Marie Seton (20 March 1910 – 17 February 1985)Film and TV database
/ref> was a British actress, art, theatre and film critic and biographer of

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

, and

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...

Biography

Her father, Captain Seton served in the British Army in India and South Africa. After the death of Captain Seton, Marie's mother, also named Marie, remarried Sir Charles Walpole. In 1935 Seton helped to establish the reputation of Jamaican sculptor Ronald Moody. In 1936, she helped her friend C. L. R. James, the Trinidadian writer and radical political activist, to put on his play about the

Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution ( or ; ) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was the only known Slave rebellion, slave up ...

, '' Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History'', which starred

in the title role, with the

Stage Society The Incorporated Stage Society, commonly known as the Stage Society, was an English theatre society with limited membership which mounted private Sunday performances of new and experimental plays, mainly at the Royal Court Theatre (whose John Eugen ...

. Seton's reconstruction of Sergei Eisenstein’s projected epic, '' ¡Que viva México!'', as a film released in 1939 entitled ''Time in the Sun'', is considered by many critics as probably nearest to Eisenstein's concept because of her close relationship with the filmmaker. She was a regular contributor to ''

Sight and Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...

'' and other publications. In the late 1930s, she became part of the circle of P. D. Ouspensky and later worked for him after his move to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

.''Gurdjieff International Review''
/ref>The Case of P. D. Ouspensky
/ref> Between 1938 and 1942, she was married to Donald Hesson, a Chicago lawyer and author. According to her friend, Pamela Cullen, Seton "had a fascination for

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and as a young woman she had been introduced to India’s fight for independence by one of India’s greatest political figures,

Krishna Menon Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (3 May 1896 – 6 October 1974) was an Indian academic, independence activist, politician, lawyer, and statesman. During his time, Menon contributed to the Indian independence movement and India's foreign r ...

, who was then a struggling lawyer in London. She also had family associations with India through her father, who had served as an officer in the Indian Army and been seriously wounded during one of the many uprisings of the period". Nehru invited Seton to India to help with the University Film Society and the Children's Film Society. She was probably recommended to him by D. G. Tendulkar, who must have known her during the time he was in Moscow studying cinema with Sergei Eisenstein. Over the years, Seton became a friend of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

. For some time in the 1960s, Seton was a house guest of the Nehrus and stayed in Teen Murti. Seton lived in India in the 1960s and 1970s, and was actively involved in the film society movement, at the same time as being a close observer of Indian politics. She worked closely with Vijaya Mulay and Chidananda Dasgupta in establishing the Federation of Film Societies of India. On her death, at her own request she was cremated, and the plaque of her ashes in Golders Green Crematotarium reads: "Marie Seton Hesson, Padma Bhushan, Citizen of the World".

Awards

In recognition of her work, the Indian government honored Seton with the Padma Bhusan civilian award in 1984.Indian Government Awards site
/ref>

Publications

;Books * * * * * *Seton, Marie (1971). ''Portrait of a Director: Satyajit Ray''. London: Dennis Dobson. New Delhi: Vikas Publications. Revised edition, with foreword by

Sandip Ray Sandip Ray (born 8 September 1953) is an Indian film director and music director who mainly works in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali cinema. He is the only child of the famous Indian director Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray. Life and education San ...

, Penguin Books India, 2003. * ;Articles *"A Conversation with V. I. Pudovkin", with Marie Seton, in ''Sight and Sound'' (London), Spring 1933. *"Eisenstein's Images and Mexican Art", by Marie Seton in ''Sight and Sound'' (London), July–September 1953. *"Journey Through India", by Marie Seton in ''Sight and Sound'' (London), Spring 1957.

References

Sources

*
Marie Seton, a wiki
is a collaborative space for people who are interested in the life and work of Marie Seton. Some of them personally knew and worked with her and one of them is working on a biography of her.

review of ''Que Viva Mexico'' by Isabel Arredondo in ''The Americas'', 66.4 (2010): 583–585. Project MUSE. Web. 24 April 2011. *

review by Partho Datta of new edition of Marie Seton's biography of Satyajit Ray. ''The Hindu'', 7 September 2003.

External links

*
Pioneer remembered
at ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

''
Sketches, letters, etc.
at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seton, Marie 1910 births 1985 deaths 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British women writers British expatriate actresses in India British film critics Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education British women film critics