Monitor (1958) | Couchpile

Search movies & TV shows...

Loading...

Monitor (1958) | Couchpile

Season 2

21 Episodes

1958

E01

Why Cornwall?

9/14/1958

Why Cornwall? A film survey - Barbara Hepworth, Bernard Leech, W.S. Graham, Peter Lanyon, and others give their reasons for living and working in Cornwall Leonide Massine in the studio

E02

Backstage at the Rep

9/28/1958

Backstage at the Rep Monitor cameras go behind the scenes in a Northern Repertory Theatre. Two Different Worlds Hammersmith Reach through the eyes of the painters Carel Weight and Ruskin Spear.

E03

Episode 3

10/12/1958

Duke Ellington on jazz, with Humphrey Lyttelton and Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra; Aldous Huxley interviewed by John Lehmann; John Berger discusses three paintings of the nude; and Cilli Wang.

E04

P. G. Wodehouse

10/26/1958

P. G. Wodehouse in an interview filmed in New York Shadow of Heroes Extracts from the play with Peggy Ashcroft, Emlyn Williams, Mogens Wieth, Stephen Murray and an interview with the author, Robert Ardrey. And Aaron Copland on being an American composer.

E05

The Innocent Eye

11/9/1958

The Innocent Eye A film study of the child's imagination.

E06

The Living Suburb

11/23/1958

The Living Suburb A filmed report on a new experiment in city design, and an interview with its architects and William Alwyn on Writing For Films

E07

Igor Stravinsky

12/7/1958

Igor Stravinsky talking about his music, his life, and his friends.

E08

The Face of the Madonna

12/21/1958

The Face of the Madonna as seen by nine great artists. A Line on Satire Three points of view from cartoonists - Andre Francois, Osbert Lancaster, Ronald Searle filmed at work in their studios Circus A filmed study by John Schlesinger.

E09

Tyrone Guthrie

1/4/1959

Tyrone Guthrie on the Stratford Memorial Theatre, Ontario

E10

Georges Simenon

1/18/1959

Georges Simenon, A film profile and Alfred Wallis Cornish fisherman and painter.

E11

Yehudi Menuhin

2/15/1959

Yehudi Menuhin talks about the personality and music of Bela Bartok and plays illustrations from the solo sonata Bartok wrote for him. Theatre Workshop: A filmed report with Joan Littlewood and Gerry Raffles.

E12

A Poet In London

3/1/1959

John Betjeman, A poet in London.

E13

French Edition

3/15/1959

A French edition on film and in the studio. including Comedie Francaise Jacques Deval introduces a filmed impression of France's National Theatre to celebrate the company's arrival in London. Le Corbusier in his Paris studio talking about architecture Auguste Rodin The thoughts and work of a sculptor.

E14

Episode 14

3/29/1959

Theatre - Films - Books - Painting Sculpture - Music - Architecture Presenting people, events, and controversies on film and in the studio every fortnight. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E15

Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum

4/12/1959

Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum The ins and outs of High Fidelity. A film study directed by John Schlesinger. Paul Robeson in the studio Bert Haanstra, Holland's leading film director in the studio, with some of his films.

E16

Robert Graves

4/26/1959

Robert Graves in Majorca, a film profile. Thurston Dart plays the harpsichord, the organ, the piano, and the clavichord, and discusses Handel, a mystery. Bert Haanstra, Holland's leading film director with extracts from some of his films.

E17

Paddy Chayefsky

5/10/1959

Paddy Chayefsky, author of 'Marty' and The Bachelor Party' interviewed by Richard Hoggart. With extracts from some of his films. Leonard Bernstein, Musical Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra composer of West Side Story, On the Town, and Candide.

E18

The Mermaid Theatre

5/24/2024

A film study of the birth of a theatre with Bernard Miles.

E19

Fritz Kortner

6/7/2024

Fritz Kortner, Leading German actor and stage director at work in the Residenztheater, Munich. Interviewed by Robert Robinson. From Spain to Streatham: The guitar craze.

E20

Carl Ebert at Glyndebourne

6/21/1959

A great producer on his approach to opera, filmed during rehearsals for his production of 'Cosi fan Tutte' by Mozart.

E21

Wanda Landowska

7/5/1959

Wanda Landowska A filmed interview with the world's most famous harpsichord player, who is eighty today. The Romantic Movement Paintings from the Council of Europe Exhibition, opening in London on July 10.

Season 1

13 Episodes

1958

E01

Kingsley Amis

2/2/1958

Kingsley Amis interviewed about his new novel "I Like it Here" Peter Brook on "Quarter Ear Music" - illustrated in the studio by a scene from the Stratford Memorial Theatre production of "The Tempest", and by demonstrations of music concrete filmed in the Club d'Essai in Paris. Circus John Schlesinger takes a film camera to Harringay Joseph Cooper at the piano A view of Epstein's sculpture and a report on Tennessee Williams's play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

E02

Sam Wanamaker

2/16/1958

Sam Wanamaker A report by Alan Brien on the Liverpool Theatre experiment Sir Hugh Casson on Architecture at Sea The problems involved in designing the architecture and interior decoration of an ocean-going liner Busking as a Business A sidelight Angry Young Men - Cult or Myth? Milton Shulman asks Kenneth Tynan, John Wain, Stuart Holroyd, Colin Wilson, Bill Hopkins

E03

Paris: The Left Bank

3/2/1958

Paris: The Left Bank A study of writers, sculptors, painters -both British and American-who live and work on the Left Bank London: The West End London Street Entertainers considered from an American point of view. Candlelight on Canvas Michael Ayrton looks at the work of a painter who has had a strong influence upon his own work, Georges de la Tour, the master of candlelight.

E04

Belgrade Theatre in Coventry

3/16/1958

Belgrade Theatre in Coventry Monitor reports from the newly regenerated Coventry city centre and visits the Belgrade Theatre, the first civic theatre to be built in Britain since the Second World War. The Italian Opera Season Behind the scenes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. John Bratby at work on murals for the film "The Horse's Mouth" at Shepperton Film Studios.

E05

Episode 5

3/30/1958

Theatre-Films-Books Painting-Sculpture Music-Architecture Presenting people, events, and controversies on film, and in the studio every fortnight. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E06

Episode 6

4/13/1958

Theatre - Films - Books Painting-Sculpture Music-Architecture Presenting people, events, and controversies on film, and in the studio every fortnight. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E07

Episode 7

4/27/1958

Theatre-Films Books-Painting-Sculpture Music-Architecture Presenting people, events, and controversies on film, and in the studio every fortnight. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E08

Episode 8

5/11/1958

Theatre-Films-Books Painting-Sculpture Music-Architecture Presenting people, events and controversies on film, and in the studio every fortnight. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E09

Episode 9

5/25/1958

Theatre-Films-Books Pointing-Sculpture Music-Architecture Presenting people, events, and controversies on film, and in the studio every fortnight. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E10

Episode 10

6/8/1958

Theatre-Films-Books Painting-Sculpture Music-Architecture Presenting people, events, and controversies on film and in the studio every fortnight. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon

E11

Episode 11

6/22/1958

Theatre - Films - Books - Painting - Sculpture - Music - Architecture Every fortnight presenting people, events, and controversies on film and in the studio. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E12

Episode 12

7/6/1958

Theatre - Films - Books Painting - Sculpture Music - Architecture Every fortnight presenting people, events, and controversies on film and in the studio. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E13

Episode 13

7/20/1958

Theatre - Films - Books - Painting Sculpture - Music - Architecture Presenting people, events, and controversies. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon. (The last in the current series)

Season 4

27 Episodes

1960

E01

Episode 1

9/25/1960

A magazine of the arts. Tonight's edition includes: Shelagh Delaney's Salford The twenty-one year old author of "A Taste of Honey" and "The Lion in Love" looks at the town where she was brought up and where the action of both her plays takes place. Themes and Variations 'To compare a great copy with a great original is to attend a conversation between great artists' with Michael Ayrton. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E02

Musician in Montmartre

10/9/1960

Darius Milhaud the most prolific composer of today, filmed at his home in Paris.

E03

The Eye of Cartier-Bresson

10/23/1960

The Eye of Cartier-Bresson The great French photographer at work. Music through the Looking Glass The fantasy world of Gerard Hoffnung.

E04

Lillian Hellman

11/6/1960

Man in a Landscape The art of Sidney Nolan, Australian painter. Lillian Hellman talks to Huw Wheldon

E05

Henry Moore

11/20/1960

Henry Moore, Sculptor, at home and in his studio.

E06

Man In A Landscape

12/4/1960

The art of Sidney Nolan, australian painter.

E07

The Light Fantastic

12/18/1960

Five million people in England go dancing every week. A look at the strange and varied world of the dancers of England, from jive to ballroom, from folk dancing to flamenco.

E08

A Book of Hours

1/1/1961

Book of Hours The seasonal calendar of the Duc de Berry. Zadkine at the Tate The famous Russian sculptor interviewed by Bernard Williams on the occasion of his retrospective exhibition opening at the Tate Gallery on January 5.

E09

Katina Paxinou

1/15/1961

In 1960, Huw Wheldon visited Epidaurus and Athens to meet the Greek star of stage and screen Katina Paxinou. Having initially trained as an opera singer, she moved into acting, helping to re-establish the National Theatre of Greece in 1932. Due to the outbreak of World War Two, she found herself unable to return to Greece, and so emigrated to the US, soon securing the role of Pilar in For Whom the Bell Tolls - which won her an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. She returned to Greece in 1950 to resume her stage career, and alongside her husband, the actor and director Alexis Minotis, the pair achieved their dream of interpreting the Ancient Greek plays for a modern audience.

E10

Emlyn Williams

1/29/1961

Emlyn Williams who is appearing at the Arts Theatre, London, in three plays: "Lunch Hour" by John Mortimer, "A Slight Ache" by Harold Pinter, and "The Form" by N.F. Simpson - under the title "Three". Tonight he discusses his roles in the plays with extracts from each of them. George Chapman in the Rhondda Life in the Welsh mining valleys as seen by the English painter George Chapman.

E11

12/02/1961

2/5/1961

Ronald Searle on Toulouse-Lautrec Kingsley Amis on Science Fiction

E12

The Devils of Loudun

2/26/1961

The Devils of Loudun John Whiting returns to Loudun in France to tell the story of the possession by devils in the 17th century of the Ursuline nuns of the town. His new play 'The Devils' (from which extracts are shown) has just opened at the Aldwych Theatre, London. Two Composers, Two Worlds A film about the contrasts in the life and work of two outstanding young composers: Peter Maxwell Davies, Dudley Moore.

E13

Episode 13

3/12/1961

Young Conductors A competition for young conductors, organised by the Philharmonia Concert Society and held last month in the Monitor studio at Lime Grove. Judges: Otto Klemperer, Sir Adrian Boult, Carlo-Maria Giulini, Walter Legge and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

E14

Episode 14

3/26/1961

Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill Kurt Weill was the composer of 'Mack the Knife' and many other songs which created a new style of musical theatre in the Berlin of pre-Hitler days. Lotte Lenya was his wife and his finest interpreter. With the The English Chamber Orchestra Jack Yeats A first view of some of the great Irish artist's early drawings and paintings - work which he decided in the 1920s should not be seen again until three years after his death.

E15

The Class

4/9/1961

The teacher is Harold Lang. The students are from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

E16

The Hollow Crown

4/23/1961

...For within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court, and there the antick sits. Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp; Allowing him a breath, a little scene (Richard II, Act 3, Scene 2) Facts and foibles concerning the Kings and Queens of England with Dorothy Tutin, Max Adrian, Richard Johnson, John Barton. A selection from the entertainment recently presented at the Aldwych Theatre, London. Architect at Work: Denys Lasdun The designer of rehousing schemes; luxury flats; Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge; The Royal College of Physicians, London; houses; banks; laboratories; shops, on the aims and intentions of a modern architect.

E17

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

5/7/1961

Extracts from the controversial production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, and comments on their approach to the part and the play from Ian Bannen who plays Hamlet and Peter Wood who directs the production.

E18

Brecht's Berliner Ensemble

5/21/1961

Brecht's Berliner Ensemble The famous German Theatre Company at rehearsal and in performance at their theatre in East Berlin as seen by Kenneth Tynan with Helene Weigel Brecht's widow and the Ensemble's leading actress and scenes from the Company's production of 'The Threepenny Opera', 'Galileo', 'Arturo Ul'.

E19

Episode 19

6/4/1961

A fortnightly magazine of the arts. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E20

Prokofiev

6/18/1961

Prokofiev Portrait of a Soviet composer. Daumier A double life with illustrations from the Exhibition at the Tate Gallery organised by the Arts Council

E21

Episode 21

7/2/1961

A fortnightly magazine of the arts. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon.

E22

Monitor: Summer Film Season

7/9/1961

A selection from the films shown in Monitor over the past two years. In this edition: Shelagh Delaney's Salford The twenty-two-year-old author of 'A Taste of Honey' and 'The Lion in Love' looks at the town where she was brought up, and where the action of both her plays takes place. '... the brilliant meeting with Shelagh Delaney and the vision through her lucid eyes of the restless, slate-grey, black-brick spirit of Salford.....' (Punch) and Profile of a Quartet A film about the life and work of a string quartet with The Allegri Quartet. '... this elaborate, witty and human film profile....' (New Statesman) * Programme edited and introduced by Huw Wheldon.

E23

Monitor: Summer Film Season

7/16/1961

A selection from the films shown in Monitor over the past two years. In this edition: Rudolf Bing at the Met A portrait of an impresario filmed at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. 'You could sense immediately the quality of the man who regards opera singers as spoilt children, who fired Maria Callas, who bends a world-famous institution to his sole will'. (News Chronicle) and The Death of Tolstoy An impression of Tolstoy's last days, compiled from Russian archive newsreel material filmed during his lifetime and at his funeral. 'It was an exciting experience to have this legendary genius, on the hearthrug'. (The Observer) Programme edited and introduced by Huw Wheldon.

E24

Monitor: Summer Film Season

7/23/1961

A selection from the films shown in Monitor over the past two years. In this edition: Variations on a Mechanical Theme An investigation into mechanical instruments from the musical box to the automatic orchestra. 'Much of Monitor's best work has appeared among its miscellaneous short films like "Mechanical Instruments"... a kind of discursive essay which is not generally possible elsewhere in the commercial cinema world' (Sight and Sound) and George Chapman In The Rhondda Life in the Welsh mining valleys as seen by English painter George Chapman. 'Chapman's sympathy was in every canvas and model of his that we saw, as Wilfrid Owen's pity for the soldier was in his poetry.' (The Listener) Programme edited and introduced by Huw Wheldon.

E25

Monitor: Summer Film Season

7/30/1961

A selection from the films shown in Monitor over the past two years. In this edition: Henry Moore Sculptor at home and in his studio. 'At their best-the recent Henry Moore film, for instance-they can really seem to reveal something new about an artist and his psychology'. (Sight and Sound) and The Miners' Picnic A brass band carnival filmed at Bedlington in Northumberland. '...delightful, with only a scarcely perceptible touch of tongue-in-cheek satire'. (New Statesman) Programme edited and introduced by Huw Wheldon.

E26

Monitor: Summer Film Season

8/6/1961

The Light Fantastic 'Five million people in England go dancing every week' A look at the strange and varied world of the dancers of England, from jive to ballroom, from folk dancing to flamenco. 'That dancing as the subject of cine camera reporting can be compulsive in the extreme was brilliantly demonstrated.... a most encouraging trail-blazing programme' (The Observer) and An Interview with Michelangelo 'A relief to return to the heights of the ingeniously presented interview with Michelangelo' (The Listener) Programme edited and introduced by Huw Wheldon.

E27

Monitor: Summer Film Season

8/13/1961

A selection from the films shown in Monitor over the past two years. In this edition: Katina Paxinou in Athens The great tragic actress performing in the ancient Greek amphitheatre and interviewed with her husband Alexis Minotis actor and leading Greek producer. 'Her exposition of the magic of her craft was both electrifying and illuminating'. (Time and Tide) and Gerard Hoffnung A glimpse at the fantasy world of the musical cartoonist. 'A brilliant exploitation of the camera's capacity to give static objects the dimension of music. Hoffnung's musical instruments danced about the screen...' (Western Mail) Programme edited and introduced by Huw Wheldon.

Season 8

17 Episodes

1964

Episode 1

E01

Episode 1

11/17/1964

The opening programme in the new series. Introduced by Jonathan Miller.

Joe Tilson

E02

Joe Tilson

12/1/1964

With Jonathan Miller including Peter Brook with actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company talking about the portrayal of madness. Monitor meets artist Joe Tilson, who gains inspiration from the modern world.

Larkin and Betjeman: Down Cemetery Road

E03

Larkin and Betjeman: Down Cemetery Road

12/15/1964

With Jonathan Miller including: Philip Larkin, who talks to John Betjeman about himself and his poetry and the city of Hull where he lives. "From a purely practical point of view it's nice being remote, because people on the whole don't drop in on you". and Philip Johnson, New York architect filmed in and around New York. "If you don't have an art collection you don't easily come to me for a house".

A Christmas Stocking

E04

A Christmas Stocking

12/29/1964

With Jonathan Miller Including: Dwight MacDonald, the American critic talking to Robert Kee Sandy Claus by Barry Humphries. and Father Christmas as seen by the French anthropologist Claud Levi-Strauss.

Robert Lowell

E05

Robert Lowell

1/12/1965

with Jonathan Miller including Robert Lowell The Pulitzer prize-winning American poet filmed in New York and Boston. Second of a series on living poets. and Michael Podro Art as detective story-a display of the methods of Erwin Panofsky.

Empson Apart

E06

Empson Apart

1/26/1965

with Jonathan Miller including Empson Apart William Empson holds a curious and special place among modern English poets. He started life as a mathematician and wrote much of his poetry, as well as Seven Types of Ambiguity, while still studying at Cambridge in the 1920s. Since then he has taught widely in China and Japan. In tonight's film he talks about some of his poems and their meaning to him. and Michael Podro Art as detective story-a display of the methods of Erwin Panofsky.

David Sylvester: What the Pundits Say

E07

David Sylvester: What the Pundits Say

2/9/1965

with Jonathan Miller. including David Sylvester: What the Pundits Say David Sylvester, the art critic, takes a sidelong look at the critics as they discuss the paintings of the American artist Jasper Johns. Richard Brooks A film portrait of the director Richard Brooks as he makes his film of Conrad's Lord Jim. A New Place Designed by the architects Alison and Peter Smithson, the new Economist building in St. James's Street is an exciting addition to the London scene. It is discussed by the architects, the client, and John Donat.

Beginning to End

E08

Beginning to End

2/23/1965

with Jonathan Miller A television exploration of the world of Samuel Beckett. [Starring] Jack MacGowran Since Waiting for Godot burst on a startled and sometimes outraged English audience nearly ten years ago, Samuel Beckett has become a well-established figure in the English theatre. The latest production of Waiting for Godot at the Royal Court Theatre, London, has been received as a classic. This evening's programme is an experiment in expressing on television some of Mr. Beckett's central themes and ideas as they occur not only in his plays but in his novels.

Matters of Time

E09

Matters of Time

3/9/1965

with Jonathan Miller Robert Lowell Widely regarded as the greatest living American poet, Lowell talks in this film about the challenges of his craft and reads poems in which he grapples with the problems of time and tradition. Time Is A film made by Don Levy for the Nuffield Unit of the History of Ideas on the subject of time-the abstract idea which man created and still only partly understands. Narration adapted and spoken by John Wain.

E10

J.B.

3/11/1965

A portrait of Sir John Barbirolli. with Lady Barbirolli, The Halle Orchestra (Leader, Martin Milner), The Orchestra of the Royal Manchester College of Music, The King's Lynn Quartet and members of the Halle Concert Society. Commentary by Huw Wheldon. A Monitor presentation

Choice of Surroundings

E11

Choice of Surroundings

3/23/1965

with Jonathan Miller Dobcross Henry Livings, the young English playwright, left London to live in Dobcross, a small workaday village near Oldham. His friends there work in the local mills and dyeworks and it is out of this background of northern industrialism that he has written plays like Big Soft Nellie and Eh? Leicester Tower James Stirling and James Gowan, two British architects, built the new Department of Engineering at Leicester University. They discuss with Professor Parkes, Head of the Department, and John Donat how the building and Leicester's first tower came into being. Western Native Township Julian Beinart, a South African expert in town planning, shows the startling decorations on the walls of the houses in the township and talks about what this 'writing on the wall' means to the Africans who live there.

People in Rather Odd Circumstances

E12

People in Rather Odd Circumstances

4/6/1965

with Jonathan Miller Including: People in Rather Odd Circumstances The poems, drawings, and conversation of Stevie Smith. and Poet As Art Critic Michael Podro on the art criticism of the French poet Baudelaire.

Silence, Exile, and Cunning

E13

Silence, Exile, and Cunning

4/20/1965

A film on James Joyce Written by Anthony Burgess

The Frozen Frame

E14

The Frozen Frame

4/27/1965

A programme on the illustration of the instantaneous. Including The Camera and the Canvas Aaron Scharf describes the impact of photography on painters during the last hundred years, and in particular early experiments in capturing movement. Naum Gabo, the famous Russian pioneer of Constructivist sculpture, filmed at his home in Connecticut, and Kenneth Snelson, a young American living on Long Island and working in a similar field.

The Debussy Film

E15

The Debussy Film

5/18/1965

Wives, mistresses, and the sinister Pierre Louys, artist, photographer, pornographer, make up the strange circle surrounding the life and music of the French composer. A new feature produced and directed by Ken Russell, author of the prize-winning Monitor film on Elgar.

Private Eye and Public Place

E16

Private Eye and Public Place

6/15/1965

Donald McCullin A film portrait of the prize-winning news photographer which brings us face to face with the courage and energy of one of the most exciting figures in modern photo-journalism. The Royal College of Physicians Continuing the Monitor series on modern architecture in Britain. John Donat talks with the architect Denys Lasdun whose firm built the dramatic new Royal College of Physicians premises in Regent's Park. Sir Robert Platt, a past president of the Royal College, discusses ways in which Lasdun's new building has affected the whole feeling of an ancient professional institution.

Always on Sunday

E17

Always on Sunday

6/29/1965

A new film produced and directed by Ken Russell about Henri 'Douanier' Rousseau artist-painter. The excise clerk who became the great primitive painter-his friendship with Alfred Jarry, the two-gun midget from Laval; his struggles, imprisonment for fraud, tragic love affair, and mysterious death. with the Yorkshire primitive painter James Lloyd in the role of Rousseau

Art and Delusion

E18

Art and Delusion

7/13/1965

Three ways of looking at the world. Why so thin? The art critic, John Berger looks at the work of the great sculptor, Giacometti whose strange spindly figures have been one of the great mysteries of modern European sculpture. Berger solves the mystery in terms of Giacometti's theories of vision. The Middle-class Magician The art critic, George Melly went to Brussels and made a film about the Belgian surrealist. Rene Magritte whose pictures are conundrums about the way the world looks. Cheese! Or what really did happen in Andy Warhol's Studio Monitor comes to an end with a surprise of its own making.