This adaptation is one of the most impressive of the often variable series of Beckett on Film productions. Anthony Minghella - I must admit I have not seen his well known films - is spot-on with an interesting interpretation; replacing the quick-fire spotlighting of a dark stage with subtly worked angles, and largely close ups of the three main actors.
Juliet Stevenson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Alan Rickman are magnificent; what a task it must have been to have learned all those rapid-fire lines. The camera itself is a player, with its buzzing, denoting fore-grounding and focus on characters. A brilliant editing job is achieved; the play's cyclic repetition is negotiating excellently. This is a very inscrutable text at first viewing, but considering the same material is repeated, many of the verbal tricks become clearer. A convoluted narrative, made up of three different perspectives; always, the language is masterful in its precision.
A fine adaptation; perfectly captures the material of a sometimes-overlooked play: one of Beckett's shorter and less lauded works, but one every bit as deadening and obliquely shattering in its impact as the others.
Rating:- **** 1/2/*****
Juliet Stevenson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Alan Rickman are magnificent; what a task it must have been to have learned all those rapid-fire lines. The camera itself is a player, with its buzzing, denoting fore-grounding and focus on characters. A brilliant editing job is achieved; the play's cyclic repetition is negotiating excellently. This is a very inscrutable text at first viewing, but considering the same material is repeated, many of the verbal tricks become clearer. A convoluted narrative, made up of three different perspectives; always, the language is masterful in its precision.
A fine adaptation; perfectly captures the material of a sometimes-overlooked play: one of Beckett's shorter and less lauded works, but one every bit as deadening and obliquely shattering in its impact as the others.
Rating:- **** 1/2/*****