The Sea Gull (1968)

Sidney Lumet would seem to be one of the last directors to tackle Chekhov's play The Sea Gull (here "seagull" is oddly bifurcated into two words). Lumet's forte was dramas set in the inner city, but The Sea Gull takes place on a placid lake, and is something of a pastoral drama. He cast mostly British actors, with the notable exception of Simone Signoret in the lead role, Arkadina, a famous actress.

I've written about the play  so instead of rehashing the plot, I';; get down to the basics. The themes are there--aging, unrequited love, and the difficult relationship between a mother and son. Konstantin, played here by David Warner, is very good as a type, the tortured artist. He pines for Nina (Vanessa Redgrave), and puts her in a play he wrote that is symbolic and well night incomprehensible. His mother, the great actress, without any regard for his feelings, dismisses it.

Arkadina is visiting her ailing brother (Harry Andrews) with her lover, Trigorin, (James Mason) a popular but not well-respected novelist who moans that he is no Tolstoy or Turgenev. Upon finding a dead seagull (one killed by Konstantin) he makes a note for a story--a man finds a girl who is like that seagull, who lives on a lake and loves it and is free. But man comes along, and for no other reason that he has nothing better to do, destroys her, just like that seagull. He is warning Nina, but she doesn't heed it and he does exactly that.

The film is shot straightforwardly, with four acts and everything, but of course is opened up a bit. It was shot on a lake in Sweden, and appears to have been filmed with nothing but natural light, which gives the outdoor scenes a gauzy look. The performances vary, as Lumet seems to have let the actors just do their thing, and at times they seem like they are in different plays. Signoret, as the only non-English person, seems miscast, with her thick French accent. I liked Denholm Elliot as Dorn and Kathleen Widdoes as Masha.

I like the idea of it all, though. I think if I were a director I'd like to do this every once in a while--just take a play and film it using one or two sets, without CGI and make it a theatrical experience. This has done with Chekhov before, with Andre Gregory's Vanya on 42nd Street, one of the best-acted films I've ever seen. Of course public television does this all the time, which I'm grateful for now that I don't live near New York City and get a chance to see plays.

There was a film made of The Seagull in 2018 which I'll take a look at next.