Amazon.com: The hugely ambitious Beckett on Film project gathered together 19 different directors to turn the 19 stage works written by Samuel Beckett into films. The range is vast--from the 45-second Breath to the two hours of his most famous play, Waiting for Godot--but all the works reflect Beckett's penetrating obsessions with memory, regret, and the simple, excruciating experience of being. Not every film succeeds--like all great theater, Beckett's plays demand interaction with a live audience to express their full intent--and though scholars tout Beckett's every word as genius, several works are slight (Catastrophe, Ohio Impromptu, or What Where will leave many viewers unimpressed). But all the plays feature Beckett's uniquely distilled language; the greatest of them--including Waiting for Godot (in which two tramps pass the time while they wait for someone who may never come), Endgame (in which a blind man and his lame servant bicker and joke as the world declines), and Play (in which a love triangle is bitterly recalled by two women and a man in urns)--are astonishing in both their potent humor and piercing grief.
Though Beckett's stature drew in an impressive array of directors (including Anthony Minghella, Patricia Rozema, and Neil Jordan) and actors (including Jeremy Irons, Julianne Moore, Alan Rickman, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Michael Gambon, and John Gielgud), some of the finest work comes from relative unknowns. But the gem of the collection is Krapp's Last Tape, about an old man revisiting his life through recordings he has made throughout his years. It's the perfect marriage of text, actor (the incomparable John Hurt), and director (Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter); in their hands, the play spins from deeply funny to deeply sad, all with only the slightest dim of the light in Hurt's eyes. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A Formidable Achievement
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 ... Read More
Rating: - What a let-down!
I have seen this twice through now & have concluded that the best places to experience Samuel Beckett's quintessential words are on the printed page or on obscure stages (like San Quentin prison).
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Rating: - An Abomination
With great anticipation and relish i awaited this accumulation of the works of probably one of the greatest playwrites of the 20th century. Having seen a short promotional film of the project, my eagerness ... Read More
Rating: - A real score for Beckett aficionados
Not to gush, but many of the versions in this set far surpass my expectations of film adaptations of theatre. For instance, "Endgame" is brilliantly realized, with finely nuanced acting. Top talent on both ... Read More
Rating: - For the starved
Those of us living in the heartland - Iowa, in my case - have little access to live productions of Beckett's work. This DVD set provides my only window into the performance of several of these plays. Until ... Read More
- A Formidable Achievement
- What a let-down!