Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Following a plane crash, a group of schoolboys find themselves on a deserted island. They appoint a leader and attempt to create an organized society for the sake of their survival. Democracy and order soon begin to crumble when a breakaway faction regresses to savagery with horrifying consequences. An adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner William Golding’s 1954 dystopian novel, which investigates mankind’s inherent savagery (and a cinematic translation of Brook’s legendary stage adaptation), the film leads the viewer from hope to disaster, with the same awe and hesitation an insect is drawn to light.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Peter Brook
Script: William Golding, Peter Brook
Cinematography: Tom Hollyman
Editing: Peter Brook, Gerald Feil, Jean- Claude Lubtchansky
Sound: James Townsend
Music: Raymond Leppard
Actors: James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin
Production: Two Arts Ltd
Producers: Lewis M. Allen
Costumes: Susan Fletcher
Executive producer: Al Hine
Make Up: Lydia Rodriguez
Format: DCP
Color: B/W
Production Country: United Kingdom
Production Year: 1963
Duration: 91΄
Contact: Hollywood Classics International
Awards/Distinctions: Top Ten Films of the Year – American National Board of Review 1963

Peter Brook

Peter Brook (1925–2022) was born in London and educated at Oxford. World famous for his pioneering work in theater, in a spectacular career that encompassed more than half of the 20th century, Brook also directed significant films in Britain and France. He made his debut with an adaptation of John Gay’s satirical The Beggars Opera (1953), starring Laurence Olivier. Brook’s next British film, Lord of the Flies (1963), was an adaptation of William Golding’s classic literary parable on the descent of society. Two of Brook’s most famous theatrical productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s, The Marat/Sade by German modernist Peter Weiss and Shakespeare’s King Lear, eventually made it into films with very much the same casts as on stage. Brook also directed two drama documentaries; Tell Me Lies (1968), about British anti-Vietnam War sentiment in the late 1960s, and Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979), the story of Gurdjieff, an Asian mystic. Since the completion of the latter film, Brook continued his filmmaking career in France. His other film credits include The Mahabharata (1989), The Tragedy of Hamlet (2002), and the documentary The Tightrope (2012), co-directed with his son, filmmaker Simon Brook.

Filmography

1953 The Beggar’s Opera
1960 Moderato Cantabile
1963 Lord of the Flies
1967 Ride of the Valkyrie (short)
1967 Marat/Sade
1968 Tell Me Lies
1971 King Lear
1979 Meetings with Remarkable Men 1979 Mesure pour mesure (TV)
1982 La Cerisaie (TV)
1983 La Tragédie de Carmen
1989 The Mahabharata
2002 The Tragedy of Hamlet (TV)
2012 The Tightrope (co-direction)