The Sea Gull

''The Sea Gull'' is a 1968 British-American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. The screenplay by Moura Budberg is adapted and translated from Anton Chekhov's classic 1896 play ''The Seagull''.

The Warner Bros.-Seven Arts release was filmed at the Europa Studios in Sundbyberg, Stockholms län, just outside central Stockholm.

Plot

Set in a rural Russian house, the plot focuses on the romantic and artistic conflicts among an eclectic group of characters. Fading leading lady Irina Arkadina has come to visit her brother Sorin, a retired civil servant in ailing health, with her lover, the successful hack writer Trigorin. Her son, brooding experimental playwright Konstantin Treplev, adores the ingenue Nina, who in turn is mesmerized by Trigorin. Their interactions slowly lead to the moral and spiritual disintegration of each of them and ultimately led to tragedy.

Principal cast

* Vanessa Redgrave as Nina
* Simone Signoret as Irina Arkadina
* David Warner as Konstantin Treplev
* James Mason as Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin
* Harry Andrews as Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin
* Denholm Elliott as Dr. Yevgeny Dorn
* Eileen Herlie as Polina
* Alfred Lynch as Semyon Medvedenko
* Ronald Radd as Shamraev
* Kathleen Widdoes as Masha

Principal production credits

* Cinematography - Gerry Fisher
* Production Design - Tony Walton
* Set Decoration - Rune Hjelm, Rolf Larsson
* Costume Design - Tony Walton

Critical reception

In his review in ''The New York Times'', Vincent Canby described the film as "so uneven in style, mood and performance that there are times when you could swear that the movie had shot itself — though not quite fatally". Canby also mischaracterized the camera work, saying "Lumet's way with this adaptation by Moura Budberg is implacably straightforward. It plows ahead, scene by scene, act by act, in which there always is first an establishing long shot and then cuts to individual actors as they act and react. This kind of '' Secret Storm'' technique inevitably flattens out the nuances and the pauses that give depth to the tangled personal relationships. It also makes too literal the boredom and quiet despair that should hang over the Chekovian characters like an unseen mist. Most of the performances are excellent, but all of the actors seem to be on their own . . . Miss Signoret is simply miscast, if only because of her Frenchness. Her speech rhythms are so jarring that it's often impossible to understand her . . . As a result of the variety of styles, the movie turns into a series of individual confrontations that seem as isolated as specialty acts. Without the single dominating influence that should have been provided by Lumet, the play is fragmented beyond repair."

''Time'' observed, "The paralyzing problem with this film version of Chekhov's first major play is that it is far too dramatic . . . Any traces of wit have been pretty well destroyed by Lumet's lumbering technique. The actors perform as if they were all on the verge of a nervous breakdown . . . Lumet moves his camera incessantly to give the illusion of action, but uses fadeouts to duplicate the curtain falling at the end of an act . . . Most disturbing of all, eand cinematographer Gerry Fisher have shot the whole film in softly gauzed pastel colors, thereby reducing Chekhov's intricate dramatic tapestry to the sleazy cheapness of a picture postcard."

'' Variety'' called it "a sensitive, well-made and abstractly interesting period pic."

According to the '' Time Out London Film Guide'', it is "basically an actors' film . . . sometimes dull and almost always unsatisfactory, despite excellent performances."

References

External links

''The Sea Gull'' at the Internet Movie Database
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sea Gull, The
1968 films
1968 drama films
American drama films
British drama films
Greek drama films
English-language Greek films
Warner Bros. films
Films directed by Sidney Lumet
Films based on plays by Anton Chekhov
Films scored by Mikis Theodorakis
1960s English-language films
1960s American films
1960s British films