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List Price: $149.95Amazon.com's Price: $134.99 You Save: $14.96 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0739815002502
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Ambrose Video
Manufacturer: Ambrose Video
Number Of Items: 4
Publisher: Ambrose Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 22, 2002
Running Time: 647 minutes
Sales Rank: 44284
Studio: Ambrose Video
Theatrical Release Date: May 13, 2003
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The hugely ambitious Beckett on Film project gathered together 19 different directors to turn the 19 stage works written by Samuel Beckett into films. The range is vast--from the 45-second Breath to the two hours of his most famous play, Waiting for Godot--but all the works reflect Beckett's penetrating obsessions with memory, regret, and the simple, excruciating experience of being. Not every film succeeds--like all great theater, Beckett's plays demand interaction with a live audience to express their full intent--and though scholars tout Beckett's every word as genius, several works are slight (Catastrophe, Ohio Impromptu, or What Where will leave many viewers unimpressed). But all the plays feature Beckett's uniquely distilled language; the greatest of them--including Waiting for Godot (in which two tramps pass the time while they wait for someone who may never come), Endgame (in which a blind man and his lame servant bicker and joke as the world declines), and Play (in which a love triangle is bitterly recalled by two women and a man in urns)--are astonishing in both their potent humor and piercing grief.
Though Beckett's stature drew in an impressive array of directors (including Anthony Minghella, Patricia Rozema, and Neil Jordan) and actors (including Jeremy Irons, Julianne Moore, Alan Rickman, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Michael Gambon, and John Gielgud), some of the finest work comes from relative unknowns. But the gem of the collection is Krapp's Last Tape, about an old man revisiting his life through recordings he has made throughout his years. It's the perfect marriage of text, actor (the incomparable John Hurt), and director (Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter); in their hands, the play spins from deeply funny to deeply sad, all with only the slightest dim of the light in Hurt's eyes. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Formidable Achievement
The fact that this DVD set exists at all is cause for ecstatic and superlative praise: at last we have nearly all the plays of one of the 20th century's most technically innovative--but also emotionally affecting and eloquent--dramatists, available together in professional productions created with sympathy, respect for the author's intentions, and often inspired insight into these works' theatrical potential.
Because this box set presents the work of 19 different directors, each working ... Read More
Rating:  - What a let-down!
I have seen this twice through now & have concluded that the best places to experience Samuel Beckett's quintessential words are on the printed page or on obscure stages (like San Quentin prison).
Most of the productions in this package seek only to bring attention to themselves (the single exception being John Hurt & Atom Egoyan's perfect Krapp's Last Tape) - they are for the most part overdirected & overacted to the hilt.
Rating: - An Abomination
With great anticipation and relish i awaited this accumulation of the works of probably one of the greatest playwrites of the 20th century. Having seen a short promotional film of the project, my eagerness was picqued.But, alas, flash, star-worship and diminished expectations rule once again in this travesty. Having actually not even been able to sit through the Endgame of this set, and having also seen the foolish, punk-flash version of Breath, and the unsympathetic and misunderstood, braindead interpretation ... Read More
Rating: - A real score for Beckett aficionados
Not to gush, but many of the versions in this set far surpass my expectations of film adaptations of theatre. For instance, "Endgame" is brilliantly realized, with finely nuanced acting. Top talent on both sides of the camera, often visually arresting works. Really great stuff for any Beckett or experimental theatre enthusiast. Pricey, but worth it.
Rating: - For the starved
Those of us living in the heartland - Iowa, in my case - have little access to live productions of Beckett's work. This DVD set provides my only window into the performance of several of these plays. Until I purchased this set I had never SEEN Endgame, though I had read the work dozens of times. The same is true of several other plays. This set provides ACCESS, and I am eternally grateful to the producers, directors, actors, and crew for granting me a glimpse into a world otherwise beyond me immediate apprehension. ... Read More
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