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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