Meetings with Remarkable Men (film)
Meetings with Remarkable Men is a 1979 British film directed by Peter Brook[1] and based on the book of the same name by Greek-Armenian mystic, G. I. Gurdjieff, first published in English in 1963. Shot on location in Afghanistan (except for dance sequences, which were filmed in England), it starred Terence Stamp, and Dragan Maksimović as the adult Gurdjieff. The film was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival, in competition for the Golden Bear award.
| Meetings with Remarkable Men | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover | |
| Directed by | Peter Brook |
| Produced by | Stuart Lyons |
| Written by | G. I. Gurdjieff (book) Screenplay: Peter Brook, Jeanne de Salzmann |
| Starring | Dragan Maksimović, Terence Stamp |
| Music by | Laurence Rosenthal |
| Cinematography | Gilbert Taylor |
| Edited by | John Jympson |
| Distributed by | Enterprise Pictures Ltd |
Release date |
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Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The plot involves Gurdjieff and his companions' search for truth in a series of dialogues and vignettes, much as in the book. Unlike the book, these result in a definite climax—Gurdjieff's initiation into the mysterious Sarmoung Brotherhood. The film is noteworthy for making public some glimpses of the Gurdjieff movements.[2]
Selected cast
- Dragan Maksimović as G. I. Gurdjieff
- Terence Stamp as Prince Lubovedsky
- Mikica Dimitrijevic as The young Gurdjieff
- Warren Mitchell as Gurdjieff's father
- Athol Fugard as Professor Skridlov
- David Markham as Dean Borsh
- Natasha Parry as Vitvitskaia
- Colin Blakely as Tamil
- Grégoire Aslan as Armenian priest
- Tom Fleming as Father Giovanni
- Andrew Keir as Head of Sarmoung Monastery
- Donald Sumpter as Pogossian
- Gerry Sundquist as Karpenko
- Martin Benson as Dr Ivanov
- Bruce Purchase as Father Maxim
- Roger Lloyd-Pack as Pavlov
Further reading
- Meetings with Remarkable Men: my impressions of the film, by Kathryn Hulme. Remar Productions, 1979.
- Meetings with Remarkable Men: One man's search becomes a film, by Pamela Lyndon Travers.
References
- Brook, Peter (September 1987). The shifting point, 1946-1987. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-039073-0. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- Panafieu, Bruno De; Needleman, Jacob; Baker, George (September 1997). Gurdjieff. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-0-8264-1049-8. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
A brief glimpse of the dances appears at the very end of the motion picture about Gurdjieff, Meetings with Remarkable Men, produced and directed in 1978 by Peter Brook, with a screenplay by Peter Brook and Jeanne de Salzmann