Mr. Pinter

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The Financial Times once defined Pinteresque dialogue as ''full of dark hints and pregnant suggestions, with the audience left uncertain as to what to conclude.'' That's not bad, but I've always defined it with seven words: (a) spare, (b) precise, (c) cutting and (d) sometimes a bit cruel. That leaves out opaque, terse, witty, chilly and all the other applicable terms, but however you slice it the man who created this form of expression -- playwright Harold Pinter -- died yesterday in London at age 78.

I've seen The Birthday Party and The Homecoming on-stage once each, and some of the films Pinter wrote screenplays for -- The Servant ('63), The Go-Between ('70), The French Lieutenant's Woman ('81), The Trial ('93) and Sleuth ('07). But being a bit of a Pinter plebe, my favorite is Betrayal, which has been called his most accessible work.

I'm queer for Betrayal because of its reverse chronology, the fascinating game it plays (i.e., what does he/she know, and when does he/she know it?), for the constant expert lying that goes on between the three main characters, and because it happens in a carefully mannered, flush and somewhat shallow middle-class milieu (which provides a form of comfort to me because I've lived in this world and feel I know what it is), and because it fulfills my definition of Pinter's signature style -- crisp, knowing and acrid in a less-is-more vein.

"I've always liked Jerry," the cuckolded Robert says to his unfaithful wife about her longtime lover who's also been his longtime friend. "To be honest, I've always liked him rather more than I've liked you. I should have had an affair with him myself."

I saw Betrayal on the New York stage twice (with Roy Scheider, Raul Julia and Blythe Danner in '80 or thereabouts, and again in a 2000 revival with Juliette Binoche, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery ), as well as that superb 1983 film adaptation with Ben Kingsley, Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge, directed by David Jones .

Originally released by 20th Century Fox, Jones' Betrayal came out on VHS in '84 but that was 24 years ago, for heaven's sake. I've written this seventeen or eighteen times over the last ten years, but will be rights-holder please, please cut a deal with someone to put it out on DVD or Blu-ray? It's been out of circulation for so long it looks like up to me.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 25, 2008 at 10:11 AM

comment #1

Sabina E says ...

he was a great playwright and one of the voices that defined protest theatre.

RIP, Harold Pinter

Posted by Sabina E at December 25, 2008 11:23 AM

comment #2

AH says ...

You don't have to agree with a man's politics to appreciate and enjoy the talent. RIP HP.

Posted by AH at December 25, 2008 1:07 PM

comment #3

arturobandini2 says ...

The Go-Between isn't out on DVD, either, and that won the Palme d'Or.

Posted by arturobandini2 at December 25, 2008 1:55 PM

comment #4

Edward says ...

I've had the immense priviledge of acting in and directing some of Pinter's work. It has been some of the most fulfilling theatrical experiences I've ever had. My heart is saddened, but I'm glad to have shared his work with others. Thank you Mr. Pinter.

Posted by Edward at December 25, 2008 4:09 PM

comment #5

huisache says ...

I have found his work bleak to the point of boring. Only the practice of a lifetime has kept me from just walking out of the three plays of his which I found myself enduring.

In the midst of all the wailing about his death, those who are unaware should know that at the time of the 9/11 disaster he said we had it coming.

RIH, Pinter.

Posted by huisache at December 25, 2008 7:42 PM

comment #6

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Wells to huisache: When, I wonder, are those who insist on regarding the horror of 9/11 as a case of a mild innocent little lamb country (i.e., the U.S. of A.) being suddenly savaged by a horrible demonic timber wolf with bloody razor fangs who did those horrible things with those planes because the Devil himself rose up from the caverns of hell and said "do this for the sake of Absolute Pure Evil and nothing else." When are certain people ever going to get past that idiotic childlike notion?

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at December 25, 2008 8:26 PM

comment #7

cinefan says ...

I hated Pinter's script for the 2007 update of Sleuth. He and Branagh sucked all of the fun and playfulness out of the original and replaced them with a "serious" drama about two creative types trying to one up each other in a ridiculously sterile, ultra-modern mansion.

Posted by cinefan at December 25, 2008 9:20 PM

comment #8

huisache says ...

Whatever grievances the little lambs in the planes may have had against the actions of the American government, they attacked and killed thousands of people whose only connection with that government was that they lived their shortened lives in territory it governed.

I do not harbor any illusions about the nature of this American government or its predecessors. So your pathetic straw man is devoid of merit.

If Pinter had merely recited that acts of the US government were responsible for the people in the towers being incinerated I would disagree only in part. But that is not what he said.

It was his belief that we, you and I and our children, etc, were responsible for the anger of the sweet boys with the cardboard cutters. And deserve to die.

So, like I said, RIH, Pinter.

Posted by huisache at December 25, 2008 9:39 PM

comment #9

T. S. Idiot says ...

Attended a preview of the 1984 revival of Old Times with Anthony Hopkins, Jane Alexander, and Marsha Mason. Sitting across the aisle was a man in black suit, turtleneck, shoes, socks, and hornrims. He was having a great time, laughing at everything remotely funny, like he was watching something by Neil Simon. A preppy jerk in the row in front on him kept looking back in annoyance. At intermission, the jerk's parents told him who the annoying man was, and his jaw dropped. So my most vivid memory of Pinter is of someone who took great pleasure in his work.

Posted by T. S. Idiot at December 26, 2008 1:28 PM

comment #10

dangovich says ...

Great story, T.S.,

Posted by dangovich at December 26, 2008 2:10 PM

comment #11

Sabina E says ...

@ huisache:

yeah maybe we had it coming. Many Americans are ignorant and clueless about what the government is doing in other countries in the name of America.

9-11 was a wake-up call for Americans and for the world. We had it coming; it was time for us to stop being so goddamned clueless and start fucking paying attention to the news.

Posted by Sabina E at December 26, 2008 10:12 PM

comment #12

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Pinter

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The Go-Between isn't out on DVD, either, and that won the Palme d'Or.
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A preppy jerk in the row in front on him kept looking back in annoyance. At intermission, the jerk's parents told him who the annoying man was, and his jaw dropped. So my most vivid memory of Pinter is of someone who took great pleasure in his work.
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