Turn in the Road)”.

“Ossessione” starred actress Clara Calamai as Giovanna Bragana, the ill-fated protagonist; Juan de Landa as Giovanna’s older husband Giuseppe Bragana; and Massimo Girotti as Gino Costa, the wandering tramp who begins an affair with Giovanna at the couple’s petrol station. This film became a turning point in Girotti’s film career as a serious actor and rising star; Clara Calami’s portrayal as the femme fatala, who conspired to murder her husband, became her most remembered role.  

Luchino Visconti’s film was made during the years of dictator Benito Mussolini’s far-right Fascist government which exerted censorship over many aspects of Italian life. Visconti originally sought to use an adaptation of a story by Italian realist writer Giovann Verga; however, that project was denied by the Fascist authorities who worried that its subject matter of bandits in Italy would tarnish the country. Visconti eventually collaborated with several filmmakers and writers, including Gianni Puccini and Giuseppe De Santis, to adapt a French translation of James Cain’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice”.

Stark realism was one of the prominent aspects of the 1943 “Ossessione”. Visconti chose realistic Italian locations that were specifically rural and for the most part unromantic. His film did not idealize its characters; each character’s temperament and daily routines were captured through incisive glimpses. Visconti employed medium and long shots for nearly the whole story, with close-ups used only at those moments of intense emotion. Filming all the characters together as a complex larger cast, he used focus depth to highlight the variety of action occurring in the frame.   

“Ossessione” was competed and released in 1943; however, it was  not the innocent murder mystery that the authorities were expecting. After several screenings in Rome and northern Italy, outraged reactions from both Fascist and Church authorities led to the banning of the film and ultimately its destruction. All current prints of the film were made from a duplicate negative that Visconti had kept. As Visconti had never obtained the rights to film Cain’s novel and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided to produce its own authorized adaptation in 1946, Visconti’s “Ossessione” was not released in the United States until 1976. The Italian Ministry of Culture later placed Visconti’s film version on its preservation list of one hundred Italian films produced between 1942 and 1978. 

Notes: A biographical article on Massimo Girotti with film scenes from “Senso” and “La Finestra di Fronte” can be found at the European Film Star Postcards site located at: https://filmstarpostcards.blogspot.com/2019/09/massimo-girotti.html

In his screenplay of “Ossessione”, Luchino Visconti followed the general outline of Cain’s novel; however, he added an interlude segment in which Gino Costa is befriended by a street performer known as Io Spagnolo, the Spaniard. This role was played by Italian actor Elio Mancuzzo. An article on Mancuzzo’s life and his role in “Ossessione” can be found at: https://godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.com/search?q=ossessione

Top Insert Image: Italian Postcard, “Massimo Girotti in La Corona di Ferro (The Iron Crown)”, Balleri & Fratini, Florence, Italy

Second Insert Image: Luchino Visconti, “Massimo Girotti as Gino Costa”, 1943, “Ossessione”, Cinematography Aldo Tonti and Domenico Scala, Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane  

Third Insert Image: Luchino Visconti, “Massimo Girotti and Clara Calamai”, 1943, “Ossessione”, Cinematography Aldo Tonti and Domenico Scala, Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane  

Fourth Insert Image: Luchino Visconti, “Massimo Girotti and Juan de Landa”, 1943, “Ossessione”, Cinematography Aldo Tonti and Domenico Scala, Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane  

Bottom Insert Image: Italian Postcard, “Massimo Girotti”, Publicity Card for Lux Film, Private Collection