John Schlesinger

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sunday Bloody Sunday

John Schlesinger followed his iconic Midnight Cowboy with this deeply personal take on love and sex. Sunday Bloody Sunday depicts the romantic lives of two Londoners, a middle-aged doctor and a prickly thirtysomething divorcée—played with great sensitivity by Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson—who are sleeping with the same handsome young artist (Murray Head). A revelation in its day, this may be the seventies’ most intelligent, multitextured film about the complexities of romantic relationships.

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1971
  • 110 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • English
  • Spine #629

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Billy Williams, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interviews with Williams, actor Murray Head, production designer Luciana Arrighi, John Schlesinger biographer William J. Mann, and Schlesinger’s longtime partner, photographer Michael Childers
  • Illustrated 1975 audio interview with Schlesinger
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by cultural historian Ian Buruma and Penelope Gilliatt’s 1971 introduction to her published screenplay

    New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Billy Williams, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interviews with Williams, actor Murray Head, production designer Luciana Arrighi, John Schlesinger biographer William J. Mann, and Schlesinger’s longtime partner, photographer Michael Childers
  • Illustrated 1975 audio interview with Schlesinger
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by cultural historian Ian Buruma and Penelope Gilliatt’s 1971 introduction to her published screenplay

    New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Cast
Glenda Jackson
Alex Greville
Peter Finch
Daniel Hirsh
Murray Head
Bob Elkin
Peggy Ashcroft
Mrs. Greville
Tony Britton
Mr. Harding
Maurice Denham
Mr. Greville
Bessie Love
Answering service lady
Vivian Pickles
Alva Hodson
Frank Windsor
Bill Hodson
Thomas Baptiste
Professor Johns
Richard Pearson
Patient
June Brown
Woman patient
Hannah Norbert
Daniel’s mother
Harold Goldblatt
Daniel’s father
Marie Burke
Aust Astrid
Jon Finch
Scotsman
Credits
Director
John Schlesinger
Produced by
Joseph Janni
Screenplay
Penelope Gilliatt
Director of photography
Billy Williams
Designed by
Luciana Arrighi
Editor
Richard Marden
Director of music
Douglas Gamley
Special music by
Ron Geesin
Costumes designed by
Jocelyn Rickards
Set decorator
Harry Cordwell
Associate producer
Edward Joseph
Production manager
Hugh Harlow
Assistant director
Simon Relph
Art director
Norman Dorme
Continuity
Ann Skinner
Casting
Miriam Brickman
Sound recordists
Simon Kaye
Sound recordists
Gerry Humphreys
Camera operator
David Harcourt
Sound editor
David Campling
Assistant editor
Mary Kessel
Makeup
Freddie Williamson
Hairdresser
Betty Glasow
Sculptures and models by
Loncraine & Broxton

Current

Murray Head Kisses and Tells
Murray Head Kisses and Tells
A highly sophisticated look at sex, relationships, and loneliness, John Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday was controversial when it was released in 1971, mainly as a result of the casualness with which it depicts intimacy between two members of th…
Making Sunday Bloody Sunday
Making Sunday Bloody Sunday
The following piece by Sunday Bloody Sunday screenwriter Penelope Gilliatt originally appeared as the introduction to the 1971 U.S. publication of the script. A friend of mine who had started scrubbing at fourteen and went on to be a barmaid had fort…

By Penelope Gilliatt

Sunday Bloody Sunday: Something Better
Sunday Bloody Sunday: Something Better

After winning an Oscar, John Schlesinger used his newfound artistic freedom to make a personal film in which homosexuality is treated as groundbreakingly ordinary.

By Ian Buruma

John Schlesinger’s Cinema of Failures and Outcasts
John Schlesinger’s Cinema of Failures and Outcasts

A gay man in an age when homosexuality was against the law in his native Britain, the Oscar-winning director eschewed political statements in favor of compassionate portrayals of the human condition.

The BFI’s List of the Best LGBT Films of All Time
The BFI’s List of the Best LGBT Films of All Time
For the past thirty years, the British Film Institute has been honoring the best in contemporary and classic LGBT cinema from around the world, with its annual BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. In celebration of the festival’s three-decade anni…