The Hireling

Everybody in its place, please!
This Cannes winner is a magnificent adaptation of L.P. Hartley about the stifling class system in England. The artistic and awful script turns around a very painful circumstance, when a chauffeur gets involved with an upper-class woman who recently abandons a psychiatrist Institution after suffering a mental depression. He establishes a powerful relationship with her but he doesn't realize the slender between trust and affection; the warm friendship and the real love; he simply is unable to perceive it and that will be the beginning of the end.

Robert Shaw made the best achievement of his career with this highly artistic film, underrated in the west coast of the Atlantic and reserved just for treasure film searchers but acclaimed in Europe due its status level.

Mature and sensitive film that runs slow paced that demands the full involvement of the viewer.

At last this giant film arrives to this format, at last.

Simply superb!
Released from a rest home after recovering from a nervous breakdown following the death of her husband, a young aristocratic widow (Sarah Miles) is pulled out of her grief by the friendship of her chauffeur (Robert Shaw). But when the chauffeur falls in love with her and crosses class lines, tragedy is inevitable. The film shares a similar theme with THE GO-BETWEEN, another film which dealt with a romance that crossed class lines between a young woman of the aristocracy and a tenant farmer that had disastrous results. Perhaps it's not surprising since both films are based on novels by L.P. Hartley. But THE HIRELING comes across as a stronger indictment of the British class system. Shaw, in quite possibly his greatest film performance, gives a moving performance as a lonely ex-military man who knows his place in the class system but dares to cross it. Miles gives a delicate, nuanced performance as the frail, unsure widow who eventually recovers her confidence. Winner of the Palme d'Or...



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