Peter Whitehead and the Sixties [1965] [DVD]

There are many extra features on this disc.Among the 2 main features is a recording of a classic performance of 'beat poets' incl. Ginsberg. There are some poetic gems there.However, for me what makes this disc really worth buying is Whitehead's documentary recording ('Benefit of the Doubt') of Peter Brook's classic and unsung play "US" (which was later transformed into a film called 'Tell Me Lies: a film about London').Brook's theatrical event was a highly controversial phenomenon which was a whole-hearted and gutsy attempt for him and his group of actors, writers etc to produce an experience of the Vietnam war as lived through the eyes, feelings and thoughts of the British people. Whitehead's recording as seen here gives a very real flavour of how that experience was played out in the theatre. He also includes a few interviews with actors and Brook, but mainly (and wisely) lets the 'play' speak for itself. This is very powerful stuff.I was lucky enough to see the film "Tell me lies" shown in London recently. Sadly it is not available on DVD. This current disc would make a good complement to its release.Needless to say, the themes raised are very relevant to our times in the early 21st century - this is certainly not the stuff of '60s archive curiosity'. Not easy viewing, but certainly thought-provoking and enlivening.

Very well (dAb) +>

This DVD contains films by Peter Whitehead of poetry and plays from the period 1965 to 1967. Although filmed in the Swinging Sixties, the selection on this DVD represent the serious experimental, agitprop, anti-Vietnam-war sixties.There are two films and a collection of other material in the Extras section. The first film is “Wholly Communion”, which is in black and white and filmed on a single hand-held camera. This is of the famous poetry reading session that filled the Royal Albert Hall in June 1965. Rather than edits, sometimes the camera swings across the audience. Allen Ginsberg was the main attraction (1). This event was as much a late 1950s beatnik occasion as a hippy 1960s one. The second film records a rehearsal for the play “US”. The film is titled “Benefit of the Doubt”. One scene of the play was eventually dropped from the live performance. In this the actors crossed the physical line from stage to the seats and encountered resistance and confusion from the audience. The film is intercut with comments from Peter Brook.The “Extras” section contains a more recent interview with Peter Whitehead, revisiting his old workshop/home in Carlisle Street, Soho. There is a short (6 minutes) film by Jeanette Cochrane of a very early Pink Floyd and a longer (37 minutes) selection of excerpts from plays performed at a benefit night (2).________________________________________________________________________________(1) The poets recorded on the film were: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael Horovitz, Gregory Corso, Harry Fainlight, Adrian Mitchell, Christopher Logue, Alexander Trocchi, Ernst Jandl and Allen Ginsberg. Other performers were not included because Whitehead did not have enough film.(2) The excerpts are from The Entertainer (Lawrence Olivier), Look Back in Anger, Exit the King (Alec Guinness) and Luther (Albert Finney).