IMDb plot summary: Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner and Robin Lough. Starring Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings, and Adrian Scarborough.
The Habit of Art is a filmed version of the stage play by Alan Bennett which focuses on a fictional meeting between poet W. H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten. The world premiere production from 2009 was filmed and aired as a National Theatre Live production. While the story centers around the meeting between the two characters, it's really Auden, played here by Richard Griffiths, who is the centerpiece. The story is told in a play-within-a-play fashion, showing a production of this Auden/Britten play in rehearsal, with the actors stopping to interject about pieces of the play that don't seem to work. While I like a lot of Alan Bennett's work, this gimmick really does nothing for me and ends up watering down a lot of what I like about the story. In fact, I felt this whole thing would be much better if it was just a short one act focusing on the second half of the show where the two interact. That's where the meat is, that's where the interest is, and the rest of it feels a little bit like self indulgent wandering. Granted, the theater has always been the place for self-indulgent wandering, but it doesn't work here the way that it has in Bennett's other place. I do think this is an issue with the script rather than the performance, but I would be intrigued to see if a different production highlighted something in this that I didn't see here.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Habit of Art < Bad Education
The Habit of Art > Everything You Always Wantd to Know About Sex...
The Habit of Art > Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
The Habit of Art > Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Habit of Art > The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
The Habit of Art < Nine Queens
The Habit of Art < Strawberry and Chocolate
The Habit of Art < Hopscotch
The Habit of Art < Mrs. Miniver
The Habit of Art > Grand Illusion
The Habit of Art < The Firemen's Ball
The Habit of Art < Muppet Treasure Island
Final spot: #2012 out of 3796, or 47%.
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