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Primo (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Primo' is a 2005 film directed by Richard Wilson,Primo, Dir: Richard Wilson, HBO/BBC/Rainmark Films, 2005 IMDb.com https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1006938 starring the BAFTA-nominated Antony Sher and broadcast by HBO and the BBC.http://www.bafta.org/awards/television/nominations/?year=2007 BAFTA, Television Nominations 2007, Primo, Broadcaster: BBC Four, Actor, Antony Sher
This film is a recording of the Royal National Theatre production of the play 'Primo',http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=9858&dspl=reviews nationaltheatre.org.uk, NT : What's On : Productions : Primo, Reviews, "Primo, Guardian, Michael Billington, 1 October 2004, Paul Pyant's rectangular pools of light indicate place, and Jonathan Goldstein's music quietly punctuates the story, or evokes the marches that accompanied work squads." also directed by Wilson.Daily Telegraph, Charles Spencer, 1 October 2004, "At the end of this remarkable performance there was a silence unlike any other I have experienced in a theatre. Antony Sher's performance, directed by Richard Wilson on a stark, spare design by Hildegard Bechtler, and occasionally tellingly punctuated by a solo cello, is as controlled, as precise, and as free of hysteria, as Primo Levi's own lucid prose. He (Antony Sher) captures Levi's unsparing depiction of his fellow inmates, forced to prey on each other in order to survive. As a result, the moments of kindness and generosity the author witnessed at Auschwitz shine with a tentative, almost unbearable beauty." Adapted by Antony Sher from 'If This Is a Man' (1947) by Primo Levi,http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/4456/primo The Stage, Listings and Reviews, Primo, Published Monday 4 October 2004 at 11:50 by Peter Hepple, "It is best not too look on Antony Shers adaptation of Primo Levis 'If This Is a Man' as a plain piece of theatre. It is far too powerful and affecting for that, this description of a period mercifully quite short of imprisonment in Auschwitz." it is a monologue told as a memoir by an older Primo looking back at his life in Auschwitz.
Set designer Hildegard Bechtler devised a symbolist set consisting of a single bare wall and a lone chair with variations in lighting.http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/4456/primo The Stage, Listings and Reviews, Primo, Published Monday 4 October 2004 at 11:50 by Peter Hepple, "A major part of the success of this one can only call it a recital rather than a play is due to the director Richard Wilson, with the help of the designer Hildegard Bechtler, the lighting designer Paul Pyant and the composer of the stark and spare cello score, Jonathan Goldstein."
British composer, Jonathan Goldstein, was nominated for an Ivor Novelllo award for the score to the film.https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/21/popandrock.awardsandprizes The Guardian, Music, 21 April 2008, Pop and Rock, Full list of nominees for the Ivor Novello awards 2008, "Best television soundtrack, Broadcast: Oliver Twist, Composer: Martin Phipps, UK Publisher/s: BDi Music Limited. Broadcast: Primo, Composer: Jonathan Goldstein, UK Publisher/s: Bucks Music Group."
Wilson and Sher travelled to Auschwitz whilst researching the play. Sher was confined in the back of a lorry and German actors were hired to shout out orders to him in order to give him some feel of the powerlessness and confusion Levi experienced during his incarceration. Sher said that he found the play terribly draining; he refused to extend the play or to tour with it.
References
Category:2005 television films
Category:2005 films
Category:2005 drama films
Category:Television shows based on plays
Category:Television films based on books
Primo
Category:Monodrama
Category:Films directed by Richard Wilson (Scottish actor)
Category:British drama films
Category:Holocaust films
Category:Films based on works by Primo Levi
Category:2000s English-language films
Category:2000s British films
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