Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 3 April

The Dresser (Yates, 1983)

There are lots of reasons why you might like to watch a film more than once.

For me, I often watch films again for professional reasons, especially when I’m hosting At the Movies. Filmmakers go to a lot of trouble to produce their work, and it’s only fair that they get due consideration from a critic.

Then, there are the times that you want to share a film with someone who missed out the first time around. You can lend someone a novel, but you can’t read it alongside them. And live performances disappear immediately into history.

But you can sit beside someone watching a film and – as long as you don’t keep nudging them in the ribs saying, “this is a good bit coming up” – you get to enjoy their response as well as your original one.

And then there is the passage of time.

I was introduced to The Dresser by an old friend who knew it so well that he could quote screeds of dialogue from it at the drop of a hat. And very entertaining dialogue it was, too.

We were theatre people then, so the milieu was familiar and the characters were recognisable.

Albert Finney plays “Sir”, an old school actor-manager touring Shakespeare through Northern England during World War II. The character was reportedly based on Sir Donald Wolfit, who writer Ronald Harwood had actually ‘dressed’ at the beginning of his career.

Harwood wrote the story as a play in 1980 and the screen adaptation went on to great success, including acting Oscar nominations for Finney and Tom Courtenay as Norman.

“Sir”’s mental capacity is deteriorating and the company – who rely on his star power for their livelihoods – are deeply concerned. Norman is attempting valiantly to keep the old actor upright and on his lines, but the cause appears to be a losing one. Mishap follows mishap until a final crucial performance of Lear in Halifax.

So, now I come to how a film changes due to the passage of time.