The Go-Between’s Picturesque : Figure (and Disfigurement) in the Landscape

Abstract

The prominence of the country estate as a setting in British cinema suggests that it would be fruitful to consider the aesthetic history of the landscape garden on screen, yet this is still an under-researched area. This chapter is concerned with location and setting in The Go-Between, tracing the genesis of its screen landscapes, from L.P. Hartley’s novel and contemporaneous debates about stately homes, through Joseph Losey’s development of a new approach to filming the country estate, to the production of the film itself and the use of Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk as a location. It explores how the film can be situated in relation to modes of practice in landscape culture and approaches to landscape historiography, and argues that The Go-Between both echoed emergent forms of landscape history and paved the way for other country-estate films and television programs.