The Go-Between
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
This review is a part of the Palme d’Or Project: a review of every single Palme d’Or winner at Cannes Film Festival. The Go-Between won the sixteenth Palme d’Or — temporarily reverted back to the Grand Prix — at the 1971 festival.
The film was selected by the following jury.
Jury President: Michèle Morgan.
Jury: Pierre Billard, Michael Birkett, Anselmo Duarte, István Gaál, Sergio Leone, Aleksander Petrović, Maurice Rheims, Erich Segal.
As far as period pieces go, Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between is quite standard fare and exactly what you would expect: a lush, pretty, extravagant affair. So why would a typical film about 1900s Norfolk win the Palme d’Or? The bread and butter of The Go-Between is how cordially told it is, and each ounce of passion radiates off of the screen. It’s especially important to feel this connection with both the premise and the narrative structure of The Go-Between, and the title of the film is applicable on many levels; being caught amidst a love triangle of sorts; the disparity between classes; the revelations during salad days and the hindsight of older wisdom upon these juvenile years. The Go-Between is all about miscommunication and disconnection, but Losey utilizes film 101 tactics to make sure none of this is lost on his audience.
You don’t pay attention to the film as much as you feel it, and any narrative progressions occur in the depths of your stomach (so any startling turns may feel like they’re actually happening around you). The Go-Between was never going to be a multifaceted film when it comes to storytelling complexities, but Losey and company make sure to at least make the aesthetic and empathetic elements of the film as textured as can be. It never goes full-on Tess, but it is tangible enough that it performs like a series of faded memories you must revisit in order to move on; there’s a bit of a hazy feeling surrounding the film that makes this so. Can a period piece film that would be virtually impossible for us to have lived feel like we are personally tethered to it, as if it were a part of our being? If so, The Go-Between may be that kind of picture.
The Go-Between is a gorgeously told tale of disconnection and yearning.
Part of this connection you may wind up having with the film is through our understanding of what is going on within it, whether it’s heartbreak, yearning, the feeling of being not good enough, overlooking what’s right in front of you, and many other human experiences that the majority of us have ever lived. As a result, between the pastel colours, the soft photography, and the distanced tone of the film, The Go-Between is a film told by an artist and not a storyteller, and that’s perhaps the best approach for such a picture. Considering this is an adaptation of L. P. Hartley’s novel of the same name, I can’t help but feel like Losey went with his gut feelings post-read whilst making his greatest cinematic release. It definitely shows. The Go-Between lingers within you. None of the film reads like a punch, but all of it is still felt. It’s as if you’ve seen this feature before and are revisiting it, even on your first viewing. That encapsulation of recollection that Losey pulls off is quite special, so I understand why The Go-Between is a masterpiece in the eyes of some. I can even fathom how Cannes chose this film to win the Palme d’Or, especially since you won’t find many similar winners like it. The Go-Between knows how to make the most out of very little, and how to accent minimalism so it rings true as something poetic rather than passive. I don’t have any other takeaways or reasons to revisit The Go-Between outside of how genuinely gorgeous of a motion picture it is, and sometimes that’s maybe all that we need in a film.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.