BFI Restores Joseph Losey's Accident in 4K for December Run

A new 4K restoration of Joseph Losey's Accident opens at Film Forum in New York on December 18. The BFI National Film Archive carried out the restoration in association with Studiocanal, and the theatrical run marks the first wide chance in years to see the 1967 drama on a big screen.

The Film Stage has debuted the exclusive trailer for the restoration, timed to the December engagement.

What is the film about?

Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker and Jacqueline Sassard lead the cast. The official synopsis lays out the story: "Stephen (Dirk Bogarde), a married Oxford professor, struggles with his sexual attraction to young Austrian student Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) and subtly competes with his friend Charley (Stanley Baker) and pupil William (Michael York) for her affections. Unfolding with screenwriter Pinter's trademark time-shifting, and framed by the rupture of a violent car crash, Accident explores hidden tensions and the moral gray areas of desire."

The screenplay comes from Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning English playwright. It was his third collaboration with Losey, following The Servant — which had drawn wide acclaim a few years earlier — and The Go-Between.

What did the film achieve in 1967?

The honours came quickly and from several directions:

• The Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967
• A place among the National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1967
• The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best British Screenplay in 1968
• Four BAFTA nominations, including Best British Film, Best British Actor for Dirk Bogarde and Best British Screenplay for Harold Pinter

Why does the restoration matter now?

Accident sits at the centre of one of postwar British cinema's most productive director-writer partnerships. The BFI National Archive's 4K work returns Pinter's fractured chronology and Losey's restrained staging to theatrical conditions, where the film's deliberate pacing and the framing car crash hold their intended force.

What does this change for audiences? It converts a film long available only in compromised home editions into a cinema event, starting December 18 at Film Forum, with the new restoration positioned to travel to further venues after its New York premiere run.