On the centenary of Samuel Beckett’s birth, publishing pioneer Barney Rosset presents a selection of films with unique literary pedigrees. In the early 1960s, Rosset’s legendary Grove Press commissioned film scripts from leading figures in world literature, including Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Marguerite Duras, to be produced by their Evergreen Theater production company. Only Beckett’s Film was shot and completed. It remains his single cinematic work, as well as Buster Keaton’s final role. The film also helped Grove Press enter the distribution business, and within a decade the publishing house had become one of the most respected independent film distributors in America.
Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Media, and Ed Halter, independent curator and writer. Thanks to Astrid Myers.