A Season in Hell (TV movie)

A Season in Hell is a 1964 Australian TV movie broadcast on the ABC. It was directed by Henri Safran from a script by Patricia Hooker and was shot at the ABC's Gore Hill Studios. It originally aired as an episode of Wednesday Theatre. A search of their website suggests the National Archives may hold a copy, with running time listed as 1:16:22.

Running time was one hour and 20 minutes.

It was filmed twice for TV in Australia.

The relationship between Arthur Rimbaud (Alan Bickford) and Paul Verlaine (Alistair Duncan). Rimbaud arrives i Paris age 16 and in three years shocks and revolts all who knows him.

Patricia Hooker says the friendship of the two men always fascinated her, but felt it would be necessary to study in France to make the story authentic. When working on Concord of Sweed Sounds with Henri Safran, the director became interested in her idea of a play about Rimbaud. Hooker said, "With his help it was possible to collect the information I needed, much of which had never been translated from the French." Alien Bickford as Arthur Rimbaud and Marlon Johns as Madame Verlaine. _+r_*r_+_r-t_*_+_**+*+*++_**++++

The TV critic for the Sydney Morning Herald thought the play "was thoughtfully and capably built on known episodes" from the two poets' lives but "suffered by its very episodic character, as well as from the impossibility of supplying several essentials to trie story' s full realisation." He added "if the play was a gallant but incomplete effort, its production by Henri Safran was beautifully assured and sensitive, its camera work expert, while an excellent cast was headed by the impressive performances of Alastair Duncan as Verlaine and Alan Bickford as Rimbaud."

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