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On any given day Ben Butley, a self-made train wreck of an English Literature professor at a London university, can shrug off everyone and everything with equal ease. But today, the disaster of Butley's proudly misspent life threatens to dwarf even his cynically fatalistic non-expectations. Arriving at his cramped cave of an office, Butley is informed that his adored protégé Joey is moving in with another man, his estranged wife is re-marrying, and his seemingly untalented colleague has been published ahead of him. As embodied by Alan Bates, Butley falls back on the surgically precise wit and savage eloquence that helped put him in his current circumstances in the first place. The blitzkrieg of vitriolic commentary with which Butley engages lovers, students, rivals, and allies, all with equal ferocity, becomes a glass bottom boat illuminating the churning depths of his bankrupted soul. Acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter, in what Time Magazine hailed as "a quite superior directorial debut," turns author Simon Gray's single-set, dialogue driven stage play into an irresistible dynamic visual experience that tracks Bates' hilarious and fearless performance with cunning precision. Bates and an expert supporting cast, including Oscar® winner Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy), joust with a sly, self-referencing wit and an unselfconscious exuberance that is breathtaking. With every verbal parry and valedictory flourish of wordplay, Butley's life becomes more of an inescapable bear trap of thwarted ambition, clandestine affection, and squandered brilliance. (Covertext) Extras: Specially filmed interviews: 1. with Sir Alan Bates (about playing the role, and the key to the character of Butley, 30 min.); 2.with the playwright Simon Gray (about the autobiographical elements in the play, the various members of the cast and what they brought to their roles, his friendship with Harold Pinter and his thoughts on the screenplay vs. the actual play, 22 min.); 3. with Otto Plaschkes,the executive producer of the AFT series (about the approach to putting famous plays onto the screen, 22 min.); 4. Edie Landau (how the project came about, how they chose the plays to film, and how the enterprise eventually failed (23 min.). AFT trailer gallery. AFT cinebill (were similar to theatre programmes and were given to the audiences) for Butley. Stills gallery. Theatrical posters. Article - 'Simon Gray and Butley' by Michael Feingold, Chief Theatre Critic, The Village Voice.
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