I was very surprised to discover that someone did NOT like this film of the Beckett play, or rather "dramaticule," as he called it--for it is a mere eight or nine minutes in length.
First, I really do not think that the camera motion detracts in the slightest from the action, which is considerably more colorful and "fun" than many Beckett pieces--and I could not possibly ask for a better cast, three marvelous actresses, with magnificent control of comic timing and sound, who, in spite of the terrifying constraints Beckett places on expression (he insists that the faces should be all but hidden under broad hats, and the bodies cloaked in full-length coats), manage to create CHARACTERS with hardly more than a handful of lines apiece! Perhaps the single directorial imposition on the cryptic script is, in my opinion an excellent one--and this is the spoiler, so stop reading if you haven't seen the film yet--the puzzling last line, "I can feel the rings!"--is given a much deeper and unexpected meaning, which had never occurred to me: the camera moves in closely on Flo's holding, first, Ru's hand--feeling at what would be her left ring finger--and then Vi's hand--again, using her thumb to stroke gently the empty space where a wedding ring would be worn--feeling the ring fingers of her girlhood companions, as she did as a child, at Miss Wade's...she says, perhaps as she might have said as a little girl, "I can feel the rings!" This huge puzzle of a curtain line is given real, human MEANING--in my opinion, for the first time in ANY production--and this otherwise stark, cold, mysterious Noh drama of a playlet suddenly ends with a very charming and warm image of the three old maids, remembering how, as girls, they anticipated a future as beloved wives--a prospect which, apparently, was never realized, and now, all three are (presumably) dying, although none of them know that their ends are coming soon--"God grant not!" Bottom line--I thought this was a SPECTACULARLY good transfer of this tiny little gem of a dark tragicomedy to film--and was absolutely delighted with it.
Naturally, Beckett isn't going to be everybody's cup of tea--but if you DO get in the mood for his abstract, dark vision, now and then, I doubt that you'll find this a disappointing setting of his "dramaticule." The entire series this is from, "Beckett on Film," is worth a look--a project to commit all 19 plays in Beckett's corpus to film.
First, I really do not think that the camera motion detracts in the slightest from the action, which is considerably more colorful and "fun" than many Beckett pieces--and I could not possibly ask for a better cast, three marvelous actresses, with magnificent control of comic timing and sound, who, in spite of the terrifying constraints Beckett places on expression (he insists that the faces should be all but hidden under broad hats, and the bodies cloaked in full-length coats), manage to create CHARACTERS with hardly more than a handful of lines apiece! Perhaps the single directorial imposition on the cryptic script is, in my opinion an excellent one--and this is the spoiler, so stop reading if you haven't seen the film yet--the puzzling last line, "I can feel the rings!"--is given a much deeper and unexpected meaning, which had never occurred to me: the camera moves in closely on Flo's holding, first, Ru's hand--feeling at what would be her left ring finger--and then Vi's hand--again, using her thumb to stroke gently the empty space where a wedding ring would be worn--feeling the ring fingers of her girlhood companions, as she did as a child, at Miss Wade's...she says, perhaps as she might have said as a little girl, "I can feel the rings!" This huge puzzle of a curtain line is given real, human MEANING--in my opinion, for the first time in ANY production--and this otherwise stark, cold, mysterious Noh drama of a playlet suddenly ends with a very charming and warm image of the three old maids, remembering how, as girls, they anticipated a future as beloved wives--a prospect which, apparently, was never realized, and now, all three are (presumably) dying, although none of them know that their ends are coming soon--"God grant not!" Bottom line--I thought this was a SPECTACULARLY good transfer of this tiny little gem of a dark tragicomedy to film--and was absolutely delighted with it.
Naturally, Beckett isn't going to be everybody's cup of tea--but if you DO get in the mood for his abstract, dark vision, now and then, I doubt that you'll find this a disappointing setting of his "dramaticule." The entire series this is from, "Beckett on Film," is worth a look--a project to commit all 19 plays in Beckett's corpus to film.
