Breath By Samuel Beckett

[kafbeck]

Those who do not understand this work, will understand it someday.

That (allegorically speaking) is what remains after the last breath.

[Lamiose]

That is not a Nazi sign. That's the original swastika, which is built by four "L" letter. The Nazis used it's mirrored version. So it is you, lol.

By the way even Beckett said it was only a joke, he just wanted to see how stupid can people be. He wanted to see how many people will think this is a perfect play, and that it means something deep that average people can't understand. So all of you, who thought it's great and artistic, you've got yourselves fooled by the master.

[april20115]

Is it me or there is the Nazi insignia in an ashtray? ??? :O ( 0:38 )

[PRIEBLE]

@april20115 wow good catch

[wazdowls]

British literature !!!!!!! The man was Irish!!!

[Meemaah100]

This is perfection. If you don't get it, then don't watch it! Or- watch it another hundred thousand times until you get it. Then, you can suck air, or breathe as

you please or you don't please.

[Xilorn]

if that ain't some bullshit idk what is. 8th per brit lit sucks

[funnywithfreckles]

8th period brit lit rawk on

[tant12]

Well then, 8th period British literature class, I suppose we can all see why many would run out screaming.

[atomicsnow218]

8TH PERIOD BAIRD FTW!!!!!!

[UriDurrr]

1st Period Brit Lit FTW!

[Micksbah]

O.O how does this even relate to literature? -.-*

[UriDurrr]

I'm here because of IB Brit Lit. *sigh*

[AraknidVideoTests]

@UriDurrr I love how everybody in the class commented on this XD

[FaceKarl]

haha, its a joke. Becket dident mean anything about this, it was a joke, and this just takes it one step further, i love it

[azormage]

Ugh. I initially "liked" this because I find it mostly ravishing, and a very appropriate expansion on Beckett's minimal stage instructions. But then I noticed the cigarettes in the swastika shape. What am I to make of them? They turn the "breath" into a "Don't smoke, kids" type ad, which is not what Beckett intended. And they bring Nazism into it in a wholly inappropriate way. Why should Beckett be so mistreated just because he's dead? It's too bad, spoiling ~36 great seconds with 3 facile ones.

[xxlin88xx]

hu? drunk or junkie?

[KidManiac55]

1 800 quit smoking ad?

Fucking retarded

[KidManiac55]

My Theater professor in kcc is so hot

sad she already has kids 8(

[horn3ine]

Nihilism

[xxlxxjustinxxlxx]

Anyone else scared?!

[darcsilver]

How on Earth is this classified as a play?

[billythehick]

@darcsilver Near as i can tell it was originally a "sketch" as part of the "Oh! Calcutta!" revue. If you wanna get super-technical about it it probably only classes as an art installation, in and of itself. So long as the human breath is performed live it's a play.

[darcsilver]

@billythehick My point is that there is nothing performed, or live in the "play"

[billythehick]

@darcsilver If the breath is performed live, then technically there is. It's a live human vocal sound, accompanied by staged visuals and controlled lighting. The actor doesn't appear on stage, but he still performs the breath. Truth be told, I doubt Beckett was particularly concerned with whether or not it's a play, it just is what it is.

[darcsilver]

@billythehick If the performer is actually performing the breath live then I will begrudgingly allow to be called a play. They only reason I am upset about this classification is that it is considered the world's shortest play and I believe it is taking the title away from something that is actually a play.

[ziggystardustJR]

Yeah, uh, this isn't theater.

[UtUbEAdDiCcT13]

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! not

[OhneToeFehltDirWas]

Maybe it is art... but it scares me... :(

[willmcphail4]

How on EARTH did it take so many people to make this pretentious crock of shit??!!

[roxyqueen2]

@willmcphail4 well said. I'm studying Beckett right now and it's a total waste of time.

[stevesg92]

@willmcphail4 Wow... you have shown the extent of your intelligent.

[stevesg92]

@willmcphail4 And for your information this is a representation of what life is on earth. There's a bunch of garbage, we inhale then exhale which is death.

[willmcphail4]

@stevesg92 Well how very patronising. I don't remember saying I needed it to be explained to me.

[stevesg92]

@willmcphail4 Well what I do remember is a moron commenting on something that he has no knowledge of.

[willmcphail4]

@stevesg92 I don't like this video. How could you possibly ascertain from that my previous knowledge of performance art, or indeed that I am a moron? I can only assure you that you are wrong in both cases. Now please irritate somebody else, I thought I'd wasted enough time after 1:22.

[angerock49]

@willmcphail4 Well that's a constructive point of view lol...

[PRIEBLE]

@willmcphail4 it's not a pretentious crock of shit. perhaps you just dont understand it...

[thecanadiancook]

wheres the baby cry?

[SnowFrawz]

How many people does it take just to create a dying man's breath?

[guerratronz]

I remember my Drama teacher showing us this in class back in 2004! I instantly fell in Love with Samuel Beckett!!! =)

[wittyworldlee]

my theatre teacher let me do free association of this. i said the play shows how when you become enlightened it lasts for only a few breaths, and what you are enlightened with is trash. very pragmatic and nonsensical. at the end of class he said he thinks what people see in this video are the things that have a meaning to them and stand out of all the other 'trash'. quite a mindtwister. tho if someone my age did this video i'd say it was bullshit.

[Manwithcam]

@wittyworldlee Why would you say it was bullshit if someone else did it? Perhaps because you don't see the inherent worth of the piece and only respect it because it's by Beckett? Now THAT'S the bullshit, in my opinion/// I think people need to start looking at the art, not the artists/authors.

[wittyworldlee]

@Manwithcam i'm saying that many ppl would see this to be spectacular just because beckett did it but if i did it and turned it in for a class i'd get an f. i do appreciate work from theatre of the absurd, and i've been enlightened by a lot of them. i'm saying i don't appreciate people who would only see this piece as a work of art just because it's beckett, which is ironic because now you think i'm one of those people.

[TheUnbreakableOtaku]

It's hard to describe how this makes me feel.

[nataSa696]

snob

[shudhakalyan]

According to Wikipedia, Damien Hirst said : “(...) I read the text and thought it was incredibly precise and strict. (...) I kept reading the text over and over (...) That was when I realised that Beckett had this massive sense of humour.” That's great. But what a pity then that he didn't make any "vagitus" as Beckett's text described the cry beginning and ending the play (or am I deaf ?). The vagitus, "first cry of a new-born baby", is of a prime importance in this world-ending atmosphere !

[zaynzaynzayn]

the final exhausted breath of beckett's brand of modernist absurd existentialism. hirst is a fit director here. having inherited no aesthetic values.

[zjbeast]

omg :39 cigarettes in an ash tray forming a swastica. So many little things. I notice something new every time I watch this. Beckett's art!

[zaynzaynzayn]

@zjbeast didn't beckett die of lung cancer?

[zjbeast]

@zaynzaynzayn really? Genious

[zaynzaynzayn]

@zjbeast genius?

[azormage]

@zjbeast It isn't Beckett's art! Beckett mentioned nothing about cigarettes or swastikas and I'm sure he would've been appalled.

[Krazy4lasers]

so... so heart warming

[juancamex]

WOW so many people involved in this piece of SHIT. In this day doing crap is ART. please.... I'm gonna do my play called "FART" AND i'm gonna tape myself on the toilt farting. hahaha

[trillyland]

sheet



[AJGallichan]

Probably just old Samuel messing us around and getting a kick out of seeing his devotees fretting over the meaning of absolutely nothing.

[TheRandom8531]

@drezler5  That's kinda where my thinking was. i completely agree

[drezler5]

It seems to be a statement of how evil results from the chaotic nature of "existence" as "breathed in" by culture. After the crises of existence is absorded, we see the medicine bottles and the smoking swastikas, indicating that evil is "exhaled" from a "sickened" culture. The carts also seem to give something of either a nusery or a hospital motif. I believe the keyboards represent the passing of information that really is the "breath of society" And the end result? Sickness and evil.

[drezler5]

I believe that Samuel Beckett understood the power of expression itself, in a purified form that rises above interpretative meaning. Concepts, imagery, words... all of these, if used properly, can form interrelations very similiar to musical notes, a silent music that is never taught in american schools.

[TheRandom8531]

Out of curiosity, since this is from a nihilists view, what was the purpose of the video? Was it not to be understood and show what the creator thought to be reality? But if this is the case, then it contradicts the nihilist view completely because that would mean the video had significance.

[rucha58]

Beckett was an absurdist as far as I can tell, not a nihilist. They're similar, but different in that an absurdist doesn't deny the possibility of meaning.

[drezler5]

@TheRandom8531 why would an absolute nihilist bother to do anything at all?

[biggsy101]

is there some reason why the cigarettes make a swatstika in the ashtray near the end???

[Victorgoleche75]

there's a reason for everything in this video

[ctc2531]

Its a paradox of life and death. the swastika first represented life under the aryan indian culture then hitler took it and turned it into a symbol of death. just like the character breaths in at the beginning, taking in life. She then breaths out at the end, losing life.

[drezler5]

@ctc2531 Breathing out hardly equates to losing life. Actually, when we breathe out, it's mostly carbon dioxide that would otherwise poison the body. Breathing out is just as conducive to life as is breathing in. I think the fact that the swastika is smoking would lead one to believe that the "presense of evil" is "exhaled" into the darkness of space, after the "disordered jumble" of existence is "taken in" The presence of medicine bottles seems to indicate a certain "sickness" as well.

[ctc2531]

@drezler5 what evil are you implying. It's a reference to life the first cry, is a birth cry. The hospital equipment and medicine bottles is the notion that life is a hospital, we suffer.

[drezler5]

@biggsy101 Beckett's life was deeply impacted by world war two. He was nearly killed at one point by the nazis in Paris. Maybe that has something to do with it. Who knows?

[Melissa322]

wonderful news everyone; everything's irrelevant. so have fun!

[Veyxis]

kinda philosophic

[terrorbytepresents]

Hirst totally misses the point. Beckett would have abused the shit out of him.

[christiaanmooij]

@terrorbytepresents why?

[clzjcmm]

stupidest shit in the world.

[tobs001]

What happened to the birth cry?

[GrimRetard90]

Beckett = marmite

[StanWorship]

im gonna kick damien hirst in the nutz

[lpoignancyl]

Is this production missing the cry of an infant, a rather crucial element to Beckett's text of this piece?

[villiparis]

Beckett wrote this piece to be used by someone in a erotic revue that would be an ironic comment on what was to follow in the show-rubbish

[youthguyingarrett]

nihilism in it's finest. BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[IRISHREPTILEZ92]

why are you rejects talkin about hitler??? wtf??? this is a play with NOTHING to do with HITLER,THE NAZIS OR anything go post this shit on a forum seriously......

[tlsorrel]

THANK. YOU.

[dnzulular]

idiot nazi...!

[wikser11]

i dont get it

[CoinOperatedHate]

For example, "Play" is about a love affair and they all were murdered by one another or caused suicide. They are in earns for the fact instead of hell they have to remain forever telling their story over and over and over. They show them talking all together sometimes to show the fact that they are completely unaware of one another.

I studied his plays and they each do, indeed, have a meaning.

Just because you don't know what it means doesn't mean it doesn't have a meaning.

[britishagentTV]

Wasn't the swastika at the end symbolizing Hitler, who was a devout nihilist?

[ShibuBaka]

That's not Hitler's swastika, his points to the right.

That's the Chinese symbol for "purity," I think.

[YouToobDoode]

thats fucking retarded, fuck you all. seriusly

[rolander122]

his testing the limits ...what can be called art.

[clockwork1493]

its not complete though. it is supposed to be: breathing, crying, then breathing. and its supposed to be about 25 seconds long. not bad video though. a bit disturbing.

[Cian2e]

This play has a somewhat startling quality to it. It's staggeringly original, though!

[DugAkum]

wtf was that?

[appledip71]

interesting how this interpretation seems to be a commentary on "big tobacco" (hospital items, gurneys, sharps containers, gowns, etc., then that ashtray @ the end with the cigarette butts in the shape of a swastika. it's like the director is saying "look @ where you'll end up. they've planned this for you. cherish your breath." true, but it's a detour from the "calcutta joke." love beckett, but this version of "breath" leads into the director's mind/opinions a bit much. still good, though.

[horacetx]

was this an antipollution video?

[errchico]

o.0

[sorenpg]

This is SO strange.. The shortest theater play ever xD

[eclecticstars]

There is an older and better version of this from the 60's. Don't ask me why but I just know this is not quite right. I'm sure there are meant to me no "Upright" images on the stage and this has the legs of the trolley and it gives a strong impression of "Hospital" which i don't remember in the older version. The sigh/breath is suppled by Keith Allen, for those of you who do not know this British actor, he has a reputation of being an arrogant hammy bastard. Still, I love Beckett

[painttballjunkyy]

A lot of you missed the meaning, Beckett was at heart a nihilist. He is illustrating this by showing what the life of a man at the core really is. He breaths in he breaths out, in a world of absurdity and random, then ends in darkness as in nothing

[RedGaze]

i love this. such powerful imagery.

[jesshkenny]

haha i think beckett would be pretty pissed

[TriSuper57t76t83]

cry of a baby??????

[TriSuper57t76t83]

This represents the mankind´s garbage,

trough the eyes of a alien.

this was the man´s contribuition to the universe.

who agrees??

[stop7997]

Since the first and last sounds of the piece are supposed to be the cry of a baby (guess this director thought he/she could improve upon Beckett), my guess is that it is representative of a child being born into poverty and squalor. Just a guess. But it could also be a child being born into mankind's garbage. Makes sense to me.

[fleatheatre]

Where's the vagitus? And what for this moving camera?

[jango52577]

I almost watched this last night before I went to bed...I'm glad I waited until now. The film itself isn't creepy. It's the actual sound of the play's namesake that is kind of disturbing. I've wanted to see this play since I read about it being the shortest ever written in the Guinness Book of World Records. At 32 seconds, I believe it.

[friedrice00]

I believe the meaning behind this short play is that it is the rubbish that is breathing. It's symbolic of how man is attached to objects in the world. for instance, how a man is attached to a car. This brings up the idea of materialism. It is rubbish and there are cries because it shows how man kills the things he loves. This piece is a direct representation of Oscar Wilde's quote: "yet each man kills the thing he loves."

[GymnopedieTornado]

Also, this is much funnier in context of the rest of the revue it was written for.

[stardrops5]

I don't understand what this is all about- what makes this piece so great? Could someone explain it to me pls?

[cherishtherepublic]

its minimalism...yet at the same time, it could be that the playwright is playing a joke on the public and Art in general...like Duchamp's urinal...it makes me laugh to know that people got dressed up and prepared to go see it and probably talked about it forever. I don't like this play, but I do like many of Beckett's.

[cherishtherepublic]

its minimalism...yet at the same time, it could be that the playwright is playing a joke on the public and Art in general...like Duchamp's urinal...it makes me laugh to know that people got dressed up and prepared to go see it and probably talked about it forever. I don't like this play, but I do like many of Beckett's.

[NoirLights]

its an ironic joke at the expense of a critic named Kenneth Tynan who asked for a short avant-garde sketch for his theatre review night on Broadway named Oh Calcutta which was pretty much - Snuff on stage... so Beckett took five minuites out of his time to...

work on something

and

this was it.

[stop7997]

I'm curious as to where you're from and what you mean by the term "snuff". In the U.S., "snuff" (aside from the tobacco product) is a genre of pornography that depicts the actual on-camera death of one of the actors, which to my knowledge never happened in "Oh! Calcutta!". I suspect you mean "smut", since it was a revue of sex-related sketches containing onstage nudity.

[SednaDeli]

Yes, Smut. According to wikipedia, the director of "Oh! Calcutta" sort of 'ruined' the original production of Breath by adding naked bodies to the garbage strewn on the stage. Beckett was upset by this, I think because he wanted to make a point that "Oh! Calcutta" was garbage, and hence, he made a companion play starring, um, garbage. However, the breath - it is still very chilling. Even in this bizarre vignette, he seems to attempt evoke strong imagery.

[alberich520]

Has nothing to do with Beckett's piece. 100% Damien Hirst 0% Samuel Beckett.

[bronlokis]

idiot!

[alberich520]

What a clever remark. Did you think of that all on your own?

[bronlokis]

good comeback, better than mine asswipe

[IDTFG]

Absolutely, alberich. So easy to get this right. Why f*** around with it? These people piss me off.

[dianasatyr]

Our monument, for the future generations afflicted by our having passed through here.

[NormanBatesIsMyMum]

what utter bollocks

[Slido]

Feeble. While I love some of his stuff, this is just a crap joke. You're not meant to take it seriously you know. They teach this in English classes? Jesus christ....

[Amylittlebitp]

Just watched it today in my drama class. I love Samuel Beckett's work. This would have to be my fav. I love how he does work on what goes on in a person's mind in all his work. Not many do that now.

[palizada]

mmm I dont like Damien Hirst...

[iblahblah123]

the camerawork is the worst part of this version

[Hafciarka]

"nie ma hafciarka" - writing this sentence in youtube and watching polish film was a screening of dramas by Samuel Beckett.

[schecteraxeman17]

great filmwork and prop preparation, but like someone said before me, there were supposed to be two recording's of "recorded vagitus"

[malice200]

The attention to detail is brilliant =D you can pick out lots of things. Like the swastika in the ashtry at 0:38.

[mahoodworm]

well spotted.

[beckiface311]

yeah, i was going to mention that...we watched this in english class a long time ago and saw that

[IDTFG]

Wrong wrong wrong.

[Fishfuckmagician]

What about the vagitus?!

[neroboy]

Funny... I had always imagined it was a kind

of sigh. But it's more of a gasp, huh? After rereading it, it looks like this is the best interpertation.

[Castlevaniac]

That was... weird. I'm not even sure if I liked it or not. :P