The Go-Between

Based on the novel by L.P. Hartley, adapted by Harold Pinter, this is a look through the dusty memories of an old man. This film won multiple awards and is a poignant telling of unrequited love, though it is occasionally slow. Smacking a little of Cyrano de Bergerac, this is a story told in flashbacks by Michael Redgrave's character as he tells the tale of a beautiful aristocratic woman who was to marry a wealthy socialite but who loved a lowly farm boy instead. Redgrave had acted as the "go-between" for the two lovers, despite the fact that he loved the woman himself. Eventually the lovers are discovered by the woman's mother. Our messenger has never married and it is left to us to realize this is because he still loves the beautiful girl. Now aged herself, she has again asked him to act as her "go-between." Set in Norfolk in the 1900s, this film flashes forward and backward and has enough twists and surprises to keep the viewers' interest.