Thursday 29 December 2011

St Thomas of Canterbury .... dramatic interpretations

I know I'm probably in a minority of one, but I've always been more than a little disappointed with Peter Glenville's film, 'Becket,' for various reasons, Anouilh's invention of the saint's Saxon origins being among them. Great actors though O'Toole and Burton undoubtedly were, neither seems really to get under the skin of the character he is portraying, the result being that the film seems too stagey, with something indefinable missing. As I say - I'm probably in a very small minority....
Nevertheless, I'll stick to T.S. Eliot and Murder in the Cathedral.
This is the incomparable Paul Schofield delivering Becket's Christmas sermon from the play:

1 comment:

  1. For an English speaker it's difficult not to pronounce Anouilh as 'ennui'.

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