Images of Beckett - Index of

tears. Suddenly the spectator sees for an instant
her hands, only her hands, the fingers
compulsively gripping the skin. This is one of the
most powerful moments in the film. Not for a
minute did we see the whole figure, but only the
face, and the hands.’ Pudovkin drew some
resonant conclusions from this scene: ‘Here once
more we encounter the process...ofclear
selection, the possibility of the elimination of those
insignificances that fulfil only a transition function
and are always inseparable from reality, and of the
retention only of climactic and dramatic points.’ 84
It seems probable that the concentration
on a few expressive gestures or movements, the
tightness of focus and the emphasis on the
concrete that Beckett brought to his late stage and
television plays emanated at least in part from his
own response to such powerful moments in silent
films. Even the way that he isolated a part of the
human body (the head or the mouth) at the
expense of the whole figure may well represent
a transposition from the use of close-up and
selection in the cinema, as well as, it was
suggested earlier, a theatrical development of the
fragmentation and distortions that are found in
some movements in modern art. Indeed, as we
saw with painting, Beckett showed, throughout his
career, an exceptional ability (and a readiness) to
transfer ideas and techniques from one medium to
another, ostensibly quite different one, rethinking
Patrick Magee in That Time, 1976
BECKETT AS DIRECTOR 125