The Pumpkin Eater (1963)

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Harold Pinter

Film screenplay

English

Adaptation of Penelope Mortimer's novel The Pumpkin Eater.

The database entry for the film can be accessed here.

Date of Composition: 1963

Adapted From: The Pumpkin Eater (1962)

Adapted Work Note: Pinter adapted the film from Penelope Mortimer's 1963 novel of the same name. Mortimer's original novel is animated by a sense of frustration and anger at patriarchal values, while Harold Pinter's adaptation has the effect of making the film less about Jo (the novel had been written in the first person from her point of view) and more about the relationship between Jo and her husband Jake: it offers a complete portrait of a marriage from first meeting and initial romantic idyll through betrayals and bitter disputes to a tentative reconciliation between the estranged couple. As the director Jack Clayton put it, the film investigates "the infinitely simple idea of the difficulties in any married relationship while at the same time showing the tremendously strong relationship that grows almost inevitably."

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Characters

Jake (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Unknown, Male)

Giles (Age: Unknown, Male)

Dinah (Age: Unknown, Female)

Fergus (Age: Unknown, Male)

Sharon (Age: Unknown, Female)

Mark (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Unknown, Male)

Elizabeth (Age: Unknown, Female)

Pete (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Unknown, Male)

Jack (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Unknown, Male)

Mr Armitage (Age: Unknown, Male)

Mr James (Age: Unknown, Male)

Philpot (Age: Unknown, Female)

Youngest Child (Age: Unknown, Male)

Nanny (Age: Unknown, Female)

Doctor (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Unknown, Male)

Ingram (Age: Unknown, Male)

Woman In Hairdressers (Age: Unknown, Female)

Conway (Age: Unknown, Male)

Man At Party (Age: Unknown, Male)

Beth (The Pumpkin Eater) (Age: Unknown, Female)

Mrs James (Age: Unknown, Female)

Undertaker (Age: Unknown, Male)

Surgeon (Age: Unknown, Male)

Waitress At Zoo (Age: Unknown, Female)

King Of Israel, The (Age: Unknown, Male)

Parson (Age: Unknown, Male)

Jo (Age: Unknown, Female)

Resources

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Sources

BFI Screenonline

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/478062/index.html

URL

Description adapted from BFI Screenonline entry.