Daily Dialogue — August 13, 2015

“I should have had you in your white before the wedding. I should have blackened you in your white wedding dress. Blackened in your bridal dress before ushering you in as your best man.”

— Betrayal (1983), screenplay by Harold Pinter based on his play

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Adultery.

Trivia: Screen-writer and source playwright Harold Pinter based the story on his seven year secret extra-marital affair with television presenter Joan Bakewell, which had occurred between the years 1962 and 1969. At the time, Pinter had been married to actress Vivien Merchant, whilst Bakewell had been married to producer-director Michael Bakewell. Both marriages resulted in separation and divorce.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This scene marks the beginning of the move toward an affair between Jerry (Jeremy Irons) and Emma (Patricia Hodge) and what is notable is that this is the end of the movie. The narrative structure: Nine sequences told in reverse chronological order. A fascinating way to tell this story of adultery as here where we know the doomed nature of their clandestine relationship.