Three heads in urns. One spotlight. Samuel Beckett said 'action' and meant suffering.
a 22-minute French experimental short film directed by Marin Karmitz and Jean Ravel, based on Samuel Beckett's 1963 play. It features actors Eléonore Hirt, Michael Lonsdale, and Delphine Seyrig in a stark, black-and-white adaptation focusing on light and sound, which was notably showcased at the 1966 Venice Biennale.
Direction
Beckett's obsessive control over every light cue and breath.
Sound
Disembodied voices overlapping like a panic attack in stereo.
Cinematography
Black-and-white urns that somehow feel like coffins.
Director
Marin Karmitz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Beckett famously sued a Dutch theater company for changing the gender of the characters, winning the case and cementing his reputation as the most litigiously controlling playwright in history.
The 1966 Venice Biennale screening caused walkouts and heated debates about whether this was cinema at all—which was exactly Beckett's point.
FR
