When the director won an Oscar James Marsh (Theory of Everything, Man on a Wire) came on the plane Dance first, The intriguing new biopic of Samuel Beckett starring Gabriel Byrne, He never thought he would be stirring up political controversy today.“When I started reading Beckett again in middle age, what struck me was that he captured something about the current zeitgeist that I found really interesting, which is often in Beckett’s plays, where characters are in very absurd situations, but they don’t really acknowledge that absurdity,” Marsh told MovieWeb in a recent interview.
“in Waiting for GodotWe have two types of People who are mysteriously disenfranchised, who are going nowhere, and who don't seem to want to go anywhere.Marsh added:
“We’ve also had that in a historical sense. I mean, in my country we had this Brexit situation where we decided in a bizarre and perverse way to cut off all our trade relations with our closest partners. And in your case, without being overly political, the thing that struck me most about the Trump project is how ridiculous it is, how ridiculous it is that someone with such intelligence or lack of intellectual capacity, a reality TV star, could become president and do the things that he did. It’s so ridiculous.”
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By Neil Forsyth (guilt, gold), co-starring Aidan Gillen with Gabriel Byrne as Beckett. The story follows the literary genius and the many facets of his life—from a free-spirited Parisian and WWII resistance fighter to a Nobel Prize-winning playwright and a womanizing and reclusive husband. Titled after Beckett's famous motto, “Dance first, think later,” the film is a stunning account of a 20th-century icon, a man who was acutely aware of his own flaws.
Rereading Beckett allowed James Marsh to see the modern world in a more revealing light. “I came to this connection […] who We live in a world that Beckett already understood, without [us] admitting the absurdity of it, “It goes without saying, this is actually ridiculous, what we are doing in these geopolitical ways is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “And we now have ridiculous figures like Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, and God knows who else, who are being taken seriously as politicians.
“So, without getting into too much political detail, it occurred to me that,” he added. Beckett's vision of the absurd world has been realized in ways I did not expect. “If I can make that connection easily, maybe others will be able to do so too when they watch the movie.”
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Casting the right actor for Samuel Beckett was crucial to Dance First.
Dance First (2024)
A study of the life of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. World War II fighter, Nobel Prize winner, unfaithful husband and recluse.
- release date
- August 9, 2024
- Runtime
- 1h 40m
- Distributors
- Magnolia Pictures, Studio Canal UK
The film is truly impressive. Gabriel Byrne shines in this role. He plays two versions of Beckett, in fact. There is also an alter ego named Beckett, who the real Beckett talks to in the course of this film.
“Casting was critical,” Marsh is quick to point out. When he read the script during the pandemic, he wondered which actor could handle the material. “The first thought that came to mind was Gabriel, who I’ve admired as an actor for a long time. And I thought, ‘Well, I’m not sure if I’m right for this or if I want to do this, but if Gabriel is going to do it, it’s going to really convince me because I think I’ve got the one thing I need to make this work, which is a main character.’” The rest, as they say, and perhaps appropriately here, is history. Dance first The film opens in theaters on August 9 and will be available on digital on August 16. Watch the trailer below:
