martedì 14 marzo 2023

Butley - Harold Pinter

film d'impianto teatrale, che si regge sulle spalle di un grande Alan Bates (in una piccola parte appare anche Jessica Tandy).

un professore universitario in crisi, un tempo grande studioso ed esperto di T. S. Eliot, adesso chissà, vive pigramente cercando di lavorare il meno possibile, e inimicandosi, a ragione, tutti.

dialoghi impietosi, senza rete, di un personaggio che non sa più a cosa appigliarsi.

un film che merita (se lo trovate) - Ismaele


 

 

 

…Butley is one of the most affecting characters of modern theater. He tries to bind people to himself with sarcasm, insult, and a merciless eye for their vulnerabilities. Eventually, it seems, he always fails. But the way Alan Bates plays him (and Bates, who created the role on the London stage, knows him as well as anybody), his mind is still resilient and panther-quick, with a streak of saving humor. So we don’t pity him, even though we should. He somehow doggedly weathers each crisis, and we even feel a sneaky affection for him. Maybe that’s the way the role is written, or maybe it’s because of the double-reverse charm Bates brings to it; I couldn’t quite tell.

The film takes place during a day in an office shared by two English instructors at Queen Mary’s College, London. One is Butley, who, as he approaches middle age, has abandoned the difficulties of Eliot and taken up nursery rhymes. The other is Joey, who began as Butley’s protégé, then became his roommate, and then (after Butley’s marriage and separation) became his roommate again. Joey is as meticulous as Butley is a shambles. Butley spends his day in psychological warfare against the truths that would batter him down. His wife tells him she intends to marry another man. Bad enough. But then Joey acknowledges that he’s leaving, too also for another man. Butley faces being left totally alone, and he fights back with wit, with obscenity, with insult, with booze…

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