Comédie

A black-and-white short film made in 1964 by playwright Samuel Beckett and filmmaker Marin Karmitz, Comédie is an experimental film adapted from Beckett’s 1963 play of the same name. Using a vaudeville-style scenario as a pretext, the film explores the potential of light and sound, drawing in particular on the research of Pierre Schaeffer, recognized as the father of musique concrète. The heads of three characters—played by Delphine Seyrig, Eléonore Hirt, and Michael Lonsdale—emerge from three urns, made unrecognizable by heavy makeup. Lit one after another, they deliver fragments of Beckett’s play; the editing, rhythm, and sound frenetically immerse us in a return to nothingness, with only these three speaking heads appearing.