Krapp's Last Tape (2011), Directed by Atom Egoyan (2011)
By Samuel Beckett
While John Hurt had already honed his magisterial interpretation on stage in London, the involvement of Egoyan is surprisingly appropriate, since a play about an old man remorsefully responding to a taped recording of his younger self obviously chimes with one of the film-maker's longstanding themes, the interaction between technology, memory and self-perception. Within a realist one-room setting, Hurt's performance strikes a compellingly intimate note, as Egoyan's camera underlines a telling sense of drifting time through attentive long takes. The uninterrupted 20-minute closing shot proves utterly hypnotic and deeply moving, a humbling display of a great actor's craft. RESOURCES: Alan Schneider -- "On Directing Samuel Beckett's Film" in UbuWeb Papers RESOURCES: Samuel Beckett in UbuWeb Sound
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