• Notfilm

  • Film by Samuel Beckett

Notfilm

Notfilm testifies to an almost inexhaustible fascination with the pleasures and paradoxes of cinema.

A. O. Scott, New York Times

In 1965 Samuel Beckett released his only film, a collaboration with Buster Keaton that obliquely explored cinema and perception, and famously didn’t reveal Keaton’s face. Lipman’s fascinating kino-essay examines the production and implications of the resulting Film. Drawing on outtakes, audio recordings, and other rare archival materials, Notfilm is “a brilliant examination of its significance in relation to Beckett’s dramatic works and to film theory“ (Jonathan Rosenbaum). It also features fascinating clips of Keaton, including moving footage (and sound) of his first appearance at a film festival in 1965. He would die in 1966.

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • DCP
  • 128 mins
Source
  • Kino Lorber
Followed By

Film by Samuel Beckett

Alan Schneider, United States, 1965

FEATURING
Buster Keaton
Nell Harrison
James Karen
Susan Reed

Beckett’s Film, featuring Buster Keaton, is in essence a chase film—arguably the craziest committed to celluloid.

FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Samuel Beckett
Cinematographer
  • Boris Kaufman
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • 22 mins
source
  • UCLA Film & Television Archive
permission
  • Kino Lorber
Additional Info
  • 35mm Preservation Print courtesy UCLA Film and Television Archive. Preservation Funded by The Film Foundation and administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation.