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The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

Posted By: Notsaint
The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]
8xDVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 60 Gb
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Full time : more then 18 hours | UK | Drama, Comedy, Romance

The Anton Chekhov Collection from BBC Video is a six disc set that mines their extensive archives of works created by British master thespians performing the greatest works of the Russian playwright's career. From 1959 to 1991, these plays are presented with excellent production values and sure-handed direction. The transfers are full screen and sometimes spotty in quality, but it is amazing to see these legendary pieces performed by the likes of Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench. The result is over eighteen hours of sublime theatre loaded down with significant extras and supplemental material.

DVDRedirect

"All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and
better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life. And so long as this different life does not exist, I shall go on saying to people again and again: 'Please, understand that your life is bad and dreary!'"
Anton Chekhov

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The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD 1 [DVD9]
Platonov (1971)

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 6800 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
01:56:00 | UK | Drama

What do women want? Any man? Platonov was a distinguished academic, now a village schoolteacher married to the simple but cheerful and loving Sasha. Platonov is a witty if temperamental guest, sought after at the dinner parties of Anna, a general's widow, who lives on her estate, deeply in debt, flirting with him. To the season's first dinner, Anna's aged stepson brings his new wife, Sofia, whom Platonov knew when he was a professor. She's still in his thrall and he presses his suit. He also behaves badly at the party toward Maria Grekova, a young single woman. By the night's end, he has stirred up enough passion to overwhelm the neighborhood. Will anyone take any action, or will it be all talk?
An early Chekhov work that originally ran six hours, but edited to only two for this adaptation. The play was unpublished in the playwright's lifetime, and is thought to have been written when he was 20. The BBC production here features Rex Harrison who played the lead role on stage about a Russian man who drifts all too easily from one woman to the next. It is not as polished and real as later works, but an interesting look at the start of a great author.

Director: Christopher Morahan
Cast: Rex Harrison, Patsy Byrne, Sian Phillips, Clive Revill, Donald Eccles, Geoffrey Bayldon, Willoughby Goddard, Trevor Kent, Stacey Tendeter, John Gill, Kevin Stoney, Joanna Dunham, Bridget Armstrong, Neil McCarthy, Peter Eyre, Joe Gladwin

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


Extras: 'Omnibus: Pennington on Chekhov' (1984) (00:27); Radio Play: Wild Honey (1989) (02:04).

IMDb

What do women want? Any man? Plotanov was a distinguished academic, now a village schoolteacher married to the simple but cheerful and loving Sasha. Plotanov is a witty if temperamental guest, sought after at the dinner parties of Anna, a general's widow, who lives on her estate, deeply in debt, flirting with him. To the season's first dinner, Anna's aged stepson brings his new wife, Sofia, whom Plotanov knew when he was a professor. She's still in his thrall and he presses his suit. He also behaves badly at the party toward Maria Grekova, a young single woman. By the night's end, he has stirred up enough passion to overwhelm the neighborhood. Will anyone take any action, or will it be all talk?

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The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD2 [DVD9]
The Wood Demon (1974)

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 4660 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
01:50:00 | UK | Drama

A luncheon party gathers to celebrate a wealthy unmarried man's birthday; his sister hopes he'll marry Sonya, the daughter of a selfish gout-ridden old professor who makes life Hell for his son George and his young wife, Helen. At the luncheon is Khrushchov, a passionate environmentalist, called 'the Wood Demon' by all, in love with Sonya and she with him, but neither will say it. Two weeks later there's a family meeting at the professor's estate; two weeks after
that, a supper at the cabin of Dyadin, who's cheerful to all. George, Helen, Sonya, and Khrushchov are each suffocating. Can any of them take action? An unsuccessful early play that later became the basis for 'Uncle Vanya'.

Director: Donald McWhinnie
Cast: Ian Holm, Francesca Annis, Ronald Hines, Ronald Fraser, Donal McCann, Angela Pleasence, Cyril Luckham, Geoffrey Bayldon, Vickery Turner, Anthony Douse, Daphne Heard, Jay Neill

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

The Proposal (1959)
NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 8400 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
00:31:00 | UK | Comedy, Romance

A farce in one act that looks at marriage in Russia as an economic act, rather than a proclamation of love.

Director: Gordon Roland
Cast: David Bird, Harry Moore, Anne Robson

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

In formal attire, Ivan Vassilievich Lomov calls upon his neighbor, the bluff Stefan Stefanovich Chubukov. Chubukov fears that the prolix Lomov has come to borrow money, but is delighted when Lemov finally gets to the point and proposes to marry Chubukov's daughter Natalia. Without telling her why, Chubukov sends Natalia into the drawing room, and Lemov begins an even more roundabout proposal. Before he can make his intentions clear, Natalia takes exception to something he says, and an argument ensues. Lemov works himself into a lather. Will a funeral be required? Perhaps a neutral conversational topic, such as hunting dogs, can ease the couple past their disagreement.

A Wedding (1961)
NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 4650 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
00:30:00 | UK | Drama

A short one-act play again dealing with marriage in Russia.

Director: Gordon Roland
Cast: Dennis Handby, Roger Kemp, Roy Kinnear, Julia McCarthy, Graham Armitage, Hilary Mason, Dennis Edwards, Robert Gillespie, Anne Robson, Dallas Cavell, Arthur White, Reginald Marsh, Louis Raynes, Peter Walker, Nancy Adams, Elizabeth Broom, John Gill

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

Class distinctions, inferiority complexes, and social climbing abound as the bride, groom, and their families gather for a wedding banquet. There's a rumor that a general will be in attendance, secured by a real estate agent at one family's expense. After an argument about electricity, which exposes both the ignorance and the combativeness of the bride, the general does arrive, ear trumpet in hand. He commands the attention of all. But will tranquility last until the group photo?

Extras: Radio Plays: Ivanov (2001) (01:47); Swan Song (1965) (00:24)

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The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD3 [DVD9]
The Seagull (1978)

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 4760 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
02:07:00 | UK | Drama

A landmark work by Chekhov that went unappreciated upon its initial premiere, and then his largest success two years later. The play is about a group of characters finding love in all the wrong places, and has more emotional revelations than plot. This production stars a young Stephen Rea as a tortured author with a washed-up actress as a mother.

Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Cast: Anthony Bate, Michael Gambon, Georgina Hale, Zoe Caldwell, Stephen Rea, Julia Schofield, Alan Webb, John Kane, William Hamilton, Pauline Delaney, Allan Surtees, Myrtle Devenish, Pippa Sparkes

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

An Artist's Story (1974)
NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 4740 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
00:40:00 | UK | Drama

An adaptation of a short story about a confrontation between a young landscape painter and a charitable aristocratic girl.

Directors: David Hugh Jones, Ben Rea
Cast: Melvyn Bragg, John Berger, Brenda Bruce, Yona Gailet, Trevor Huddleston, Philip Locke, Meg Wynn Owen, Patrick Stewart, Emma Williams

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

Extras: Radio Play: Disappointment (2002) (01:09)

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The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD4 - Side A [DVD9]
Uncle Vanya (1970) - I

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 7920 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
02:06:00 | UK | Drama

A signature work which is the tragic comedy about lost hopes, stifled passions, and wasted lives. Vanya is a character who feels he has done nothing with his life, and has become sarcastic and bitter. Vanya in this version is played with inebriated bitterness by Freddie Jones. It's a stagey performance, with the actor bellowing and gesticulating wildly at times, and at others dropping to an overtly poetic whisper. It's hard to tell if he's intentionally pretentious, playing Vanya as a sort of soulless poser. Jones certainly is no competition for Anthony Hopkins, who plays his friend, the doctor Astrov in this new version of the Wood Demon. He's still an environmentalist, as well as a vegetarian, but he is now a drunk and far more aware of his own outsider status and not as convinced that he can change the minds of others. His cynicism has made him a realist. Hopkins shows greater restraint than Jones, his sadness more soulful, wearing it like a heavy shirt. There is a dichotomy created between the two, a gulf of real feeling that Jones ends up traversing due to his character's more ignominious end, his drama queen status made all the more tragic by his inability to do anything to stop his own sufferring.

Director: Christopher Morahan
Cast: Freddie Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Ann Bell, Roland Culver, Jenifer Armitage, Anne Dyson, Susan Richards, John Baskcomb, Richard Beale, Edmond Bennett, Stacey Tendeter

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD4 - Side B [DVD9]
Uncle Vanya (1991) - II

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 5740 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
02:09:00 | UK | Drama

Here the histrionics have been toned down and the performances grounded in a more weary reality. Holm and Hopkins take similar approaches, though Holm plays the doctor as far less arrogant. Warner's Vanya is a vast improvement, much less soppy, more aware of his bitterness and all that he feels he has lost. He has as much anger as he does self-pity.

Director: Gregory Mosher
Cast: David Warner, Ian Holm, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Ian Bannen, Rebecca Pidgeon, Rachel Kempson, Sandra Voe, Roger Hammond, Jimmy Flint, James Warrior

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

Extras: 'A Visit From Vanya' (1987) (00:49)

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The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD5 [DVD9]
The Three Sisters (1970)

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 7770 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
02:09:00 | UK | Drama

A story about a trio of women yearning and decaying simultaneously after the death of their father. It contains all the emergent themes of the previous plays, but with a sense of increasing fatalism. The rather large cast is wrangled into the family home of the titular siblings: the eldest, a practical spinster named Olga (Eileen Atkins); the dark, cynical middle sister, Masha (Janet Suzman), with her raven-feathered hat and funereal attire; and the youngest sister, the hopeful, fair-haired Irina (Michelle Dotrice). The story opens on Irina's 20th birthday, adding extra activity to the house, already a nexus of social interaction in the town. Lodgers, suitors, and husbands all attend the festivities. There is also the brooding presence of Andrei (Anthony Hopkins), the brother to the three sisters and another of Chekhov's men laboring under an artistic cloud. Over each successive act break, Chekhov moves the story forward in time, advancing the family and their friends in age and further from the false promises of their dreams. The loss of memory is a recurrent theme, suffered by the youngest, Irina, and the oldest, the doctor (Joss Ackland), alike. Memory loss is equal to the abandonment of dreams, be they the sisters and their longing to move to Moscow or the acceptance of one's fate in love. Masha has started an affair with a Colonel (Michael Bryant) she met as a child, but both are stuck in marriages that make them unhappy. The Colonel, and to a certain extent the doctor, are the main voices for the play's bleak outlook. There is an ever-present concern with the future, that the toil of today is only for the benefit of generations to come, and none of them should expect happiness in their lifetime. The one person who does not agree with this thesis, who instead believes that things are as they ever were and as they always shall be so be happy with it, is the Baron (Ronald Hines). Naturally, his fate is to be stamped down, his punishment to inspire the epitaph, "What difference does it make?" They are all forced to go on, which may be the cruelest thing that Chekhov, as a writer, can inflict upon his characters.

Director: Cedric Messina
Cast: Eileen Atkins, Janet Suzman, Michele Dotrice, Anthony Hopkins, Joss Ackland, Sarah Badel, Jill Bennett, Michael Bryant, Lisa Carroll, Erik Chitty, Jenny Harrington, Ronald Hines, Maeve Leslie, Richard Pearson, Donald Pickering, Matthew Robertson, Christopher Timothy, Marda Vanne

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

In a small Russian town at the turn of the century, three sisters (Olga, Irina, and Masha) and their brother Andrei live but dream daily of their return to their former home in Moscow, where life is charming and stimulating meaningful. But for now they exist in a malaise of dissatisfaction. Soldiers from the local military post provide them some companionship and society, but nothing can suffice to replace Moscow in their hopes. Andrei marries a provincial girl, Natasha, and begins to settle into a life of much less meaning than he had hoped. Natasha begins to run the family her way. Masha, though married, yearns for the sophisticated life and begins a dalliance with Vershinin, an army officer with a sick and suicidal wife. Even Irina, the freshest, most optimistic of the sisters, begins to waver in her dreams until, finally, tragedy strikes.
~ Jim Beaver

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The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD6 - Side A [DVD9]
The Cherry Orchard (1962) - I

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 8300 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
02:07:00 | UK | Comedy

Mme. Ranevsky and her daughter Anya return home from Paris to find that their beloved family estate and cherry orchard are to be auctioned off to pay debts. Lopahin, a former serf on the estate who is now a wealthy landowner, proposes
razing the home and cherry orchard and dividing the estate into plots that could be leased at great profit. The family, however, continues to hold out hope that their beloved home can somehow be saved from destruction.

Director: Michael Elliott
Cast: Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, Dorothy Tutin, Judi Dench, Julian Battersby, David Buck, Patsy Byrne, Patience Collier, Roy Dotrice, Gordon Gostelow, Paul Hardwick, Ian Holm, George Murcell, Patrick Wymark
Writing credits: Anton Chekhov

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

DVD6 - Side B [DVD9]
The Cherry Orchard (1981) - II

NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 8110 kbps
Audio : English AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps | Subtitles: English
02:08:00 | UK | Comedy


Director: Richard Eyre
Cast: Judi Dench, Bill Paterson, Anton Lesser, Harriet Walter, Suzanne Burden, Frederick Treves, Timothy Spall, Frances Low, David Rintoul, Anna Massey, Paul Curran, Wensley Pithey, Richard Vanstone, David Blake Kelly
Writing credits: Anton Chekhov, Trevor Griffiths, Helen Rappaport

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]

The Anton Chekhov Collection (1959-1991) [BBC Play of the Month]


IMDb