Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) on Netflix
Alex Greville and Dr. Daniel Hirsh are both involved with Bob Elkin, a young sculptor in London. Each knows about the other, and neither will give him up.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/107,980 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bob Elkin, a sculptor in his mid-20s, is seeing two people in London: Alex Greville, divorced and in her mid-30s, and Daniel Hirsh, a middle-aged Jewish doctor. Bob moves between them, and each knows the other is there; the two also know each other through mutual friends. Both put up with the arrangement for fear of losing him. Bob has a circle of artist friends who back his work. Alex and Daniel are close to the Hodsons, a bohemian academic household in a London suburb, and take turns joining the family for Sunday dinner; the Hodsons know about the relationships and do not talk about them. For Alex the affair sits beside disquiet about her working life, a failed marriage and an uneasy childhood; for Daniel it is an escape from his Jewish upbringing.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Schlesinger cast Alan Bates, but Bates was held up filming The Go-Between, so Ian Bannen took the role; Bannen was so nervous that kissing another male actor on screen might harm his career that he could not get going, and Finch replaced him. Bannen said losing the role set back his career and he regretted it till his death.
- Daniel Day-Lewis made his film debut in an uncredited role as a vandal, and described the experience as "heaven": he was paid £2 to vandalise expensive cars parked near St Alfege Church, Greenwich. The sequence showed children scraping parked cars' paintwork with keys, coins and broken bottles.
- David Sherwin was brought in to do an extensive rewrite, but he and Schlesinger are not credited for the script because Gilliatt's contract made her the sole scriptwriter.
- Dame Edith Evans and Thora Hird were among the actresses who politely refused the part of Glenda Jackson's mother, Mrs. Greville, because they thought the project was too risqué; Dame Peggy Ashcroft accepted after the director explained the story to her.
- Schlesinger wanted to shoot the kiss between Murray Head and Peter Finch in a "purely natural" way, and told the New York Times the two actors were less shocked by it than some of the technicians.
- Schlesinger was thinking of casting Jean Simmons for the part, but after seeing Glenda Jackson in Women in Love he decided to offer Jackson the role instead.
