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The Birthday Party: Thinking Activity

 The Birthday Party: Harold Pinter

Film Screening: ‘The Birthday Party’ - a British drama film (1968)- directed by William Friedkin (The Birthday Party) -  based on an unpublished screenplay by 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, which he adapted from his own play The Birthday Party.

               

♠. Why are two scenes of Lulu omitted from the movie?

=).  Two scenes of Lulu if omitted from the movie then it normally has no such differences that one can find there.to give the particular shape to the work also writer may prefer to include extra things & reduce something that burdens the content part of the work. another point can be there is as I think of Lulu's personality that has no such significance to carry out the flow further with some special effect.


♠. Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? Where you able to feel it while reading the text?

=).  Yah, of course, this movie is successful in giving the effect of menace. Menace is like that something hidden fear within someone or afraid or threat. We can see the effect of menace in the movie because while reading the play felt that Stanley has a mysterious past. We are able to feel that when Meg told Stanley to two men who are come to hear and stay with us. Then Stanley's face has hidden fear within him. So this situation I feel like that effect of menace.


♠.  Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text.

=).    Yes, I feel the lurking danger while viewing the movie. While reading the text when the party was going that scene particularly during that I feel lurking danger. The birthday party going on this time dialogues and other sounds like terrible this situation create an effect of lurking danger.


♠.  What do you read in the 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading the newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCann, pieces are hidden by Petey in the last scene.

=).  In the movie, the newspaper is a symbol. Petey's character through we can see that it is symbolized as a person who was hidden behind the newspaper. Here is also in this play it also gives the remembrance to Petey for his impotency by Meg’s insistence to him for continually reading the incident (in the newspaper) regarding the fragility of a woman. Moreover, it is torn into pieces by McCann. And in the last scene he affords has been hidden by Petey. He tries to hide the whole incident.


♠.  The camera is positioned over the head of Macann when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of the room as a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of the camera? 

=).  When we seeing the movie camera talks everything thus when the camera is positioned over the head of McCann when he is playing blind buff which demonstrates that McCann is over the position. It is situated at the top with the perspective of the room like a trap which symbolizes that Stanley is trapped by a stranger who was touching of him.


♠. "Pinter restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretence crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?

=).  Yes, it happens during McCann and Nat Goldberg asking a question which is meaningless and unpredictable. The room of the birthday party and kitchen cover with so many objects. Also Pinter, Art, Truth and Politics: Excerpts from the Nobel lecture. In this movie part of characters, Stanley was an artist in exile. Nat Goldberg & McCann, we're social and political-institutional forces.


♠.  How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like Pinteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?

=)   This way of viewing movie is better rather than reading or basic way of understanding.  Sometimes we are tired with continual dialogues at that time we have to give the rest to our mind. So silence is necessary to enforce the movie. The Birthday party with its typical characteristics like Pinteresque, comedy of menace, two kinds of silences or pauses. These all characteristics we can see in the movie part and better understanding while we viewing the movie and those typical characteristics are easy for this way of learning.


♠.  With which of the following observations you agree: 
 -  “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."
-   “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin”[3]. (Ebert)

=).   I agree that the movie shows very well: “Pinter restored the theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretence crumbles.”

♠.   If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of the movie?

=).    If I was a director I can't make any difference in the movie because everything going in a written way.  visualise or scenery also a better way, the play is must depend on absurdity but in this movie many things are not like well, like as kitchen situated in dirty and also dining table. So those things are arranged in compactly.



♠. Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?

=).   I don't like any specifical actors in the play or movie part. The actor who was playing his own role and his artistically way. So all characters are played own role.


♠.  Do you see any similarities among Kafka's Joseph K. (in 'The Trial'), Orwell's Winston Smith (in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four') and Pinter's Victor (in 'One for the Road')?

=).  The Trial, we see Kafka's main character and his Kafkaesque characteristic holding on to his beliefs to the end; essentially disproving the weird government and society or system in Kafka the trial and also Orwell also says about freedom and theme in the trial in Nineteen Eighty-Four movie. One quote about in that movie,
" Who controls the past
  Controls the future
  Who controls the present
  Controls the past"




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