The critic and film historian Philip French has said that Losey's arrival here was the greatest thing to happen to British cinema in the 1950s. Some of the films he made before his reputation was consolidated with The Servant in 1963 are indeed among his best; titles such as The Sleeping Tiger, The Criminal and Eve have largely fallen from public view, which might also account for his uncertain status now (and which, by putting the emphasis on the first half of his career, the NFT is presumably aiming to put right). His reputation has also not been helped by the fact that in later years he made some spectacularly bad ones: Modesty Blaise, a ridiculous spy spoof, is all but unwatchable, and the disastrous Boom! — an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play starring Elizabeth Taylor and Noel Coward — is beloved only by the dreary aficionados of camp and bad cinema. 

But Losey should be forgiven these. At the very least, they are evidence that however strong his political beliefs, he was not straight-jacketed by them in the way that Ken Loach is. His characters are not mouthpieces and his best films can be savoured by those unaware of his experiences or worldview. They reflect the complexities of their time, rather than providing clean sheets on which a set of principles can be written. The power-play between Dirk Bogarde's manservant and James Fox's weak aristocrat in The Servant perfectly illustrates this: as an artistic reflection of the crumbling social structure of the time it has become emblematic, but it is just as importantly an exploration of personal and sexual motivation, and can be read as such by those for whom the Profumo era is as distant as Magna Carta. 

Losey was by all accounts a personally difficult man, but there is also evidence in his work of a certain pessimism: the least manipulative character in Accident — Michael York's aristocratic young student — ends up dead, while those around him stew in a juice of hidden desires and personal agendas. This, ironically given Losey's politics, can make his work appealing to some conservatives. He is unpredictable — unbrandable — which is why his best films should continue to be seen and considered by thoughtful people everywhere.