THE LIFETAKER
Onyx Films UK
Producer/Director/Original Screenplay: Michael Papas
Associate Producer/Artistic Consultant: Susan Papas
Cast: Terence Morgan - Peter Duncan - Lea Dregorn
English language, 35mm Scope, Technicolor, running time 95 minutes
ROTTERDAM FILM FESTIVAL (WORLD PREMIERE) - BRUSSELS FILM FESTIVAL - BRIGHTON FESTIVAL - BRITISH FILM EVENT AT NATIONAL FILM CENTRE, TOKYO
Producer/Director/Original Screenplay: Michael Papas
Associate Producer/Artistic Consultant: Susan Papas
Cast: Terence Morgan - Peter Duncan - Lea Dregorn
English language, 35mm Scope, Technicolor, running time 95 minutes
ROTTERDAM FILM FESTIVAL (WORLD PREMIERE) - BRUSSELS FILM FESTIVAL - BRIGHTON FESTIVAL - BRITISH FILM EVENT AT NATIONAL FILM CENTRE, TOKYO
“THE LIFETAKER” is an atmospheric, sometimes macabre thriller, intended at a variety of levels and interpretations... James represents a society that disguises corrupt and brutal practices with a veneer of civility and concern. Lisa personifies life and beauty stifled and twisted by environment. ... Finally the film may be seen as a kind of odyssey of the boy Richard embarking on life in the adult world, being initiated into it, corrupted by it and, in inheriting it, becoming its victim.”
"THE LIFETAKER" premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival at the personal invitation of Hub Bals. Controversy erupted at the premiere screening in the packed one-thousand-seater auditorium. Unwittingly the director was drawn into an inflamed confrontation with an aggressively emotional audience, which developed into an electrifying, four-hour discussion. At the request of the festival management audience and director moved to an adjacent theatre so that the festival screenings could go on, where the discussion lasted until the early hours of the morning. In the days following, and even after his return to London, Michael Papas was inundated with letters from members of the audience expressing their admiration for the film, with some excusing their aggressive reaction as a result of the "film's power"!
This stylish, hard-hitting parable enjoyed a career in Europe and was selected for a special season of British features in Tokyo. “THE LIFETAKER” was internationally distributed to, amongst others, the USA (Sony), Japan, Spain and most European countries. UIP distributed the film in Greece. The film was scheduled to be released nationwide in the UK, but the head of EMI distribution canceled the release after viewing the completed film, due to its controversial themes. It has never been distributed in its country of origin, but has gained cult status over the years.
"THE LIFETAKER" premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival at the personal invitation of Hub Bals. Controversy erupted at the premiere screening in the packed one-thousand-seater auditorium. Unwittingly the director was drawn into an inflamed confrontation with an aggressively emotional audience, which developed into an electrifying, four-hour discussion. At the request of the festival management audience and director moved to an adjacent theatre so that the festival screenings could go on, where the discussion lasted until the early hours of the morning. In the days following, and even after his return to London, Michael Papas was inundated with letters from members of the audience expressing their admiration for the film, with some excusing their aggressive reaction as a result of the "film's power"!
This stylish, hard-hitting parable enjoyed a career in Europe and was selected for a special season of British features in Tokyo. “THE LIFETAKER” was internationally distributed to, amongst others, the USA (Sony), Japan, Spain and most European countries. UIP distributed the film in Greece. The film was scheduled to be released nationwide in the UK, but the head of EMI distribution canceled the release after viewing the completed film, due to its controversial themes. It has never been distributed in its country of origin, but has gained cult status over the years.
Terence Morgan, Peter Duncan and Lea Dregorn in "The Lifetaker"
"I saw an extraordinary film. Its violence and eroticism are striking particularly for a British film – it was part-financed by the National Film Finance Corporation. The film examined rituals with a formality that precluded prurience and a style that oozed originality. “ QUENTIN FALK - SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
Terence Morgan and Lea Dregorn in "The Lifetaker"
" 'The Lifetaker' is a controversial film... commercially-polished, provocative. Shows symbolically how a younger generation is corrupted by its elders. Here was an acutely-thinking film-maker confronting us with the consequences of all the sex and violence which we so willingly consume, week in, week out, in our cinemas." B.J.BERTINA, de VOLKSKRANT
Peter Duncan and Terence Morgan in "The Lifetaker"
"The Lifetaker has remained all but absent from theatrical and home cinema distribution since it was made, and has never been granted a proper place within any serious history of British cinema. More’s the pity, because Michael Papas’ stylish and erotically charged tale of obsession is not only the quintessence of the kind of film they don’t make anymore, but is also radically unlike the kind of film they made even then....
Dimitri Andreas, Peter Duncan, Anna Mottram, Paul Beech and Terence Morgan in "The Lifetaker"
... An intense three-hander, the film feels at times like Pinter; its carefully constructed and hermetically sealed universe working towards an inevitable and devastating eruption. At others, it exudes the flavour of international art cinema. Ultimately, though, Papas’ lush widescreen frame is his own, and his consistent use of inch-perfect composition, bold camera moves, sumptuous colour schemes and daring set pieces ensures that this unjustly obscure work is as unique as anything you’re ever likely to see from these shores...
Peter Duncan and Lea Dregorn in "The Lifetaker"
..."With its dizzying abandonment of the measured art of formal combat, the final sequence clearly echoes the ape sequence in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (68) and even perhaps pre-empts the visceral nightclub scene in Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible (2002), both of which explore the relationship between intelligence and violent rage.... In The Lifetaker, too, the relationship between knowledge and violence is key."
SAM DUNN (BFI) in "OFFBEAT" edited by Julian Upton
Peter Duncan in "The Lifetaker"
Terence Morgan and Peter Duncan in "The Lifetaker"