ALAN STRACHAN
Secret Dreams, a Biography of Michael Redgrav
‘-'- 252' 1'. ' ,' 0.... JOHN COLDSTREAM
Dirk Bogarde, The Authorised Biography ’ i' ' ' OD.
LINDSAY ANDERSON Collected Writings i’w x 0000 Lindsay Anderson Diaries co
SECRET DREAMS
.\ liiuuuplii ul .‘litlut‘l Rulgtnt
In 1935 when Michael Redgrave proposed to his wife, the actress Rachel Kempson, he also admitted that he was bisexual. Rachel didn't mind. They loved each other - and would continue in that love — for the next 49 years. Redgrave went on to have three children and create an acting dynasty, and into his family he brought two long-term male lovers. Theatre director Alan Strachan’s big, incisive, loving biography provides fascinating domestic insight into one of Britain’s great actors, on screen and stage.
Redgrave, fiercely intelligent and constantly questioning, was one of the few great stage actors to make it on film. From his debut in Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes to The Dam Busters and The Go-Between, he combined dashing romanticism with vulnerability. He was a great Hamlet, partly because he soul-searched for much of his life. It’s the last section of the biography - with Redgrave struggling against Parkinson’s disease yet still continuing to act and rally against the light - that is the most moving.
Strachan worked with Redgrave at this point in his career, when the actor’s memory was fading and remembering lines was increasingly difficult. This personal dimension makes the book especially worthwhile.
Dirk Bogarde seems a less fulfilled actor, as John Coldstream‘s heavy tome explains. Bogarde had two very distinct careers, as the ‘ldol of the Odeons’ in countless forgettable movies up until his breakthrough role in Victim, the hard-boiled 1961 thriller which changed the laws regarding homosexuality in Britain. Bogarde, as a barrister blackmailed for his love of a younger man, used his matinee good looks and clipped English reserve to give a bravura performance.
From there, Bogarde would go on to mine a similar stream of repressive characters for auteurs such as Visconti, Fassbinder and Joseph Losey. He wrote six instalments of his autobiography, much of them misleading and fictional. However Bogarde’s biggest omission was not acknowledging his 40 year love affair with his business manager Antony Farwood.
Lindsay Anderson, enfant terrible of 605 cinema and theatre, was equally unhappy about his sexuality. His rage against the world, which found his absurdist movies difficult to comprehend, was largely due to the lack of any substantial gay love in his life. He was partly spoilt by winning an Oscar early on for a short documentary and never being able to follow up his audacious movie If with anything as coruscating or political. However, for introducing Malcolm McDowell to the world, Anderson should be congratulated. His collected writings are more successful than his diaries. The book is lovely to dip into, with revealing insights into working with Bette Davis and Lillian Gish on his last movie The Whales of August or his remembrances of Royal Court Theatre luminaries. Anderson’s tone is honest, unsparing, sometimes jealous. His intelligence is always evident, but where is the love? (John Binnie)
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Al’OLOGISE
64 THE LIST ~
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Glasgow
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Edinburgh
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Wednesdays
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