Tables séparées

Alan Bates and Julie Christie take on Terence Rattigan's fine brace of stories and give lessons in the art of acting. Bates is wonderful and Christie is nothing short of miraculous. A must see.

27 January 2010. This made of television version of the play, starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, and Claire Bloom brings the play on the small screen, richly maintaining the feel and atmosphere of the staged play itself. The characters' delivery of their lines with the subtle and sometimes dramatic nuance strikes a deep cord into the human condition and intimate human relationships as well as the societal condemnation and humiliation and tolerance of man's indiscretion. It's difficult to understand the power of this movie, in its depiction that seems to be razor sharp in scratching deeply the human emotional core. By the end of the movie, one can be considered transformed in a small way for having experienced the raw tension, the human conflict and resolution of several intertwining human events and interactions that play to our basic human lives. An amazing experience. 9/10.

John Schlesinger filmed Terence Rattigan's famous play from the 50's pretty much as is - there's no "opening up" of the play, and the two one-act segments are not combined, as they were in the 1958 film version. The play itself is, no surprise, dated and rather quaint, though you can see it must have seemed fairly sensational stuff back in the mid-50's, with allusions to sex crimes and homosexuality. At its best, though, it offers a penetrating depiction of loneliness and the stifling nature of English society at the time.

Also, most satisfyingly, it offers a banquet of tour-de-force performances. Julie Christie and Alan Bates are splendid and moving, each in dual roles, and make a fine team, as they have several other times as well. Claire Bloom is understated and marvelous, as always, and the supporting characters are picture-perfect. This is a cast that could hardly be bettered, and they make this perhaps the finest version of this particular play we are likely to see. Worth while for anyone who loves good acting!

A beautiful model causes a stir when she walks into a quiet and peaceful hotel. Every guest at the hotel dines alone; every guest has a story to tell.

I have since seen a few different versions of this play, including the earlier movie and the BBc adaptation with Geraldine McEwan, personally I think that latter is the best of that bunch, but this was still an excellent production.

Jilie Christie and Alan Bates do a great job with their respective roles, the differences in the 'second' characters are brilliant, they did such a fine job. Plaudits also to Irene Worth and the wonderful Liz Smith, both were superb.

Track it down, it is definitely worth seeing.

9/10.

The Hollywood version of this, though well thought of at the time, is pretty awful. So it's great that this version was done for TV, by the same folks who produced the often wonderful "American Film Theater" series some ten years before. Alan Bates was in three of those. He is typically fine here.... Julie Christie gets to stretch in the two parts She does here. Is it possible Julie Christie could have ever been such a repressed wallflower in real life?

It's great stuff. A few years back I picked up a copy (it's not on DVD) for nothing on ebay, now I see copies are going for forty bucks. Some things on VHS are bound to fall between the cracks when it comes to DVD. See this if you get the chance....