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Peter Hitchens: Why is a brilliant BBC serial kept in its most secret vaults?

Posted by johnlilburne <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=johnlilburne' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 1:22 am

The BBC possesses, beyond doubt, a full recording of its 13-part 1970 dramatisation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Roads to Freedom trilogy

..................

I cannot get out of my head the strange, thrilling song ‘La Route est Dure’ which began and ended each episode. It was sung by the magnificent Georgia Brown, who played Sartre’s fading nightclub chanteuse, Lola Montero.

Ah, I remember it well.....

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-is-a-brilliant-bbc-serial-kept-in-its-most-secret-vaults

Georgia Brown La Route est Dure:

Ah well - Albert Camus' excellent "The Plague" would never even be serialised.

Posted by Jim_Carlucci <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Jim_Carlucci' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 3:23 am, in reply to "Peter Hitchens: Why is a brilliant BBC serial kept in its most secret vaults?"

Existential threats, epidemics are all the rage - yet the generally 4-5 Star-rated movie(DVD) version of the Camus novel(with Robert Duvall, William Hurt) is unavailable almost everywhere on the planet.

Re: Ah well - Albert Camus' excellent "The Plague" would never even be serialised.

Posted by johnlilburne <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=johnlilburne' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 10:09 am, in reply to "Ah well - Albert Camus' excellent "The Plague" would never even be serialised. "

I gather the original book has increased sales markedly recently for obvious reasons.

Of course, it can be also be read allegorically according to taste.

What if it isn't?

Posted by Keith-264 <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Keith-264' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 8:57 am, in reply to "Peter Hitchens: Why is a brilliant BBC serial kept in its most secret vaults?"

I've seen stuff that was brilliant when I first saw it but which looked pedestrian decades later. If you want something that really is brilliant, try UFO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(TV_series) its the campest telly series ever made.

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Re: What if it isn't?

I think it can be mistake to revisit material that greatly affected one's youth.

I read a lot of Dostoevsky and Camus and a bit of Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra) when I was younger. I dare not read them again lest what seemed deeply moving at the time now would seem banal.

Anyway, existential angst is for the young.

Re: What if it isn't?

Did you wear black polo-neck jumpers and smoke Gitanes?

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Re: What if it isn't?

Posted by johnlilburne <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=johnlilburne' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 21, 2022, 10:52 am, in reply to "Re: What if it isn't?"

Hey, I'm not that old. Hippy generation not beat.

Mind you, when hitch-hiking round Europe in the early seventies I did carry a pack of Gitanes (or Gauloises) with me. Put me off smoking for life - thank God....

Iron in the soul

Posted by Tomski <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 12:30 pm, in reply to "Peter Hitchens: Why is a brilliant BBC serial kept in its most secret vaults?"

Still had my Penguin 5' copy until a few years ago. Read it when I was on my Sartre kick. They made series of it?

To be clear, it was a part of trilogy:

It had a profound effect on me at the time. Should I re-read it? Like johnlilburn wisely says:

.. existential angst is for the young.

Ouch!

Posted by scrabb <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=scrabb' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 1:37 pm, in reply to "Iron in the soul"

I still remember (wincing) the actor (Daniel -- ??) slicing off his willy-wonger.

It will cost the UK taxpayer £132bn to decommission all the UK’s civil nuclear sites and the work will not be completed for another 120 years, according to latest estimates.
Report -- May 2022:

Daniel Massey I recall it was

Posted by scrabb <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=scrabb' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 5:39 pm, in reply to "Ouch!"

It will cost the UK taxpayer £132bn to decommission all the UK’s civil nuclear sites and the work will not be completed for another 120 years, according to latest estimates.
Report -- May 2022:

Re: Iron in the soul

Posted by Sinister Burt <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Sinister+Burt' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 2:17 pm, in reply to "Iron in the soul"

"Should I re-read it? Like johnlilburn wisely says:

.. existential angst is for the young"

Do what i do and just watch some lazy video essays on the topic while washing up as a refresher (i can't be arsed trudging through all those weighty tomes again)

Thanks. Have you got anything on Surrealism in yer larder?

Posted by Tomski <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 10:27 pm, in reply to "Re: Iron in the soul"

Something else that tickled my fancy in me yuf.

Re: Thanks. Have you got anything on Surrealism in yer larder?

Posted by sinister burt <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Sinister+Burt' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 21, 2022, 3:32 pm, in reply to "Thanks. Have you got anything on Surrealism in yer larder?"

Nothing in my recent watching, but this from the same place as the above is sort of tangentially related I suppose (didn't watch it yet)

Marcel is my man. Thanks nm

Posted by Tomski <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 21, 2022, 6:17 pm, in reply to "Re: Thanks. Have you got anything on Surrealism in yer larder?"

Re: Marcel is my man. Thanks nm

Posted by sinister burt <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Sinister+Burt' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 22, 2022, 10:26 am, in reply to "Marcel is my man. Thanks nm"

Is he still your man after watching how he might have pinched the idea?

(I suppose it would still be a 'ready-made')

Pardon mua. I haven't seen it yet ..

Posted by Tomski <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 22, 2022, 8:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Marcel is my man. Thanks nm"

Is he still your man after watching how he might have pinched the idea?

So, not sure what are you referring to. Any pointers? All I remember at the mo is the urinal - which was a gas. Don't forget, my fascination was in my yuf - with a circle of young friends trying this and that in terms of art .. it was 'lively' ..

WATCH OUT! IT'S THE POP-UP VERSION!!!....NM

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Jonathan Meades

Posted by Keith-264 <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Keith-264' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 20, 2022, 11:58 pm, in reply to "WATCH OUT! IT'S THE POP-UP VERSION!!!....NM"

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

I just noticed your post. ta nm

Posted by Tomski <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 21, 2022, 8:12 pm, in reply to "Jonathan Meades"

I found it the second worst of his films

Posted by Keith-264 <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Keith-264' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 22, 2022, 1:08 pm, in reply to "Jonathan Meades"

because surrealism is a minor note in European art, not really worth the effort of more than ten minutes of the film. It's the same with George Melly, he was interested in it for most of his life, which puzzles me considering that he was a clever geezer. (I've been reading his books and a few about him lately).

The worst of his films was about France where he had the neck to call the FLN terrorist but not the French colonial regime. Setif a-go-go.

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

In that case I'll purge it from my archives. Haven't seen it nm

Posted by Tomski <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 22, 2022, 1:17 pm, in reply to "I found it the second worst of his films"

It isn't the quality of the film, it's the mediocrity of surrealism....nm

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Re: It isn't the quality of the film, it's the mediocrity of surrealism....nm

Posted by sinister burt <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Sinister+Burt' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 22, 2022, 6:50 pm, in reply to "It isn't the quality of the film, it's the mediocrity of surrealism....nm"

I like surrealist art personally - it doesn't need to pass muster with Jonathan meades or any other chin-stroking academics to be 'great art' for me - I just have to like it on my wall - I prefer surrealism to a lot of other modern art in that regard (Magritte more than Dali). Have you ever tried to do some? difficult to execute too (you have to be able to do realism to do surrealism). Horses for course eh.

Re: It isn't the quality of the film, it's the mediocrity of surrealism....nm

I liked the idea but it seemed to lack depth for me. Some good ideas like the Mae West's lips sofa and some of Magritte's paintings (saw lots at the Hayward in 1993 or 1994) but visually the style reminds me of a good joke told too many times. I prefer German Expressionism and some of the Dada-ists.

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Dada, surrealism = same thing. If one gets into depth of the concept, mediocrity disappears in a fla

Posted by Tomski <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on May 22, 2022, 8:45 pm, in reply to "Re: It isn't the quality of the film, it's the mediocrity of surrealism....nm"

sh. And here is the thing, it impacts history, religion, philosophy etc. beyond the zeitgeist of that time. I simply cannot find the painting that blew my mind to illustrate the point. Another time ... : )

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