46 minutes
March 2006
R0 (PAL)
5060033835692

Harold Pinter: Art, Truth & Politics

“[A] passionate and astonishing speech, which mixed moral vigour with forensic detail… This was a man delivering an attack on American foreign policy, and Britain’s subscription to it, with a controlled anger and a deadly irony. And, paradoxically, it reminded us why Pinter is such a formidable dramatist. He used every weapon in his theatrical technique to reinforce his message. And, by the end, it was as if Pinter himself had been physically recharged by the moral duty to express his innermost feelings.” Michael Billington, The Guardian

“Pinter’s plays speak volumes between the lines – but bluntly stating his position as he does here, he speaks even more loudly with them. His speech is not just a major contribution to revealing the lies we’re living under, but also an important new part towards understanding the man.” The Stage Online

In late 2005, Harold Pinter videotaped a lecture on the occasion of being awarded one of the most distinguished honours, the Nobel Prize for Literature. His speech, delivered directly to camera, is a complex reflection on his own writing and an excoriating attack on the foreign policy of a “brutal, ruthless and scornful” United States.

Harold Pinter reflects on the genesis of his plays The Homecoming and Old Times; the problems of political theatre; the tragedy of American actions in Nicaragua; the invasion of Iraq and other crimes by the United States in the past half century.

Art, Truth & Politics is a speech that made headlines around the world. It is an urgent and compelling appeal for us all as citizens to seek out and honour the truth.