Centred on an interview with the poet and writer, conducted as his home in Buenos Aires three years before his death in 1986, this profile gives a remarkable insight into the contradictions that surround this literary magician and master of paradox: a man who doubted all men’s certainties, even his own. The film is interwoven with dramatised extracts from his most memorable stories, including Death and the Compass and The Meeting, shot in location in South America.
George Orwell
Orwell (1903-50) is a giant of twentieth-century English literature, noted for his lucid and penetrating prose and for his passionate concern for the ordinary man. Made with the help of Orwell’s estate and his official biographer, Bernard Crick, this definitive study uses a wealth of archive and interview material to explore his work and evoke the troubled countenance of his world. This film shot in Spain, Paris and throughout Britain locates important events in his life.
Simone de Beauvior
The lifelong companion to Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86) was a champion of women’s rights and one of the leading philosopher-novelists of the Existentialist school in France. In this, the last in-depth television interview she gave before her death, de Beauvoir talks about the most significant events that she and France faced during her lifetime. The film features dramatised extracts from her novels and archive footage.
R. K. Narayan
In this film, Narayan introduces his home town of Mysore in southern India, the model for Malgudi, the fictional setting for all his novels. Readings from his books, by Indian actor Madhav Sharma, reveal the charm of his style. The late Graham Greene, a great admirer of R. K. Narayan, assesses his place in world literature.
Dario Fo
Fo is an irresistible comedian and a key force in contemporary European theatre. One of Italy’s most successful writers and performers, his controversial political stance resulted in a fifteen-year exile from Italian television and a ban on entry to America. In this programme, Fo is seen in interview, rehearsal and performance. There is also film of one of his workshops on the mime technique of the commedia dell’arte, a mainspring of his work, and of his legendary Mistero Buffo performance.