... with a Free Associative Post ... I think he may be onto something.
I think Pinter's greatest work is the screenplay he did for The French Lieutenant's Woman. I also think there's much to be said for his use of pauses and silence in his plays. That said, I don't really think the plays travel very well. They're too precisely British in the manner of their language. I don't think Americans can really do them. Moreover, I can't help feeling they all say the same thing and that the characters don't really seem to be grounded in the observation of real people.
I won't tell him you said that, Frank. Violence might ensue, though Harold told me he would not go to America because he would not take his shoes off going through security.
ReplyDeleteThat's best argument yet, Bryan, for having people take their shoes off in order to get through security.
ReplyDeleteQuite.
ReplyDeleteI liked that screenplay, too, Frank. I have actually sat through quite a few Pinter plays, and would have to agree with your implication -- not my cup of tea. I always found Osborne, Grey, Rattigan et al more appealing becuase the writers were attempting to convey a message. Even if you didn't like the plays, at least they weren't pretentious.
ReplyDeleteThat one of Pinter's where everything happened backwards finished him off for me -- at last he was going to write a play where he actually imposed his voice -- and what happened? You just got a Pinter play, backwards. (or do I mean forwards?)
I'm with you, as usual, Maxine. I especially like Rattigan. And what I like about him is the sharp observation of people - the touchingly phony colonel in Separate Tables, for instance, or the quiet desperation of the classics teacher in The Browning Version.
ReplyDeleteI have also, by the way, sat thorugh my share of Pinter - though I only know the movie version of Betrayal.