I had an itch to watch some Pinter and this scratched it. It's very well done, but it is Pinter, so there's not a lot of story and an awful lot of subtext. There's a dream cast - Robert Shaw, Donald Pleasance and Alan Bates. It was funded by a star studded line up including Peter Sellers and Noel Coward so Pinter was very much in the cool group. (Props to them for doing it this way, though).
I got to admit - I find this dull. Heck, I find Pinter dull - the lack of story and delineated characters just doesn't work for me. I feel this way about most of this plays too so I'm aware that's a personal opinion. If you liked this on stage you'll probably like the film. The best bit is Shaw's great monologue. I also enjoyed the scene where Bates threatens Pleasance. But scenes like that were few and far between.
The acting is exceptional - Pleasance as the wild-eyed, eccentric, just-how-smart-is-he tramp; Shaw as the glowering, possibly brain damaged lodger; Bates as his charismatic, dangerous seeming brother. Clive Donner directs well (it's weird to think at one stage he was considered a groovy cutting edge director).
No comments:
Post a Comment