Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
'Time Passes. Now with words', 29 Mar 2006
This set is intriguing, beguiling, captivating and frustrating. I'm no Beckett purist, so I found some of the liberties taken with the films, such as 'What Where' the most exciting pieces on this set. 'Play', however, is the high point here, with the perfect marriage of Beckett's text and a thoroughly visceral use of camera. There is little negative to say apart from the actual DVD design itself, with the same snatch of music used for every menu, and the same interviews included in both the extras accompanying the plays and the documentary about the project. This makes the high price for this set a little hard to bear. But the films themselves are worth it...
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Superb, 23 Jan 2009
This 4DVD Box set contains cinematic versions of all 19 plays that Beckett wrote. Each play has a different director and set of actors (including among others John Geiguid (his last ever appearance on screen or stage), Alan Rickman, Juliet Stephenson, David Thewlis, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott-Thomas and many more) so it isn't simply a 'rep's' perspective of all the plays. Nor are they simply films of the play being acted on a stage, the point of the 'Becket on Film' project being to bring Beckett to the big screen using cinematic techniques.
Each DVD also contains a short 'addenda' programme explaining the history and salient points of the plays with an occasioinal interview with the director of the plays that are on their respective DVDs.
There is also a short documentary on the final DVD describing the whole project of putting the plays onto the 'big screen', how it came about in the first place and the difficulties and objections/critiques of putting Beckett on film.
Without going into the pros and cons of making Beckett plays into a cinematic experience; for the unitiated this is an ideal introduction to the canon. Indeed I have seen 'Godot' many times on stage, but the version here is, in my own opinion, the best one I have had the pleasure to watch. Not all of the plays of Becket are immeidiately accessible as has been said, but this project takes a giant step forward in bringing Beckett to the masses.
While not cheap, I grant you, I cannot recommend this enough and will be something you will watch over and over again.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic, 28 Jun 2009
I bought this because I was looking for Waiting for Godot. I had seen that as a child, and had always been intrigued by it. Recent publicity reminded me of the production, so I took the plunge.
I am not, by nature, a great reader of literature or devourer of arts. So I have to admit to being somewhat daunted by the prospect of Beckett's collected works.
And I was right to be daunted! Some of this is heavy going! Its definately not the sort of thing you can have running in the background while you tap out your accounts or whatever. It demands your full attention. Well, mine at least. With "Not I" for instance, you are presented with a talking mouth. If you only half listen to it, you will not have a clue what she is yabbering on about. Mind you, if you stare intently at it you won't get that much more of an idea either. Apparantly thats what Beckett intended, as well (thanks Wikipedia!). These plays certainly get you thinking!
So why five stars? Because, it is the work of pure genius. A diamond in a field of cow manure is still a diamond. The fact that I find some of them a bit heavy going, should not dimish their appeal to anybody else.
And Waiting for Godot was as splendid as ever. More so, in fact, as the second time around, I could appreciate it a whole lot more. The critic who described it as "A play where nothing happens, twice." could not have been further from the truth. Personally I feel exhilerated after watching it. A couple of hours of Godot, and all is right with the world.
Marvelous.
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