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I didn't see it mentioned on the board before. I was very excited to see that French MK2 recently released Samuel Beckett's Film.

...and don't worry about the "langue français" bit, as the film has no spoken content whatsoever.

Isn't there a "shhh"?

A bit pricey for 20 minutes, but it's a very fun short.

There is, but it's more of a sibilant ejaculation than dialogue proper.

And I somehow doubt that MK2 subtitled it!

In the print I saw there isn't any sound at all. You don't hear the "Shhh" or anything else- it's a totally silent film.

milkcan wrote:In the print I saw there isn't any sound at all. You don't hear the "Shhh" or anything else- it's a totally silent film.

Maybe the projectionist switched the sound off, assuming that nothing would happen. If I remember rightly, the "Shhh" is the only sound in the film, so it's an easy mistake to make.

Maybe the projectionist switched the sound off, assuming that nothing would happen. If I remember rightly, the "Shhh" is the only sound in the film, so it's an easy mistake to make.

The print I saw was on a VHS tape, so maybe I didn't have the volume turned up high enough. I've often wondered about the reports of the "Shhh" being heard, and I don't remember if was or wasn't discussed in the Grove Press book release of "Film," which had Beckett's script and an account of the production by Alan Schneider.

It screened at MoMA last year, "shhh" intact. Unless that was someone in the audience...

I saw it several times when I was involved with staging its first British commercial run in 1990 - the 'Shhh!' is definitely on the soundtrack.

(Either that or someone in the audience got it bang on cue every single time, which is a tad unlikely...)

.

yeah, but sans the "shhh"

milkcan wrote:I've often wondered about the reports of the "Shhh" being heard, and I don't remember if was or wasn't discussed in the Grove Press book release of "Film," which had Beckett's script and an account of the production by Alan Schneider.

Yes, "shhh" was mentioned in the scenario.

A friend gave me this book as a gift not long ago, schlepped back all the way from Beckett's home turf as a souvenir.

The essay by the director is interesting, partly as a case study of how not to program a film. It was a lot tougher for short films back then, and the director had to accept Film being shown at a Buster Keaton revival stuck in between two comedy shorts. The audience who didn't know who Beckett was, had no idea what the point of Film was supposed to be, and proceeded to boo it. Unfortunately, many critics didn't seem to get it any more than the Keaton revival audience had, although it did rack up a good assortment of awards in '65 and '66.

I think it had a festival screening in London in the mid-1960s, but I'm pretty sure the film's first commercial run was in 1990 at Hampstead's Everyman Cinema - as a rather unlikely supporting short to the long-buried New York Jewish comedy The Plot Against Harry.

Somewhat ambitiously, we decided to press-show Film separately, complete with its own press book - and our gamble was richly rewarded: most national critics at least mentioned it, Anthony Lane gave it its own box in the Independent on Sunday and Philip French actually led on it in his Observer column, an almost unprecedented honour for an elderly short film screening in just one cinema during a pretty busy week. (French's polemical point was that it was the only really interesting film opening then).

It did pretty well commercially, too, though it's hard to tell if that was due to Film itself or Harry, which was a runaway hit with the large neighbouring Jewish community in Golders Green. But we certainly weren't complaining.

By sad coincidence, director Alan Schneider had died a few years earlier, literally just down the road (Fitzjohn's Avenue) from the Everyman - if I remember rightly, he was crossing the road outside the Hampstead Theatre in Swiss Cottage, where he was directing a play, and got hit by a car.

Is there a place in England where you can buy MK2's DVD of FILM BY SAMUEL BECKETT?


Dennis
Milestone Film & Video

If you're willing to order from Amazon.fr, they supposedly still have it in stock.