Sunday Bloody Sunday

Tuesday 27th

John Schlesinger has an umpressive list of films to his credit as director: Far from the Maddening Crowd, Billy Liar, and Midnight Cowboy to mention three. Yet Sunday Bloody Sunday is probably his best going beyond these in the range of characters, its subtlety and its tenderness.

The film centres on a bi-sexual with Bob (played by Murray Head) an artist in his early twenties brash and confident as apex. His two older lovers, Alex (Glenda Jackson), a discontented divorcee, and David, (Peter Finch) a middle aged Jewish doctor, have more difficult roles. They counter Bob's exuberance with more resigned attitudes, their desires tempered by what they realise to be possible. The most compelling scene of the film is an almost silent meeting of Alex and David.

We are also introduced to a trendy family of left-wing intellectuals—a theme that could easily be trapped in stereotyping. It is a mark of Schlesinger's brilliance that they come across, like Alex and David as people trying to do their best by their ideals in a mixed up world.

Sunday Bloody Sunday is about alienation, about contemporary life and above all about people.