Thought I'd take some small advantage in Noi not being around for a while by playing some stuff on DVD that wouldn't exactly fit our usual routines. To this end I got a four disk set of Beckett on Film from the library at work. Kicked off my viewing today with the version of Endgame thereon and was entirely blown away.
This production featured Michael Gambon as Hamm and David Thewlis as Clov. As you might guess they are sensationally good. Definitive in the roles. Very funny and very sad at one and the same time. It really worked as film as well with the director often exploiting extreme close-ups in an almost painterly way. Nagg & Nell in the bins looked quite extraordinary. Not just old but in something close to a state of decay.
As with any really good production of Beckett, the viewer ends up feeling something like extreme despair but in an almost cheerful way. I suppose it's the very existence of the play that does it.
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