In the 60s and 70s, British director John Schlesinger was among the figures who changed the course of Anglo-American cinema.
He brought social realism to the screen, broke taboos around sexuality, and won Oscars. However, the end of his career was marked by artistic failures and even the making of a promotional film for the British Conservative Party – a turn that surprised many.
From "kitchen sink" to Oscar
Schlesinger became known for the realistic drama A Kind of Loving, followed by Billy Liar and Darling, starring Julie Christie. These films helped shape the British New Wave, dealing with the working class, ambition, and moral emptiness.
The climax came with Midnight Cowboy, an adaptation of the novel by James Leo Herlihy. The film – a dark story about the friendship between a young male prostitute and a New York underclassman – shocked audiences with its explicit content. At a preview screening, many spectators walked out. Dustin Hoffman, who played Ratso Rizzo, himself thought the film could ruin everyone's careers.
The opposite happened: Schlesinger won the Oscar for best director, and “Midnight Cowboy” became the first X-rated film to win the award for best picture.
Sexuality at the center
In 1971, he made the masterpiece Sunday Bloody Sunday, a love triangle between a bisexual artist, a gay doctor (played by Peter Finch), and a divorced woman (Glenda Jackson). A kiss between the two men was shown in close-up, without dramatic music or distractions – a rare moment for the time and a significant step for LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream cinema.
He went on to have hits like Marathon Man, with its infamous torture scene by Laurence Olivier, as well as acclaimed television films like An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution, written by Alan Bennett.
Eclectic and difficult to categorize
His filmography is diverse: from the dark satire The Day of the Locust to the war romance Yanks and the quirky comedy Honky Tonk Freeway. This eclecticism made it difficult to “mark” him as an auteur with a single, distinct style.
Some critics believe that his themes revolve around survival and the struggle to find meaning in a hostile world. Others point out that he was always in sync with social changes, especially in his treatment of sexual identity.
Contradictions and decline
Despite his reputation as a progressive pioneer, Schlesinger made a short promotional film for the Conservative Party and John Major in 1991, just a few years after the infamous Section 28 against the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools was passed. The director himself admitted that he had voted Conservative – a choice that many saw as paradoxical.
The latter years of his career were marked by flops such as The Believers and The Next Best Thing, with Madonna and Rupert Everett. Actor Sean Penn, who had worked with him on The Falcon and the Snowman, suggested that the director had become more cautious and less daring.
His temper was legendary; colleagues described him as explosive. Failures affected him severely and, according to his long-term partner Michael Childers, he suffered from depression.
A complicated legacy
Today, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, retrospectives are being held in the US and Britain to bring attention back to his work. The early films remain undisputed classics, while the later flops offer a more human and complex portrait.
The story of John Schlesinger is not just that of an Oscar-winning director, but of an artist who challenged norms, tried different genres, and lived between great successes and sensational mistakes. In the end, perhaps it is precisely these contradictions that make his figure so intriguing. /GazetaExpress/
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