TO MISS DORA COWELL But, child of dust, the fragrant flowers, The bright blue sky and velvet sod Were strange conductors to the bowers Thy daring footsteps must have trod. — EMILY BRONTË
THE PAST is a foreign country: they do things differently there. When I came upon the diary, it was lying at the bottom of a rather battered red cardboard collarbox, in which as a small boy I kept my Eton collars. Someone, probably my mother, had filled it with treasures dating from those days. There were two dry, empty sea-urchins; two rusty magnets, a large one and a small one, which had almost lost their magnetism; some negatives rolled up in a tight coil; some stumps of sealing-wax; a small combination lock with three rows of letters; a twist of very fine whipcord; and one or two ambiguous objects, pieces of things, of which the use was not at once apparent: I could not even tell what they had belonged to. The relics were not exactly dirty nor were they quite clean, they had the patina of age; and as I handled them, for the first time for over fifty years, a recollection of what each had meant to me came back, faint as the magnets’ power to draw, but as perceptible. Something came and went between us: the intimate pleasure of recognition, the almost mystical thrill of early ownership—feelings of which, at sixty-odd, I felt ashamed. It was a roll-call in reverse; the children of the past announced their names, and I said “Here.” Only the diary refused to disclose its identity. http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/OMFIRST/TheGoBetween-LPHartley.pdf
The Go-Between is a 1971[1] British romantic drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay, by Harold Pinter, is an adaptation of the 1953 novel The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard. It won the Grand Prix at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
The story follows a young boy named Leo Colston (Dominic Guard), who in the year 1900 is a guest of his wealthy school friend, Marcus Maudsley (Richard Gibson), to spend the summer holidays at his family’s Norfolk country house. While there, Marcus is taken sick and quarantined with the measles. Left to entertain himself, Leo befriends Marcus’s beautiful elder sister Marian Maudsley (Julie Christie), and finds himself a messenger, carrying messages between her and a tenant farmer neighbour, Ted Burgess (Alan Bates), with whom she is engaging in a secret illicit affair.
Her parents, however want her to marry Hugh, Viscount Trimingham (Edward Fox), the estate owner. A heatwave leading to a thunderstorm coincides with Leo’s birthday party and the film’s climax, when Marian’s mother and Leo, searching for Marian, find her making love with Burgess in a farm building. This event has a long-lasting impact on Leo after Burgess shoots himself dead in his farmhouse kitchen. More than fifty years later, Marian, now the Dowager Lady Trimingham, sends for Leo (Michael Redgrave), wanting him to speak to her grandson to assure him that she had truly loved Burgess. She asks Leo whether her grandson reminds him of anyone, and he replies “Yes. Ted Burgess” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Go-Between_(1971_film)
Film: Verenigd Koninkrijk 1970. Romantisch drama van Joseph Losey. Met o.a. Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave en Dominic Guard.
Sommige spreekwoorden zijn in gezelschap net zo veelzijdig als een aardappelschilmesje in de keuken. Wat te denken van ‘Het verleden is een vreemd land, ze doen de dingen daar anders.’ Altijd en overal bruikbaar. De in Engelstalige gewesten ingeburgerde spreuk is de openingszin van L.P. Hartley’s titelnovelle uit 1953. Toneelschrijver Harold Pinter bewerkte het verhaal, over de belevenissen van een arme dertienjarige jongen tijdens een zomer tussen bevriende aristocratie anno 1900. De muziek is van Michel Legrand, de componist van onder andere The Thomas Crown Affair en Yentl. https://www.vpro.nl/cinema/films/film~372242~the-go-between~.html
De volwassen wording – of coming of age – van Leo (Dominic Guard) is een verhaal dat parallel loopt aan het centrale liefdesverhaal, en is misschien nog net iets interessanter.
https://cinemagazine.nl/the-go-between-1971-recensie/