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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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