Betrug

This brilliant movie starts with a meeting between Jerry and Emma two years after their relationship has ended; then proceeds backward, thereby ending eight years earlier, with the moment when Jerry first declares his attraction to Emma at a party. The idea that the viewer can know this information at the beginning of the movie and then is never bored is an amazing feat for this movie. All three of the actors are amazing in their roles.

The great master of Theatre, Harold Pinter, brings us the seduction of one of his (in my opinion) best plays. With stunningly clued performances by Irons, Kingsley and Hodge, the play seduces as it unfolds, and every scene is charged with a sexual tension. A daring step for film and writing, the plot is shown backwards and both the end and beginning are so beautifully touching because you know what will happen, as well as what has already. A triumph of the cinema.

I watched this movie because I heard that the screen-writer had used a unique structure--the story is told backwards in time. Every succeeding scene occurs chronologically before the previous one. I wanted to see if the screen-writer was just using a gimmick, or if the structure actually added to the telling of the story. I was overjoyed to find out it was the latter! The magic of this movie is that Pinter makes the time sequence seem natural. By the end of the movie, the viewer is convinced this is the only way the story could have been told effectively. I highly recommend this movie to all who love cinema.

Deciding to confront the husband of his longtime mistress after she reveals that she has let on about their affair, a British book publisher is surprised to learn that the husband has known of the extramarital affair for years in this quiet yet intense drama from the pen of Harold Pinter. The film intriguingly unfolds in reverse chronological order, beginning with the aforementioned confrontation and then flashing back further and further in the past to examine how the affair managed to develop to its current point. Some have criticised this narrative style as a gimmick, but on the contrary, it fits in incredibly well with the publisher's shock over the husband (also a longtime friend) knowing about the affair; it almost feels as if he is searching his memory for hints of the husband being clued into the affair that he may have missed at the time. Whatever the case, Jeremy Irons (as the man having the affair) and Ben Kingsley (as the knowledgeable husband) deliver pitch perfect performances throughout with Kinglsey subtly radiating animosity in the flashback scenes - particularly a restaurant luncheon - something all the more pronounced due to Irons being so ignorant of it and so conceited to believe that nobody knows of the affair. Patricia Hodge is less effective as the woman in the love triangle, never all that alluring; Dominic Muldowney's music is sometimes overbearing too. Generally speaking though, this is a handsome production as well as a testament to how much a film can achieve with minimal sets, lots of dialogue and an ending revealed at the beginning.

Emma (Patricia Hodges) is married with Robert (Ben Kingsley), who is the best friend of Jerry (Jeremy Irons), who is the lover of Emma. The originality of this romance is the way it is told to the viewer, backwards, from the present to the past. Although being theatrical, it is supported by an outstanding cast and is a good entertainment. Basically there is no soundtrack along this drama. My vote is seven.