Beckett on Film DVD Set

Curious that DVD Basen, the wonderful Danish web-compendium of dvd reviews from all over the world, has yet to register a word on BECKETT ON FILM, by any measure the dvd release of the year. These film renditions of Samuel Beckett's nineteen works for the stage (which is not the same as his "complete dramatic works," which would include radio plays and scripts for television), are, for the most part, thrillingly successful. The plays fall into two types. WAITING FOR GODOT, ENDGAME, KRAPP'S LAST TAPE, and HAPPY DAYS, however revolutionary in their time, still more or less conform to the conventional understanding of what a play is, ie: they contain recognizable characters and the shortest is an hour long. Despite the filmmakers' protests to make true movies of these plays, as opposed to "filmed plays," each of their single-locale settings make the theatrical origins of each work inescapable. Having said that, they are the best "filmed plays" this viewer has ever seen. Most of the remaining plays, particularly the late plays, are very short (under 15 minutes), and as Alan Rickman remarks, seem more like installations or "performance art," then full-fledged plays. What makes these works among the greatest plays ever written is precisely their inability to be transfered to another medium. With one exception, each of these little films, even the most brilliant of them (I'm thinking of the mind-blowing PLAY), must somehow compromise itself as a play in order to make the transition to film. The exception is OHIO IMPROMPTU. The intensity of this two character, ten minute piece perhaps reaches the full measure of its power as a film. Beckett's stage directions specify that its two actors be as alike as possible. On film, they can be exactly alike, by virtue of being played by the same actor, namely Jeremy Irons, who has famously played twins before. Despite the actor's disavowal, the characters of Reader and Listener can't help but conjure the image of DEAD RINGERS' Elliot commiserating with his twin brother Beverly aeons from hence in their own personal purgatory. Irons' performance is impeccable and affecting, although the Beckett purist might wish there were a little less of it. The performances throughout the plays are deliriously good, with the sad exception of the beautiful FOOTFALLS, which suffers from an overly mannered delivery on the part of its two actresess. One can only feel sorry for the director saddled with the relentlessly uncinematic THAT TIME. But BECKETT ON FILM is mostly a box of treasure, and a gift to the world.

The fact that this DVD set exists at all is cause for ecstatic and superlative praise: at last we have nearly all the plays of one of the 20th century's most technically innovative--but also emotionally affecting and eloquent--dramatists, available together in professional productions created with sympathy, respect for the author's intentions, and often inspired insight into these works' theatrical potential.Because this box set presents the work of 19 different directors, each working with a different play, it is inevitable that this collection would be uneven: the most disappointing performances, in my opinion, are drawn from the most familar works: Endgame, in particular, suffers from an awkward rhythm and rushed delivery which violates both the general sense of the work as well as several of its most memorable and touching sequences.There are nonetheless many very pleasant surprises among these performances, none more welcome than Julianne Moore's extraordinary rendition of "Not I." John Hurt's version of "Krapp's Last Tape" will similarly, I think, come to be regarded as definitive, as will the idiosyncratic collaboration among David Mamet, Harold Pinter, and the late Sir John Gielguld in "Catastrophe." Most revelatory of all is the rendition of "Rough for Theatre II," which turns what reads in print as an ostensibly inconsequential fragment into a nuanced and perhaps uniquely detailed contribution to the Beckett canon.Perhaps the greatest mystery in a package promising to be "the comprehensive cinematic interpretation of Beckett's plays" are the omissions here, most surprisingly his several works--"Eh Joe,' "Nacht und Traume," "...but the clouds," among others--for television. One also wonders, given the extraordinarily generous resources at the producers' disposal, if it was only the Beckett estate that prevented a mounting of the author's great deskdrawer drama Eleutheria, or the early fragment "Human Wishes."The fact that this set is easily available, and that it contains so many highlights, ultimately overrides any disappointments. The price of this collection probably puts it out of reach of all but the most devoted fans of Samuel Beckett--which is also a shame, because many of these performances would refute the unreflective complaints that Beckett's work is boring, emotionally arid, or depressing. Were the set less expensive, it would help win for Beckett a popular audience commensurate with his contribution to contemporary literature and theatre. But for those of us lucky enough to own a copy, there is much to enjoy, contemplate, and re-play for years to come.

I wrote my Master's thesis on Samuel Beckett and have seen many outstanding productions of his works, some by actors performing in these. I had salivated over owning my own copy for quite some time while continuously checking out the set from our school media center. I finally broke down and bought one for myself, and at a great price. Recognizing that directorial visions may not always mesh with the author's vision, these productions adhere to the texts of the plays quite well, a number having been overseen by Beckett in earlier stagings with some of the same actors. I especially enjoy the "Waiting for Godot" and "Krapp's Last Tape" films, as I saw those same productions here in SoCal with Barry McGovern, John Hurt et al. . .

These DVDs are expensive, but if you love Beckett, it is a must have. I found one for less money than the asking price on Amazon--I forget where, but look around and you may find it too. There are many, many reviews of this set which I found interesting if rather negative, but nothing could deter me from having so much of Beckett's dramas in performance. I particularly remember a really negative review of 'End Game' but don't believe it, I say,everything on these discs is pure gold. The set would make Beckett smile, and that's a sight one doesn't see very often.

One of the best things to happen to theatre and theatre lovers since the birth of Beckett, himself.

This is an expensive but very worthwhile purchase. I would not recommend it to anyone as "entertainment" or for sheer enjoyment: Beckett's plays require hard thought and a rigorous re-examination of one's preconceptions and prejudices to be of any benefit. However, this set provides a permanent record of most of his plays for the stage and is valuable for that reason alone. Whilst live theatre performances might be better, even much better, to watch, I suspect that for most people living outside the capital this is not a realistic prospect for most of the plays. The "how they made it" documentary included in the set does include some criticism of the very fact of filming the plays, for setting the sacred canon in a permanent form and from the perspective of individual firm directors but, as I have said, at least the plays are there in performance for one to watch and I cannot see how the perspective of individual theatre directors is essentially more valid. I would add one final point: if you are going to purchase this product, purchase a copy of the texts of the plays as well.

These film versions of Beckett's plays have on the main, tried and succeeded in being faithful to his original vision. There are some plays ( in this context films) on this collection that are very dry and some would say boring even for a Beckett fan but this box set is about getting more frequent access to these works and there are some really wonderful interpretations. Each one of the longer plays is done justice with great versions. Godot, End Game, Happy Days and Crapp's Last Tape are all strongly and appropriately cast, but a lot of the short plays are also well cast and captivating such as Play and Come and Go, Catastrophe and Damien Hirst's direction of the 30 second Breath. it is reasonable to regard Waiting for Godot and End Game as masterpieces of 20th Century theatre but there is no shortage of intensely interesting and darkly amuzing thought and expression throughout these dics and a proliferation of great British actors.

I first saw Beckett On Film on TV in 2002 and was completely fascinated by it all, wondering what it all meant. It boasts a talented array of actors and actresses such as Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Alan Rickman, Julianne Moore, Jeremy Irons, Penelope Wilton, Harold Pinter, John Gieguld and many more. Beckett On Film is a unique collection because we have here all 19 of Samuel Beckett's theatre plays on film, which were written between 1952 and 1983. I wonder thoe if the BBC has some even better TV adaptations of Beckett's plays stashed away in their basement. I recall watching a TV adaptation of Beckett's 1961 play Happy Days staring Billie Whitelaw (Samuel Beckett's favourite actress) on VHS and it was spot on. And Beckett oversaw the production himself to make sure the timing of Billie Whitelaw's performance was perfect, that would be nice to see on Dvd. Beckett was a clever writer, writing in the medium's of theatre, radio and writing novels. He met the conventions of these medium's and then broke the rules of those conventions to create very original work. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize For Literature but he didn't attend the awards ceremony as he didn't care about it. Given that Samuel Beckett is a proven genius and that geniuses are capable of predicting the future and also inventing it in some way if they want too, what if these plays are about the far distant future in relationship to global warming and it's destruction of the human race because of our inability to tackle the problem properly in our present time. Maybe human beings will be forced to live in the dark places Beckett's characters inhabit in his plays because life on the surface of the earth has become intolerable because of climate change. Other geniuses, Chekhov, alludes to this in his 1898 play The Seagull when Konstantin and Nina are staging a play with a monologue which eerily sounds to me as if its predicting the future of global warming and it's destruction of living things on the planet. Jimi Hendrix alludes to this also on his second album Axis: Bold As Love in a song called 'Up From The Skies'. Then there's Salvador Dali's brilliant but cruel paintings, the most famous of these being The Persistence Of Memory (soft watches) 1931 with the melting clocks, which is strangely similar to the stageing of Beckett's 1952 play Waiting For Godot, where Estragon says 'Time has stopped'. Beckett himself wasn't entirely sure what he was writing about but he knew intellectually he was on to something that the human race ought to know about. In conclusion these plays maybe more than theatrical entertainment about the human condition, but also a warning about the future. There's a lot of autobiographical stuff from Beckett's life in his plays which I wouldn't know about if I hadn't read James Knowlson's book Damned To Fame, the definitive Samuel Beckett biography. For example in Beckett's 1958 play Krapp's Last Tape when Krapp talks about a woman called old Miss McGlome, the writer is referencing a lesbian woman he met in France during World War 2, when he had being part of the French Resistance and was writing his novel Watt. Sometimes when I went to London I would go to see Samuel Beckett plays at the theatres, but I found the acting performances in most of them weren't very good, not all. Bearing in mind thoe that Beckett's plays are notoriously difficult plays to perform right in the theatre, presenting a unique challenge to the actors and actresses who have to act in them. In this Beckett On Film collection, in front of a camera, the actors and actresses seem more relaxed and confident in what there doing without the added pressure of a theatre audience watching them. These art house films of Beckett's plays are certainly worth having, but I've decided to rate them 4 out of 5 stars as they were written specifically for the theatre, not film.

These versions of Beckett's plays are striking. They are not always quite what Beckett might have intended (the cries in 'Breath' are not birth cries; in 'Not I', we do not have a single maintained perspective and there is no listener present, for example) but they offer stimulus for discussion and are perhaps a little more accessible then Beckett at his most stark might be. For diehard Beckett fans, they offer a challenge to established perceptions; for newcomers, they give an insight into this remarkable playwright's thinking. They are certainly worth buying and watching repeatedly - just as Beckett himself would probably have done.