UK (1983): Drama

David Hugh Jones directed this film of Harold Pinter's play of the same name, adapted by Pinter himself to better fit this chronologically reversed drama of love and betrayal to the medium. The action starts with a scene in a London pub in which Jerry (Jeremy Irons) and Emma (Patricia Hodge) hold a subtly sardonic conversation on the nature of human failings as they meet for the first time after the end of their affair. The next scene, introduced by an intertitle, details how their romance fizzled and is followed by the next vignette, one year earlier, on how Jerry broke the news to Emma's husband Robert (Ben Kingsley) that he and Emma were lovers. And so it continues, through a total of nine scenes, back to the beginning of a complex, interpersonal drama. The film benefits considerably from Kingsley and Irons as the lead males, and the backwards story is in no way hard to follow. (Horizon-20th Century Fox) (Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide)

· Writing (Best Screenplay based on material from another medium) 1983: Harold Pinter

1 nomination