Gabriel Byrne Stars as Samuel Beckett in Biopic ‘Dance First’ Trailer
by Alex Billington
July 16, 2024
Source: YouTube
“Even in that horrible place, they couldn’t turn off the stars…” Magnolia has revealed an official trailer for the film titled Dance First, an intriguing biopic about the life of literary genius Samuel Beckett. This premiered at the 2023 San Sebastian FIlm Festival last year, before then opening in the UK in November; Beckett was Irish so the UK got first dibs on this release. The film documents the Irish writer’s life, from his childhood, his friendship with James Joyce until the incarceration of the latter’s mentally ill daughter Lucia Joyce, his relationship with his future wife Suzanne Dumesnil, also as a fighter for the French Resistance during WWII, his postwar literary rise and subsequent Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, his affair with translator Barbara Bray and his later life until his death in 1989. Throughout the film, Beckett carries out an interior monologue. Irish actor Gabriel Byrne stars as Beckett, joined by Fionn O’Shea, Aidan Gillen, Maxine Peake, Sandrine Bonnaire, and others. The film has pretty rough reviews, with only a rotten 56% on RT so far. The title is a reference to Beckett’s motto “Dance first, think later. It’s the natural order.”
Here’s the official US trailer (+ original UK poster) for James Marsh’s Dance First, direct from YouTube:
Literary genius Samuel Beckett (starring Gabriel Byrne) lived a life of many parts: Parisian bon vivant, WWII Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband, recluse. But despite all the adulation that came his way, he was a man acutely aware of his own failings. Titled after Beckett’s famous ethos Dance first, think later, the film is a sweeping account of the life of this 20th-century icon. Dance First is directed by award-winning British filmmaker James Marsh, director of the films Wisconsin Death Trip, The King, Shadow Dancer, The Theory of Everything, The Mercy, and King of Thieves, plus the acclaimed doc films The Team, Man on Wire, and Project Nim previously. The screenplay is written by Neil Forsyth, inspired by the life of Samuel Beckett. Produced by Michael Livingstone, Viktória Petrányi, Tom Thostrup. This initially premiered at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival last fall, and it already opened in the UK in November last year. Magnolia Pics will release Marsh’s film Dance First in select US theaters on August 9th, 2024, before it’s available to watch on VOD starting August 16th this summer. Interested?
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