Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A Man for all Seasons

This movie, about how a devout Catholic (Thomas More) keeps to his beliefs, is one of my favrite historical movies, despite the fact that I am an atheist (I love watching it with 'Lady Jane' about how a young woman, in the next generation, holds to her protestant beliefs.)

I was surprised to just learn that the play (and screen adaptation) were written by an agnostic. This from Wikipedia:

The 20th-century agnostic playwright Robert Bolt portrayed More as the ultimate man of conscience in his play A Man for All Seasons, the title drawn from what Robert Whittington in 1520 wrote of him:
"More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons."[23]

In 1966, the play was made into the successful film A Man for All Seasons directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted for the screen by the playwright himself, and starring Paul Scofield in an Oscar-winning performance. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture for that year.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Sleep

Had a good night's sleep last night, despite a strange dream that involved capturing a pair of small yellow dogs who could breathe a stream of fire on demand. Such are my dreams!