Film (1964)

Directed by

Alan Schneider

Genre

drama film, silent film, surrealist film

Country

United States

Runtime

22 min

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 74 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Samuel Beckett wrote this short silent film which was directed by Alan Schneider. Buster Keaton plays a man who tries to avoid being seen by anyone including the camera itself.

austereminimalistsilentabstractcontemplativebizarrecerebralclaustrophobicunsettling

What happens

Film is a 1965 short film written by Samuel Beckett, his only screenplay. It was commissioned by Barney Rosset of Grove Press. Writing began on 5 April 1963 with a first draft completed within four days. A second draft was produced by 22 May and a 40-leaf shooting script followed thereafter. It was filmed in New York City in July 1964. Beckett and Alan Schneider originally wanted Charlie Chaplin, Zero Mostel and Jack MacGowran; however, they eventually did not get involved. Beckett then suggested Buster Keaton. James Karen, who was to have a small part in the film, also supported having Keaton. The filmed version differs from Beckett's original script but with his approval since he was on set all the time, this being his only visit to the United States, as stated in the script printed in Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (Faber and Faber, 1984). It was remade by the British Film Institute (1979, 16 mm, 26 minutes) without Beckett's supervision, as Film: a screenplay by Samuel Beckett. David Rayner Clark directed Max Wall. It first appeared in print in Eh Joe and Other Writings (Faber and Faber, 1967). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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