As someone with a keen interest in Dirk Bogarde’s life and career, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to review his performances for this website over the years. With reviews and features spread out across almost a decade, it was time to bring them all together in one place.
Feature
To understand how I came to love Dirk Bogarde (1921-99) and his unique contribution to British cinema and literature, see ‘Reflecting On ‘Death In Venice’ At 50 – Dirk Bogarde’s Finest Performance‘ in which I join fellow EF reviewer Sam to discuss Luchino Visconti’s 1971 masterpiece and much else besides.
Reviews
Dirk Bogarde’s film career took on many phases. From a clipped and mannered matinee idol to an international actor and star of art house movies, the various versions of Bogarde all have their fans.
Our top five favourites
‘The Servant’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars with James Fox and Wendy Craig in Joseph Losey’s 1963 classic of British cinema. The jazz soundtrack and script by Harold Pinter make it one of the coolest films of the Swinging Sixties.
‘The Night Porter’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling star in Liliana Cavani’s troubling and controversial 1974 film. Bogarde plays a former SS officer from a Nazi concentration camp who, years later, sees one of the Jewish survivors in civilian life.
‘Victim‘ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde’s career-defining performance was in a 1960 film that led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales. A number of household names had refused the part of a married barrister who has fallen in love with a younger man.
‘Darling‘ Blu-Ray Review
Julie Christie stars as an amoral model on the make in the Swinging Sixties, and Bogarde plays her hapless husband. John Schlesinger directs the 1965 classic.
‘The Damned’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars in the subversive 1969 movie, which was his first collaboration with Italian director Luchino Visconti. A few years later they would make the celebrated ‘Death in Venice’ together.
The Rank era
‘Appointment In London’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars in an epic WWII British movie from 1953.
‘The Gentle Gunman’ Review
Dirk Bogarde and John Mills star in a 1952 British film about the Irish Troubles.
‘The Blue Lamp‘ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars in the Ealing Studios classic British movie.
‘For Better, For Worse‘ DVD Review
Light British romantic comedy starring Dirk Bogarde.
See also…
‘The Vision’ DVD Review
One of Dirk Bogarde’s final film roles sees him star with Lee Remick in a strange play by William Nicholson.
‘The Sleeping Tiger’ Blu-ray review. Bogarde marks the beginning of his collaborations with director Joseph Losey in this clever 1954 psychological thriller.
‘Hot Enough For June‘ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars as a hapless spy in a 1960s James Bond parody.
From the mid-1970s, Bogarde largely gave up acting. He moved to France and, from a remote farmhouse that became his home, embarked upon a second career as an author. He wrote eight volumes of autobiography, which covered everything from his film career to his time serving in the army in the Second World War, and six novels.
Find out more about Dirk Bogarde at the fantastic repository of his life and work, dirkbogarde.co.uk.
