The Films of Harold Pinter
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Examines the screenplays of the master British dramatist and screenwriter Harold Pinter.
Description
The Films of Harold Pinter is a collection of ten original essays on the screenplays of master British dramatist and screenwriter Harold Pinter. Written by noted Pinter and film specialists, the book explores individual Pinter masterpieces such as The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Go-Between, Accident, and The Pumpkin Eater. Along with offering explications of the films themselves, it also provides insights into Pinter's creative process and the differences between the novel, drama, and film.
Despite having written twenty-three film scripts and concentrating his recent artistic attention almost exclusively on screenwriting, Pinter's work for the screen has been paid sparse critical attention over the years. This book leaves little doubt, however, that Harold Pinter has made important contributions to the cinema, not the least of which has to do with the primary characteristics of his screenplays—in almost every case he has produced a script that is a work of art in its own right, one that can stand on its own.
Steven H. Gale is the Endowed Chair of the Humanities at Kentucky State University, and the editor of many books, including Critical Essays on Harold Pinter.
Reviews
"While Harold Pinter's plays have garnered praise and admiration, The Films of Harold Pinter pays overdue attention to Pinter's most overlooked work. Steven H. Gale has assembled essays by ten film scholars on Pinter's screenplays…His effort represents the first concerted academic treatment of the products and processes of Pinter's screenwriting." — Publishers Weekly
"The best things about this book are its original insights and the high—though not unnecessarily daunting or off-putting—intellectual quality of the essays, along with the examination of Pinter film scripts never before available for scholarly critique: Lolita and Dreaming Child." — Thomas P. Adler, Purdue University