ABSTRACT
Critical discussion of Beckett's 22-minute black-and-white 1964 Film, directed by Alan Schneider and starring Buster Keaton, has tended to come from three analytical points of view: focusing on Beckett's authorship, the film's sources and influences, and the ways it might be read by audiences. 1 The first of these is a version of auteurism, which in film study usually refers to the analysis of the work of a director to reveal distinctive structures of meaning and thematic patterns which permit a fuller understanding of his or her work. But in the case of Film the role of the director as the source of meaning has been taken instead by Beckett, the author of the written screenplay. Beckett's text for Film has not been considered in the same framework as screenplays produced for commercial cinema, but instead in the context of avant-garde independent cinema, or work commissioned for subsidised theatre companies, or 'art television'. In commercial cinema, screenwriters do not enjoy high status, often finding their work changed significantly in the production process, and it is the director's name which appears most prominently in the film's credits. Auteurist interpretations of Film have involved discerning its 'Beckettian' qualities, by reference to the written material in Beckett's screenplay and notes, and by comparison between the film and his works in other media, particularly theatre and television.
