Harold Pinter's Style

If you want to understand Harold Pinter's influence on fashion and pop culture then the video for "Just" is a great place to start. Actually, any time you see a man with a thin tie acting jaded or menacing in a fashion shoot or ad, that's Harold Pinter's influence at work. In today's over-the-top culture, Pinter's less-is-more approach is something to learn from - sometimes it's best to leave something to the imagination.

It's such a normal part of the fashion vocabulary that we often forget where it came from. Why is this ad for Dior's Autumn/Winter 2004 campaign so cool? It's modern, but definitely gets a lot of it's cool factor from the whole Angry Young Men era in British theatre.

Nobel Prize-winning British playwright Harold Pinter died on Dec 24, 2008. He'd been suffering from liver cancer.

He wrote more than 30 plays including The Caretaker, The Birthday Party and Betrayal. He directed over 50 stage, TV, and film production, included The French Lieutenant's Woman. He was an actor, poet, screenwriter and director.

Harold Pinter stood up for what he believed; he didn't set out to be popular or famous. Pinter was born to a Jewish dressmaker and tailor in East London in 1930. He was involved in battles with fascists and was fined £30 by magistrates in 1949 for having, as a conscientious objector, refused to take part in national service. Pinter was known for his left-wing political views and was an outspoken critic of US and UK foreign policy.  He was a supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1985 he went to Turkey with Arthur Miller to protest human rights abuses and the lack of free speech in Turkey, and U.S. support for the country. They were asked to dinner at the U.S. Embassy and Miller, as the guest of honour spoke of democracy. They were both asked to leave.

“Being thrown out of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara with Arthur Miller -- a voluntary exile -- was one of the proudest moments of my life,” Harold Pinter

Pinter has been writing since the early 50's and it's hard to realize how great his influence has been. In the 60's the Oxford English Dictionary entered the word "Pinteresque"

"marked especially by halting dialogue, uncertainty of identity, and air of menace."

One of the little-known things I find charming about Harold Pinter was that he was the Chairman for Gaieties Cricket Club.