Hello!
Readers welcome to my blog.This blog is about the play "The birhday party ". We have to give soem answers of questions which was asked by Dilip sir,so here is the link of Sir's blog ;
https://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2013/09/worksheet-film-screening-harold-pinters.html?m=1
• The Birthday Party (1957) is the second full-length play by Harold Pinter, first published in London by Encore Publishing in 1959.It is one of his best-known and most frequently performed plays.
• In the setting of a rundown seaside boarding house, a little birthday party is turned into a nightmare when two sinister strangers arrive unexpectedly. The play has been classified as a comedy of menace, characterised by Pinteresque elements such as ambiguous identity, confusions of time and place, and dark political symbolism.
• Pinter began writing The Birthday Party in the summer of 1957 while touring in Doctor in the House. He later said: "I remember writing the big interrogation scene in a dressing room in Leicester."
• Harold Pinter CH CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years.
• " The birthday party"(1957)
• "The homecoming"(1964)
• "Betrayal "(1978)
• He got the Noble prize for literature in 2005.
• Structure of play,has a sense of emptiness and menance comes primarily from the way the camera records and magnifies the trivia and sloth of Meg's world rather than from the dialogue between Meg and Petey.Here Newspaper has used as Metaphor.we also can see the power conflict scene. It showed as highly political condition.
• Some interrogation scenes from the movie " The birthday party".
• So,now lets talk about some question and answer which was a part of my thinking activity.
Que :- 1] Why are two scenes of Lulu omitted from the movie?
Ans :- we can see the character of Lulu in movie was not clear ,not specified about her character, it is up to us how to take her character. But when we read play we can come to know that she was not a good girl,she is characterless.while in movie we can herd her voice when she said she was abused or raped ,we feel sympathy for her and we believe that she has a good character.Her character was not clear or fully portrayed in movie.when Bat Goldberg comes in house she behaved well or very closely,maybe she thinks her longtime relation with Nat Goldberg but it isn't.Nat Goldberg just using or doing timepass with her through overnight.
Que :- 2] Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? Where you able to feel it while reading the text?
Ans :- No, I think Movie is not giving us the effect of menace,because there are some scene which are not specified or showed clear.we are in confusion what to believe. Yes, I'm able to feel it while reading the text.
Que :- 3]Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text .
Ans :-Yes, I feel the effect of lurking danger in movie as well as in play.when Meg tells Stanley about two starngers ,they are asking about rent room,that time we can see lurking danin Stanley's face .He don't want this.As he is refuse Meg to give house to them.He was in kind of fear that if they come ,there is going to some wrong,and as they are knowing some secret or thing about stanley.
Que :- 4] What do you read in 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCain, pieces are hidden by Petey in last scene.
Ans :- For ,Petey we can say Indifference of society towards fellow citizens.He has used Newspaper to hide himself from another.Whenever Meg talks about stanley he is reading newspaper,what he likes this ? Also he know about Meg and Stanley still he is pretending as he don't aware about this.He is hide the newspaper cutting which was done by McCain,When Nat Goldberg and McCain take away Stanley and Mag comes ,asks about Stanley and he keeps her in illusion.He don't want to specify to Meg about Stanley.
Que :- 5 ] Camera is positioned over the head of McCain when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of room like a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of camera?
Ans :- When Stanley is playing Blind Man's Buff,at that time McCain tore his Goggles,this time camera moves on room and Stanley was like a animal of any cage.Maybe Stanley thinks now he is trap or kept by strangers and game was over now he can't do anything.The camera deeply focus on Stanley and his movement when he was playing this game.
Que :- 6] Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretense crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?
Ans :- Yes, it happens in movie .There are some dialogues scene between Goldberg and Stanley, Goldberg is asking to Stanley but Stanley is not giving proper answer to him.
Que :- 7] How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like painteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?
Ans :- According to me,Movie should be more effective than play or novel.Because while we are reading play we can just read dialogues and imagine scene or event in our mind,but still we can't think in appropriate manner which movie shows us.Movie has it's own sound ,effect,action , background music,particular situation through the hell of movie we can feel more or understand the condition.As sound goes up and down ,camera is moving and focuses on the thing which author want to say us.
Que :- 8]With which of the following observations you agree:
o “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."
o “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin”[3]. (Ebert)
Ans :- I'm agree with the second point.It was an full of boredom dialogue or scene.still movie has it's own identity which was a quite boring, at some moment we can feel boring.If movie is showing its own efforts or effect then it has no any problem. Director can give final stroke to the movie or he can put open ended things,upto audience.
Que :- 9] If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie?
Ans :- If I'm director then I dealt it with two ways,first whether to keep it as full mystery type story or second tell evething about movie to audience .I will try to make movie a little bit lightly ,though audience can't get boring.I am not playing more with lights ,and try to remove some unnecessary scene from the movie.
Que :- 10] Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?
Ans :- I will choose,
John Abraham for Stanley
Kangana Ranaut for Lulu
Helen for Meg
Rajkumar Rao for Petey.
Amitabh Bachchan for Nat Goldberg
Irrfan Khan for McCain
Que : - 11] Do you see any similarities among Kafka's Joseph K. (in 'The Trial'), Orwell's Winston Smith (in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four') and Pinter's Victor (in 'One for the Road')?
Ans :- Yes, I can see similarities among Kafka's Joseph k., Orwell's winston smith and Pinter's vision .so,mostly I found situation was highly political portrayed by all and second thing was the power plays a vital role ,what can do power in humanbeing,with any normal person. It leads towards death .So,both the things are very dangerous.
Thank you.......
References :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birthday_Party_(play)
Readers welcome to my blog.This blog is about the play "The birhday party ". We have to give soem answers of questions which was asked by Dilip sir,so here is the link of Sir's blog ;
https://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2013/09/worksheet-film-screening-harold-pinters.html?m=1
• The Birthday Party (1957) is the second full-length play by Harold Pinter, first published in London by Encore Publishing in 1959.It is one of his best-known and most frequently performed plays.
• In the setting of a rundown seaside boarding house, a little birthday party is turned into a nightmare when two sinister strangers arrive unexpectedly. The play has been classified as a comedy of menace, characterised by Pinteresque elements such as ambiguous identity, confusions of time and place, and dark political symbolism.
• Pinter began writing The Birthday Party in the summer of 1957 while touring in Doctor in the House. He later said: "I remember writing the big interrogation scene in a dressing room in Leicester."
About Harold Pinter :-
• Harold Pinter CH CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years.
His best known plays :-
• " The birthday party"(1957)
• "The homecoming"(1964)
• "Betrayal "(1978)
• He got the Noble prize for literature in 2005.
• Structure of play,has a sense of emptiness and menance comes primarily from the way the camera records and magnifies the trivia and sloth of Meg's world rather than from the dialogue between Meg and Petey.Here Newspaper has used as Metaphor.we also can see the power conflict scene. It showed as highly political condition.
• Some interrogation scenes from the movie " The birthday party".
• So,now lets talk about some question and answer which was a part of my thinking activity.
Que :- 1] Why are two scenes of Lulu omitted from the movie?
Ans :- we can see the character of Lulu in movie was not clear ,not specified about her character, it is up to us how to take her character. But when we read play we can come to know that she was not a good girl,she is characterless.while in movie we can herd her voice when she said she was abused or raped ,we feel sympathy for her and we believe that she has a good character.Her character was not clear or fully portrayed in movie.when Bat Goldberg comes in house she behaved well or very closely,maybe she thinks her longtime relation with Nat Goldberg but it isn't.Nat Goldberg just using or doing timepass with her through overnight.
Que :- 2] Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? Where you able to feel it while reading the text?
Ans :- No, I think Movie is not giving us the effect of menace,because there are some scene which are not specified or showed clear.we are in confusion what to believe. Yes, I'm able to feel it while reading the text.
Que :- 3]Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text .
Ans :-Yes, I feel the effect of lurking danger in movie as well as in play.when Meg tells Stanley about two starngers ,they are asking about rent room,that time we can see lurking danin Stanley's face .He don't want this.As he is refuse Meg to give house to them.He was in kind of fear that if they come ,there is going to some wrong,and as they are knowing some secret or thing about stanley.
Que :- 4] What do you read in 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCain, pieces are hidden by Petey in last scene.
Ans :- For ,Petey we can say Indifference of society towards fellow citizens.He has used Newspaper to hide himself from another.Whenever Meg talks about stanley he is reading newspaper,what he likes this ? Also he know about Meg and Stanley still he is pretending as he don't aware about this.He is hide the newspaper cutting which was done by McCain,When Nat Goldberg and McCain take away Stanley and Mag comes ,asks about Stanley and he keeps her in illusion.He don't want to specify to Meg about Stanley.
Que :- 5 ] Camera is positioned over the head of McCain when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of room like a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of camera?
Ans :- When Stanley is playing Blind Man's Buff,at that time McCain tore his Goggles,this time camera moves on room and Stanley was like a animal of any cage.Maybe Stanley thinks now he is trap or kept by strangers and game was over now he can't do anything.The camera deeply focus on Stanley and his movement when he was playing this game.
Que :- 6] Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretense crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?
Ans :- Yes, it happens in movie .There are some dialogues scene between Goldberg and Stanley, Goldberg is asking to Stanley but Stanley is not giving proper answer to him.
Que :- 7] How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like painteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?
Ans :- According to me,Movie should be more effective than play or novel.Because while we are reading play we can just read dialogues and imagine scene or event in our mind,but still we can't think in appropriate manner which movie shows us.Movie has it's own sound ,effect,action , background music,particular situation through the hell of movie we can feel more or understand the condition.As sound goes up and down ,camera is moving and focuses on the thing which author want to say us.
Que :- 8]With which of the following observations you agree:
o “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."
o “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin”[3]. (Ebert)
Ans :- I'm agree with the second point.It was an full of boredom dialogue or scene.still movie has it's own identity which was a quite boring, at some moment we can feel boring.If movie is showing its own efforts or effect then it has no any problem. Director can give final stroke to the movie or he can put open ended things,upto audience.
Que :- 9] If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie?
Ans :- If I'm director then I dealt it with two ways,first whether to keep it as full mystery type story or second tell evething about movie to audience .I will try to make movie a little bit lightly ,though audience can't get boring.I am not playing more with lights ,and try to remove some unnecessary scene from the movie.
Que :- 10] Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?
Ans :- I will choose,
John Abraham for Stanley
Kangana Ranaut for Lulu
Helen for Meg
Rajkumar Rao for Petey.
Amitabh Bachchan for Nat Goldberg
Irrfan Khan for McCain
Que : - 11] Do you see any similarities among Kafka's Joseph K. (in 'The Trial'), Orwell's Winston Smith (in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four') and Pinter's Victor (in 'One for the Road')?
Ans :- Yes, I can see similarities among Kafka's Joseph k., Orwell's winston smith and Pinter's vision .so,mostly I found situation was highly political portrayed by all and second thing was the power plays a vital role ,what can do power in humanbeing,with any normal person. It leads towards death .So,both the things are very dangerous.
Thank you.......
References :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birthday_Party_(play)
No comments:
Post a Comment