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Interview
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Reisz on Beckett
'I
have read Beckett's novels for many years and I've seen the plays,' Karel
Reisz says, 'But I also directed the stage version of Happy Days at the Gate, Dublin, with Rosaleen
Linehan, so I have one whole chunk of experience of working with the extraordinary
demanding precision of the writing. So yes, I am an admirer.
'It
was an intriguing challenge to film a Beckett play. You have to rethink
and refeel everything, but it was a nice problem. I chose Act Without Words because of Beckett's
clever use of the artifice of theatre and the way he intermingles humour
and pathos.
'Act
Without Words I is a mime, with no dialogue at all. The artifice of
the thing being set in the theatre is part of the pleasure of the piece.
Now I have to find a way of making the artifice of the cinema part of
the pleasure of the piece. It's a nice problem. I think it's a jeu
d'esprit in a rather ambiguous, half-despairing way. But it's a very
light piece for Beckett.
'As
always with Beckett, in the agony there is pity, understanding and humanity.
By using repetition, Beckett was trying to make sense of his own experience
of the world. Right or wrong doesn't come into it.
'Act
Without Words is a 20-minute piece of silent cinema with music, and
there's lot of tumbling, and Sean Foley is a trained clown. He has to
fall on his arse a lot but that's Beckett.
'At
the end, I would like audiences to experience recognition.'
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