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Pirandello and Film
Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) is one of the preeminent figures of the modern European theater. His masterpiece, Six Characters in Search of an Author , set loose a riot during its first performance in Rome in 1921. This play about six unfortunate characters abandoned by their author in the middle of a tawdry drama, is an unsettling, supremely self-conscious work that is ultimately about theatrical artifice and artistic creation itself.
Pirandello and Film examines Pirandello’s many efforts—none of them finally successful—to transform Six Characters into a movie. The authors examine Pirandello’s views on film and its relation to theater, his varying approaches to creating a film adaptation of Six Characters , and the efforts of directors and film moguls in Germany and Hollywood to fashion a cinematic version of the play.
The book also presents an array of important documents, including some that have never before appeared in a Prologue (or prose sketch) for a 1926 film; a Scenario (a more detailed prose sketch) prepared by Pirandello and Adolph Lantz in the late 1920s for a German film version of Six Characters ; an English-language film sketch written in 1935 by Pirandello and Saul Colin; and a letter from Max Reinhardt and the German emigré Hollywood film director Joseph von Sternberg to Saul Colin regarding the proposed film treatment of the play. These documents, together with the authors’ critical text, provide a detailed portrait of Pirandello’s developing view of film as an appropriate medium for his revolutionary dramatic innovations.
Pirandello and Film examines Pirandello’s many efforts—none of them finally successful—to transform Six Characters into a movie. The authors examine Pirandello’s views on film and its relation to theater, his varying approaches to creating a film adaptation of Six Characters , and the efforts of directors and film moguls in Germany and Hollywood to fashion a cinematic version of the play.
The book also presents an array of important documents, including some that have never before appeared in a Prologue (or prose sketch) for a 1926 film; a Scenario (a more detailed prose sketch) prepared by Pirandello and Adolph Lantz in the late 1920s for a German film version of Six Characters ; an English-language film sketch written in 1935 by Pirandello and Saul Colin; and a letter from Max Reinhardt and the German emigré Hollywood film director Joseph von Sternberg to Saul Colin regarding the proposed film treatment of the play. These documents, together with the authors’ critical text, provide a detailed portrait of Pirandello’s developing view of film as an appropriate medium for his revolutionary dramatic innovations.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published July 28, 1995
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August 22, 2010
This book is written in an extremely awkward style (apparently its authors are English professors at Rutgers, but they don't appear to be native speakers of English) and is full of factual inaccuracies as well as incorrect translations from the Italian (e.g. "mi piaccion tutti" => "they all like me"). They manage to get the publication history of "Si gira" wrong on two separate occasions and in two different ways, and the summary of the book and statements about characters (even their names) are often just plain wrong (I'm running out of synonyms for 'incorrect' here). And that's just the first chapter.
It probably has a useful bibliography, though.
It probably has a useful bibliography, though.
Displaying 1 of 1 review