Argentine Director Remixes Beckett's Endgame

Argentine director Alejo Moguillansky has released a film that functions as a cinematic remix of Samuel Beckett's 1957 absurdist play Fin de Partie, known in English as Endgame. The project, titled Pin de Fartie, offers a series of reinterpretations of the source material, described by The Guardian as fresh, provocative, and at times moving. For those interested in the structure of dramatic works, our fixtures page often explores similar themes of adaptation and performance.

A Play of Four Characters

Beckett's original stage work features only four characters. The central pair are the blind and disabled Hamm and his servant Clov. Hamm's parents, Nagg and Nell, are confined to dustbins. The play is steeped in an atmosphere of apocalyptic doom, with dialogue fixated on drugs, food, and the relentless passage of time.

Moguillansky's film does not present a single, faithful adaptation. Instead, it constructs a series of select cuts from the play. He changes the dynamic each time through casting, performance choices, and context, largely omitting the characters of Nagg and Nell.

Varied Interpretations and Cast

The remixes feature different pairings in distinct settings. In one interpretation, Hamm becomes a blind but mobile man named Otto, played by Santiago Gobernori. Clov is transformed into Cleo, portrayed by the director's daughter, Cleo Moguillansky. Their tetchy father-daughter relationship unfolds in a lakeside house.

In a separate Buenos Aires segment, actors Laura Paredes and Marcos Ferrante meet furtively in an apartment. They are not having an affair but are rehearsing Fin de Partie together, reportedly falling in love during the process. Another scene shows an older woman, Margarita Fernández, insisting her son, the director himself, read her passages from the Spanish translation of Beckett's play.

Additional perspectives are provided by performer Luciana Acuña, who is the director's wife, and musician Maxi Prietto. Prietto offers folk-inflected ditties that comment on the play's action, which the source describes as amusing and quite ridiculous. The varied performances across these segments are a study in artistic squad dynamics, where different ensembles bring unique energy to the same core material.

Questions of Fidelity and Fair Use

Whether Samuel Beckett would have approved is an open question. The playwright was famously strict about fidelity to his vision, extending to precise set-dressing. His estate, however, now appears more lenient regarding adaptations. The source suggests Moguillansky's free and fanciful interpretation, which functions more as an essay or exercise, likely falls under fair use provisions.

The film has an academic slant that some may find dry. Yet it contains moments of undeniable charm, such as a scene where Gobernori and young Moguillansky skip in sync along a lakeside promenade against a raging sunset. The spoonerist title is deemed juvenile by the source, and the overall exercise is seen as possibly too pleased with its own cleverness. Nevertheless, the project is credited with achieving something fresh with both the Beckett source material and the concept of a remix, a creative stats that highlights its unique contribution to cinematic adaptation.