It would be hard to imagine a genre more antithetical to the modernist sensibility of Samuel Beckett than the biopic. The Irish writer who relocated to Paris, found inspiration in the French language and became one of the most innovative literary artists of the second half of the 20th century, was allergic to the uplifting pieties and sentimental profundities that are the mainstay of screen biographies. Publicity and self-promotion were anathema to this most private of authors, who died in 1989.
It’s safe to say that he wouldn’t have relished being the subject of a movie. When Beckett learned that he was the recipient of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature, he took refuge in a hotel in Tunisia out of fear of the celebrity circus. In short order, he let the Swedish officials know that he was honored by the award but wouldn’t be able to attend the ceremony.
“Dance First,” James Marsh’s film about Beckett’s life shot in sharp black and white by cinematographer Antonio Paladino, doesn’t let this detail stand in the way of a conventional opening. The film begins with Beckett (Gabriel Byrne), dressed as though for a funeral, at the Nobel Prize event celebrating him in Stockholm. “ Quel catastrophe! ” he mutters to his wife, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil (Sandrine Bonnaire), as his literary praises are sung from the podium.
Credible biographical sources attribute the catastrophe comment to Beckett’s wife, who was equally averse to the spotlight. But the setup by sc.