Harold Pinter

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Awesome Welles · #1 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:37 am

A couple of years ago I watched an extract from a film/TV adaptation of a Harold Pinter play, I think it was The Birthday Party, it was set in a seaside lodging house and I watched a scene in which an old woman fixes breakfast (cornflakes) for her husband, she asks if it's nice, if he likes it in that great Pinter dialogue.

My confusion is I can't think what version it is. Does anyone know whether it's the Friedkin version?

Or could it be something else entirely like The Tea Party?

I have wanted to read the play for ages but haven't managed to get my hands on it so can't be sure it was The Birthday Party, the plot sounds very familiar but I can't imagine the version I saw was directed by Friedkin, it definitely looked small budget British made for TV.

If anyone could clarify I would love you for a million years (not really, but I'd like you a hell of a lot).

solent · #2 Post by **solent** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:16 am

This is definitely THE BIRTHDAY PARTY.

If its Dandy Nichols serving the flakes and saying "is it nice?" and if it is in colour then it is the Freidkin version. This was made in 1968 for the cinema but all videos and DVDs I have seen have been cropped to 4:3. It might originally be 1.66:1 - you can see the heavy framing in the end credits.

The BBC recently showed many Pinter classics to celebrate his Nobel Prize but here in Australia we have yet to see some of these rare offerings (apart from the recycled film versions) For example: a version of NO MAN'S LAND which was apparently filmed with Geilgud and Richardson in 1975-6[?]. First I've heard of it: a permanent record of a great play on film? Did any of you UK folks see this? Was I seeing things incorrectly on the BBC website?

Awesome Welles · #3 Post by **Awesome Welles** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:42 am

Thanks so much Solent, now I can finally take a dip on the DVD, although it's a shame it's cropped, I may wait it out, I've waited this long and it isn't a high priority for me. I always thought it was the Friedkin version but never imagined it as a film by him from the few minutes I saw.

NABOB OF NOWHERE · #4 Post by **NABOB OF NOWHERE** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:26 am

solent wrote:The BBC recently showed many Pinter classics to celebrate his Nobel Prize but here in Australia we have yet to see some of these rare offerings (apart from the recycled film versions) For example: a version of NO MAN'S LAND which was apparently filmed with Geilgud and Richardson in 1975-6[?]. First I've heard of it: a permanent record of a great play on film? Did any of you UK folks see this? Was I seeing things incorrectly on the BBC website?

There was a big retrospective on BBC TV a couple or so years back when most of the televised plays were re-broadcast including No Man's Land with Dames Gielgud and Richardson.

I think I taped a lot of these on VHS and if I get a chance to rummage through the piles of tapes I'll try and update on what went out.

"Do you like Art?"

"Of course... I'm not a cunt."

David Ehrenstein · #5 Post by **David Ehrenstein** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:58 am

Pinter is the son of a lower middle-class Jewish tailor -- therefore someone seen as having "no prospects" in British society. He studied acting and learned how to do an upper-class accent better than anyone since Noel Coward. Better than Coward, in fact, for Pinter learned that language his power. His works are all about how such power is utilized. Brutally of course.

The Servant changed the face of British cinema and British socio-culural life. It was a threat and a promise. Note his appearance in the film's famous restaurant scene. More of the same can be found throughput his career. I'm especially fond of his screenplay for The Quiller Memorandum.

He is a very great man.