Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) is John Schlesinger's intimate drama, free to watch online on iFILM. Over the course of a single week, three Londoners are bound together by one man — and each of them knows perfectly well about the others.

Divorced career woman Alex (Glenda Jackson) and middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch) are sharing the same lover: young designer-artist Bob Elkin (Murray Head). Bob makes no secret of seeing them both, and neither Alex nor Daniel can bring themselves to let go, because he's a jolt of youth in the tired, grey Britain of the early 1970s. Schlesinger shoots all of it calmly, without scandal or judgment.

For its day the picture was strikingly bold: the gay relationship is treated exactly like the straight one, with no tragedy or moralizing attached. Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch both earned Academy Award nominations, as did Schlesinger for his direction. A quiet, aching study of people willing to settle for half a loaf instead of the whole. Stream Sunday Bloody Sunday online on iFILM.