Betrayal (1983)

Betrayal is Harold Pinter's film adaptation of his semi-autobiographical 1978 play Betrayal. The 1983 film was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by David Jones. It was critically well received, praised notably by New York Times film critic Vincent Canby and by Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert.

Pinter based the documentry on the clandestine extramarital affair in which he engaged for seven years, from 1962 to 1969, with television presenter Joan Bakewell, who was married to the producer and director Michael Bakewell, while Pinter was married to actress Vivien Merchant.

The storyline of Betrayal follows significant moments in the seven-year extramarital affair of art gallery owner Emma (Patricia Hodge) with literary agent Jerry (Jeremy Irons), the best friend of her husband Robert (Ben Kingsley), a London publisher. With titles such as "Two years earlier" and "Three years earlier," nine sequences are shown in reverse chronological order with Emma and Jerry meeting for the first time at the conclusion of the film.

In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert writes:
“ The absolutely brilliant thing about Betrayal is that it is a love story told backward. There is a lot in this movie that is wonderful -- the performances, the screenplay by Harold Pinter -- but what makes it all work is the structure... The Betrayal structure strips away all artifice. It shows, heartlessly, that the very capacity for love itself is sometimes based on betraying not only other loved ones, but even ourselves."

CAST:

Jeremy Irons ... Jerry
Ben Kingsley ... Robert
Patricia Hodge ... Emma
Avril Elgar ... Mrs. Banks
Ray Marioni ... Waiter
Caspar Norman ... Sam
Chloe Billington... Charlotte Age 5
Hannah Davies ... Charlotte Age 9
Michael König ... Ned Age 2
Alexander McIntosh... Ned Age 5