SELECTED EXITS

UK, 1990, 90 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Hopkins.
Directed by Tristram Powell.

Selected Exits is a brief, excellent British telemovie. It was written by Alan Plater and directed by BBC director, Tristram Powell (An American Friend).

It is a brief portrait of the Welsh novelist Gwyn Thomas (born 1913). The film is structured in a flashback style with Gwyn Thomas going to the BBC for a television brains trust program and remembering his own story and narrating it.

The film also has great strength with Anthony Hopkins in the role of Gwyn Thomas, narrating it even when the younger actors portray Thomas. The Welsh accent gives its own particular flavour to the mood of the film.

The Welsh locations and the re-creation of period are strong, giving an impression of the harshness of life for families in Wales, especially at the time of the general strike and the lack of opportunities for the Welsh to progress (as well as their isolation and alienating attitudes towards the English).

Hopkins gives a very good performance of an eccentric man, a creative man who would have preferred to have been a recluse, who had a very clever way with words and contrary ideas (enjoying lying and creating fiction and tensions), who was a schoolteacher for many years and finally a playwright and a television celebrity.

The film has a lot to offer in its reflections on 20th century life in the United Kingdom, especially in Wales.

1. An effective British telemovie? Its precision, brevity, impact?

2. The title - Gwyn Thomas's autobiography? His attitude towards life and death? His career? The theatre?

3. The Welsh settings, the town, the hills? Period? The contrast with England, especially Oxford? The Welsh school, homes? The BBC? Musical score?

4. The structure of the film: the introduction to Gwyn Thomas, his discussions with the Polish scientist, his jokingly telling lies and deceiving the professor and then discussing the value of telling such lies? How much could we believe of his autobiography?

5. The voice-over and its effectiveness? The presentation of the Thomas family, the father, work and out of work, his drinking, his creativity, his taking his young son for a walk, imbuing him with a sense of Welsh literature and culture? His mother and her death? The brothers and sisters? The older sister and her caring for the family? His studies, his playing with the family? Going with his father on the walk - and finishing up in the cemetery, waiting outside the pub? His ability with studies? Lying on the ground listening to the water - and the whole theme of water and floods in Wales? His relationship with the school principal? His success at studies and yet his being a recluse? The 17-year-old Gwyn, his behaviour in class, his way with words, his bewildering his teachers? His doing well in exams? His discussions with the headmaster - and being given the loan of 25 pounds and buying the coat? His study of Spanish? Going to England, the train ride, halfway between Oxford and Wales? The experience of Oxford? The dining room and the English students talking to each other about him and across him? His explanation of himself? Not eating, smoking, his ulcer? The landlady and his saving money, not eating the food? His studies - and the visit by the professor and his not having a tutor? His getting his degree - but his writing of novels? Discussions with his brother and his brother typing the novel?

6. Thomas as a schoolteacher, the passing of 20 years? His style in the classroom? His writing of his novels? His marriage and the devotion of his wife, her typing? The eccentric schoolteacher and his antagonism towards Thomas? Their discussions in the staff room? His reading the novel - and his eccentric reaction?

7. George Devine and the Royal Court Theatre? Dramatising British novelists? The invitation to Thomas to write a play? His skill in writing, the story, memories of his father, the talk about adding sex? The rehearsals, the structure of the play and its changes? The opening and his going with his wife, the theatre flooded out? The lack of success in going to the West End? His continuing to write plays with social comment?

8. His celebrity, going to Victor Golancz (but his not going inside)? All his novels published by Golancz? Going to the BBC, the brains trust and his comments? The final discussion with the Polish professor about being a migrant, his story about Wales and the United States? The scientific imagination and the literary imagination? Each needed?

9. An insight into a creative artist? A Welshman? An eccentric? The ability of television to do justice to a literary artist?