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The pumpkin eater [videorecording] / Columbia Pictures ; Royal Films International presents a Romulus-Jack Clayton production ; screenplay by Harold Pinter ; produced by James Woolf ; directed by Jack Clayton.

Contributor(s): Material type: FilmFilmPublisher number: 36001 | Columbia PicturesPublication details: Culver City, Calif. : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, c2010.Description: 1 videodisc (118 min.) : sd., b&w ; 4 3/4 inSubject(s): Genre/Form: Production credits:
  • Director of photography, Oswald Morris ; editor, James Clark ; music, Georges Delerue.
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Richard Johnson, Eric Porter.Summary: Anne Bancroft's cathartic lead performance anchors The Pumpkin Eater, Harold Pinter's harrowing, elliptical tale of marital dissatisfaction. Though much of the film concerns her character's fitful bouts with depression, Bancroft charges every moment she's onscreen, employing an array of subtle gestures and facial expressions to convey what her repressed character cannot. Pinter and director Jack Clayton never resort to facile satire or pat assignations of blame; instead, the film charts the slow, irreversible manner in which a chasm can grow between husband and wife. As Bancroft's callous husband, Peter Finch perfectly conveys the subtle, damaging hypocrisies that eventually break his wife's spirit. James Mason has a particularly memorable supporting role as a vitriolic, passive-aggressive acquaintance of the couple.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult DVD Adult DVD Main Library DVD DRAMA Pumpkin Available 33111008269264
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Anne Bancroft stars as a restless, twice-married British woman with six children, whose third husband is a fledgling screenwriter (Peter Finch). When success spins Finch's head around, he begins to dally with women other than his wife. Meanwhile, Bancroft is forced to stay home and play "domestic goddess", a role for which she is utterly unsuited. After suffering a nervous breakdown, Bancroft wanders the streets of London in a vain search for a sympathetic ear. She eventually comes to grips with the situation at hand--but as in most of playwright Harold Pinter's works, the characters of The Pumpkin Eater are just as unfulfilled in the last scene as they were in the first. Anne Bancroft won a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in this film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on the novel by Penelope Mortimer.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1964.

Director of photography, Oswald Morris ; editor, James Clark ; music, Georges Delerue.

Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Richard Johnson, Eric Porter.

Anne Bancroft's cathartic lead performance anchors The Pumpkin Eater, Harold Pinter's harrowing, elliptical tale of marital dissatisfaction. Though much of the film concerns her character's fitful bouts with depression, Bancroft charges every moment she's onscreen, employing an array of subtle gestures and facial expressions to convey what her repressed character cannot. Pinter and director Jack Clayton never resort to facile satire or pat assignations of blame; instead, the film charts the slow, irreversible manner in which a chasm can grow between husband and wife. As Bancroft's callous husband, Peter Finch perfectly conveys the subtle, damaging hypocrisies that eventually break his wife's spirit. James Mason has a particularly memorable supporting role as a vitriolic, passive-aggressive acquaintance of the couple.

Rating: Not rated.

DVD.

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