Beckett On Film (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Faithful to the original text, and so much effort was put into the films
Disadvantages:	Wished to find more prominent actors in them

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Beckett on Film DVD

The 4-DVD box set consists of 19 film adaptations of plays by Samuel Beckett. These plays are: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, Act Without Words I, Act Without Words II, Krapp's Last Tape, Rough for Theatre I, Rough for Theatre II, Play, Come and Go, Breath, Not I, That Time, Footfalls, A Piece of Monologue, Rockaby, Ohio Impromptu, Catastrophe, What Where.

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To start with, I will not talk about each of these plays on its own, as this will be just tedious and not helpful; describing some of the plays will be enough to give you an idea of the project and help you decide better, I think. The reason why I watched these DVD's is definitely Waiting for Godot, which I read a couple of years ago but didn't have the chance to see it performed. Reading the play was not an easy task at all, that's why I think watching such a film/play actually helps as it is faithful to the original text. Beckett, as is very well known, was a minimalist in terms of his setting, and the director kept this aspect in his film although he had the chance to make use of the cinematic effects. Do you remember Lucky's soliloquy (monologue): "Given the existence as uttered forth…"? Reading it, for me, was one of the most exhilarating experiences, next to Hamlet's soliloquy, yet it is bloody difficult, as a famous critic described Joyce's Finnegans Wake. I think watching it performed sheds some light on some bits more than others, like: He "loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell." The title of my review is derived from one of the most memorable conversations in Waiting for Godot: "- Estragon: What about hanging ourselves? - Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection."

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Happy Days is another masterpiece by Samuel Beckett; it features a woman buried to her waist in sand as she chats cheerfully with her husband who is almost distanced and left in the background. The days pass for this woman as she performs the most boring chores while she is being buried in sand more and more. Despite being a cheerful piece from beginning to end, for the actress Rosaleen Linehan does her best to show all the almost mindless joy of the woman, yet this play is ultimately extremely miserable. I think that both the play and the film convey that fact that no ecstasy is overwhelming enough to make us forget the fact that as we wait for death, we find nothing better to do than living in the past.

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Another example of the continuous misery is Come and Go in which three middle-aged female friends sit on one bench in the middle of the theatre and start conversing. Whenever one of them would go briefly, the other two would gossip about her. It does not take many words and many actions on the actresses' part to know how sad these women actually are, but I always almost digress and try to interpret the text. The problem is that Beckett's text is too powerful to be ignored or even considered along with other elements. Anyway, I will talk about the performance of some of the actors in the following paragraph.

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As I mentioned earlier, I wished to see more prominent actors in these films, but the actors' performance was very good in general. I think that it is very interesting, for instance, to watch a dramatist like Harold Pinter (the director in Catastrophe) as an actor in one of Beckett's plays. I also like the performance of Johnny Murphy (Estragon in Waiting for Godot) immensely, for, like the character on paper, he remains distant; you never get to know what he is thinking (does he think, anyway?) And, I believe I should mention Julianne Moore (the mouth of an unnamed character in Not I) whose role was very difficult, as the concentration is only on the actress's mouth, yet she managed superbly; however, you might have to watch this play/film more than once to understand what is going on.

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The extras include different interviews with the actors and directors and behind the scenes bits. As you watch these, you will notice how proud the creators of this work are of what they presented to you, and I think they deserve all the praise. In addition to this there's an interview with certain critics who think that such a projects lessen the meanings that readers could have deducted from Beckett's works, and this is what the playwright would never have wanted; he wished his plays to be more open for interpretation. Well, these limitations cannot be avoided, can they?

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<<< Recommended? >>>
It is more than recommended, but as is expected, it is not the kind of movies one may enjoy after a long day's hard work before going to sleep; it will keep you awake thinking for hours.

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<<< Price and DVD Info >>>

Price: £84.98 from Amazon. As you see, it is expensive, so you can simply rent those DVD's as I did, for they are available from websites like www.Lovefilm.com.
Actors: Alan Rickman, Julianne Moore, Michael Gambon, David Thewlis, John Hurt
Directors: Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Atom Egoyan, Damien Hirst, Neil Jordan, Conor McPherson
Format: PAL
Language English
Region: All Regions
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number of discs: 1
Classification: Exempt
Studio: Tyrone Productions
DVD Release Date: 23 May 2005
Run Time: 647 minutes

For more information about each of the plays included in this project, go to <www.beckettonfilm.com>.

Summary: Highly recommended especially for students of literature, and those who love Beckett enough to watch this entire project.