Word: lumet
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Chekhov's narrative is meticulously simple, containing, as he put it, "much talk of literature, little action, and five poods* of love." Director Sidney Lumet, who hammered home The Pawnbroker, pummels away at Chekhov's plot. At the country estate of a retired civil servant named Sorin (Harry Andrews) is assembled a group of people who over the course of two years will quietly destroy one another: Sorin's sister Arkadina (Simone Signoret), an aging actress vacationing in the country with her lover Trigorin (James Mason), a successful author; Arkadina's son Konstantin (David Warner...
Chekhov called The Sea Gull a comedy, but any traces of wit have been pretty well destroyed by Lumet's lumbering technique. The actors perform as if they were all on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Only David Warner as Konstantin and some of the supporting players-notably Harry Andrews, Denholm Elliott, Ronald Radd and Kathleen Widdoes-effectively explore the full dimensions of their roles. Lumet moves his camera incessantly to give the illusion of action, but uses fadeouts to duplicate the curtain falling at the end of an act. He attempts to preserve the tense theatrical effect...
...Early Grave, was a bitter, satirical dissection of Manhattan's middle-class Jewish intellectuals, a book peopled by the kind of quarrelsome critics and lecturers who read Partisan Review for laughs. All things considered, it was not a very promising subject for a movie, but Director Sidney Lumet took a crack at it anyway-jettisoning most of Markfield's literary humor in favor of Jewish situation comedy. The result, called Bye Bye Braverman, has a lot to talk about, and nothing much...
...standard figure of fun to a unique and even sinister individual: a wounded and frightened young woman who wanted love but settled for power?with a husband she could dominate and a baby she could smother-mother. As Georgy, Lynn cunningly combined emotional empathy and ironical detachment. Says Sidney Lumet, who directed The Dead'y Affair, in which Lynn played a small role: "She can editorialize on a character without interrupting her portrayal of it." Acuity and control of this order, rare in one so young, intimate a talent for the highest comedy?the kind of loving laughter that hurts...
...romantic conception of acting?but then Vanessa is above all a romantic. "She is one of the great romantics of our generation," says her estranged husband, Director Tony Richardson (Tom Jones). "Anything and everything can be romantic to Vanessa. She can believe in everything." Says Director Lumet: "She just plunges off the diving board without bothering to check if there's water in the pool...