THE CARETAKER
UK, 1963, 105 minutes, Black and white.
Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence, Robert Shaw.
Directed by Clive Donner.
The Caretaker is a film version of a play by Harold Pinter. Pinter emerged on the London theatre scene during the 1960s with plays like this and including The Birthday Party and The Homecoming. He was to continue writing for the theatre for the next forty years. However, he also wrote a great number of screenplays as well. Sometimes he appeared in films as an actor (as in Wit with Emma Thompson).
The film introduces Pinter’s verbal style to the audience. It is full of enigma, pauses, non sequiturs. It is existential in the same way that the work of Samuel Beckett is existential. The parallels with Beckett are very interesting in terms of the use of language, pause, accents, modulation.
The film is interesting in that it is a three-hander, the interaction between very strong screen and stage personalities, Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence and Robert Shaw. An opportunity to see them at the beginning of their careers.
Direction is by Clive Donner who worked in British television in the 50s. During the 1960s he had the opportunity to make a number of films including Frederick Raphael’s acidic Nothing But The Best, Woody Allen’s comedy What’s New, Pussycat, the sex comedy Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush and the epic drama Alfred the Great. However, during the 1970s and 1980s he spent most of his career making telemovies, a number of which were remakes of classics like A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, King Arthur. The film won the Silver Bear for Clive Donner at the Berlin film festival of 1963.
1. Audience interest in the plays of Harold Pinter, their style and themes? How would the world of Pinter be best described? An interior and subjective world? The situations of this world, the characters and their interplay. the importance of words and of silences, actions and their symbolism?
2. The impact of the caretaker in theatre? The confined world, the words, the small number of characters and their interaction, their presence to a theatrical audience? The kind of response that they elicit?
3. How well was this transferred to the screen? The cinematic presentation of the Caretaker, the kind of response? The confinement of the world of Pinter to the room, the house, the yard, the scenes outside the house? How theatrically was the world presented? The presentation of the characters in cinema form, close-ups etc.? The importance of the dialogue and the silences? The importance of cinematic touches, editing. close-ups. tracking camera, flashing editing an for instance the scene with the knives, the shocks?
4. The importance of the limited number of characters and the confinement of the scenes? The claustrophobic impact and response?
5. The significance of the title and the focus on Davis? The attitude of the two brothers towards a caretaker? The house as needing a caretaker?
6. The film's focus on Davis: the explanation of his background, the way that he appeared at the start and the incidents in which he had been involved, his appearance and poverty, squalor, age? The fact that he was grateful for being rescued by the elder brother? How ordinary a person was he? Did he see himself as an ordinary person? His response to kindness? His fear of the younger brother? The way that he could be dominated? His dreams and hopes, their reality and unreality? His sense of dignity and pride despite his appearance? The importance of his documents being at Sidcup? The younger brother's driving him there and around the block? His gradual playing up to the various brothers, cowering under the violence of the younger brother? His ultimate bewilderment in not knowing what to do? The fact that he was a traitor, betraying the kindliness, the plea to the older brother and his finally not being heard? His being bewildered by both of them? Details such as his pipe, his sleep, noises in his sleep and nightmares, his racist attitudes towards the Indians, his willingness to work etc.? What insight into human nature through this character?
7. The presentation of the older brother: his kindness and rescuing Davis, the extent of his help, the incident with the shoes, the bed? Kindly, understanding and listening? A gentle manner? The offer of the job of caretaker? The way that he got on so well with Davis? How well did he relate with his younger brother? The sequence of his telling his story? His being betrayed by Davis and their clash? His refusing to listen to his plea and the film ending with this? What values and human attitudes did he represent? The importance of such detail as the shed, his bed, the room? His sense of privacy and ownership? Insight into human nature?
8. The character of the younger brother: his appearance during the film's credits, the sinister appearance in the house, his involvement with the plot, his bullying of Davis, the threats of violence? Why did he not live in the room? His attack, the incident with the knives? His dreams, mocking Davis, playing with words, mocking his older brother an being mad? His using Davis, the trip round the block? Building up a friendship and yet undermining it? The sequence in the restaurant? The job of caretaker? His turning on Davis and bullying him? His violence eliciting the response of subservience, his then abandoning Davis? The bewildering aspects of his personality? What insight into human nature?
9. What kind of a world was this enclosed world? How pessimistic? What was necessary to survive in ouch a world?
10. The quality of the exploration of relationships, an revealed in situations, in words, in silences, in symbolic actions? Themes of power and control?
