Sartre by Himself

Can you believe it?: a two-cassette, 3-hour celebrity interview? And we jerk ourselves silly if His Wealthiness Bill Gates deigns to talk to TV reporters!!In 1972, Sartre sat in his apartment in the Montparnasse section of Paris for a film documentary: archive footage (including clips from the 1967 Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal, convened in London by Bertrand Russell; that’s U.S. antiwar activist Dave Dellinger to Sartre’s right) and Sartre being interviewed by old friends, including Simone de Beauvoir. A real historical find, particularly with the endless talking-head revisionism conducted nightly on CNN & its broadcast progeny.Originally made for French TV, Sartre By Himself was released theatrically in 1976. There is a post-Sartre coda on the video. In French with English dubbing & French subtitles for the archive footage. The only real drawback is that everyone but Sartre seems uncomfortable on camera: the energy produced by the fidgeting here could replace nuclear power.