His best performances
Talent and daring
We'll start with "Victim", by director Basil Dearden. The 1961 film was a political landmark, as it explicitly addresses the defenselessness of homosexuals in England, who were frequently blackmailed to avoid jail. Bogarde plays the role of a successful, married lawyer who had been having an affair with a young man wanted by the police for stealing money from his work. The performance is intense, beginning with Bogarde's character's fear of being extorted, moving to the contained sadness when he knows about his ex-lover's suicide and the sincerity in the confrontation with his wife, who apparently suspected his homosexuality. Notable is the scene in which he confronts those who, despite their economic and social power, prefer to continue being extorted. The film is available on YouTube (without Spanish subtitles), on Amazon Prime, and on DVD on Amazon.
"The Servant", directed by Joseph Losey, year 1963. I think that for Spanish speakers it is impossible not to associate the character of Bogarde with the rogue of the 16th century Spanish novel ("Lazarillo de Tormes", "El buscón don Pablos"), where a man/boy of poor origin makes his fortune by mocking his employer and those who have more possessions. In this case, the action of the film takes place in mid-20th century England focusing on the relationship between Barrett (Bogarde), the butler, a former soldier, and his boss Tony (James Fox), a weak-willed and not particularly intelligent aristocrat. On the contrary, Barrett is shameless, brazen, hypocritical and seductive. At the beginning he tries to deceive Tony, but as the plot progresses, this is no longer necessary, since he begins to explicitly exercise the role of dominance. The best scenes: when Tony discovers Barrett in his room with the maid he had (falsely) passed off as his sister (Sarah Miles), only Barrett's shadow is visible, as he confronts him without any sign of remorse; the ball game scene on the stairs, in which all hierarchy has disappeared and a level of relationship between Tony and Barrett is sensed; and the final scene, in which Tony is now completely abandoned to the servant's will. Bogarde's facial and vocal expressions are notable; in fact, except for the aforementioned shadow scene, the rest of the film could have been shot entirely in close-ups. Bogarde is able to shift from servile to vile attitudes in a single shot, accompanying these with tones and vocal inflections that create a whole in which the viewer is seduced, just as Tony is. The film is available on The Criterion Collection and can be purchased through Amazon.
We have reached Dirk Bogarde's most famous performance, that of the musician Aschenbach in the film "Death in Venice" based on the book of the same name by Thomas Mann, directed by Luchino Visconti with a release date of 1971. Although the film takes several liberties, starting with the fact that the protagonist of the novel is a writer and not a musician (it is said that Visconti wanted to capture part of Mahler's biography), also including passages from other novels by Mann (the racconto of the visit to the brothel in "Doctor Faustus"), Bogarde's performance is able to capture the essence of the character in the novel, an artist entering the decline of his career, who is subjugated by the ideal of beauty, personified in a young teenager named Tadzio. The best scenes: when he returns after trying to leave Venice by gondola to the hotel (with the music of the adagietto from the fourth movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony); the barber scene, where we see a decadent Aschenbach, overcome by his madness for Tadzio, and the final scene on the beach, sitting looking at the horizon. It is worth watching the documentary Visconti's Venice available on Youtube ((11) Visconti's Venice - YouTube), where part of Bogarde's preparation for playing the character appears, and also the BAFTA award ceremony where he tells the details of the filming of the beach scene (Dirk Bogarde).
"Despair", It's a complex film in itself, released in 1978 and based on the book "Despair" by Vladimir Nabokov, the script is by Tom Stoppard and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It deals with the path to madness of a Russian businessman of Jewish descent (Hermann Hermann, played by Bogarde), living in interwar Germany. Obviously, it's not a traditional or simple film; it mixes reality with Hermann's hallucinations, and while the characters are rather bizarre (played by Fassbinder's usual actors), Bogarde is able to insert himself into this terrifyingly playful world, interpreting and, above all, conveying his character's mental and moral degradation. The best scene, the final monologue, is actually worth watching several times.
If we look chronologically at the reviews of Bogarde's performances we've written on our site, one could argue that the current comment breaks it. The above was deliberate, as we've left for last what we believe to be his finest performance, "The Night Porter" ("Il Portiere di Notte"), from 1974, directed by Liliana Cavani, starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling. In Horrid Terms, it deals with the reunion, after 13 years, between an SS officer (Max), living under a false identity working as a hotel concierge, and a concentration camp prisoner (Lucia), with whom he had initially had an abusive relationship, which develops into one of mutual dependence, tinged with traits of brutality and tenderness (we use these terms because they are frequently used in the book on which the film is based, also written by Liliana Cavani).According to Cavani, much of the film owes its work to Bogarde, Rampling, and Anthony Forwood (Bogarde's manager). The book hints at it, but the film provides a depth that the original work lacks. In fact, it's surprising how, despite the character's violence, Bogarde is able to give him enough nuance to make him seem not just a monster, but a being who rationalizes the crimes he committed, who feels shame for them (see the scene where he explains why he prefers to work at night), and who reaches a point where he realizes his life has little meaning until he reunites with his former lover/prisoner. He conveys regret for his crimes, but this doesn't imply that he becomes even remotely virtuous. He remains brutal, both in protecting Lucia (he resorts to murder) and in keeping her by his side (he ties her up and frequently beats her), and, at the same time, he is absolutely dependent on her, bordering on servile. While it’s hard to list just the best scenes (since almost all of them are excellent), it’s worth watching them several times: the reunion at the hotel inn, where the protagonists’ glances exchanged should be cult status; Max’s narration of Lucia’s dance at the concentration camp, interesting both for understanding Max’s madness and the nuances of his relationship with Lucia, and from an aesthetic point of view (the most famous scene in the film, with Charlotte Rampling dancing in a Nazi cap and trousers); and Max’s entry into her apartment when he believes her former comrades have taken Lucia away to be killed, there he finds her trying to free herself from the chain he has her with (so that they wouldn’t take her away and possibly so that she wouldn’t flee) and, after a fit of rage (partly out of terror that she had been kidnapped), he confesses that he loves her. For those who want to see it in its complete restored format, you can find it in “The Criterion Collection” in its original English version.
For those who want to know more about his life and a complete chronology of his films and books, we recommend his official website: https://dirkbogarde.co.uk and the 2 part interview "By myself" (directed by Paul Joyce) which can be buy in https://myrarefilms.co.uk/
And if you're looking for recommendations, check out the novel section "Journey to the Southwest" and our blog where you can contact us.
News: We're reviewing a series of films from the early days of sound cinema, both from Europe and the US. You can see the previews in Directors from the First Half of the 20th Century.