‘a medium for fleas’: Beckett, Mitrani and 1950s–1960s French Television Drama

In January 1963, the French television channel RTF aired Michel Mitrani’s adaptation of Beckett’s radio play Tous ceux qui tombent (All That Fall). Despite the wide critical acclaim it received, Beckett deemed Mitrani’s telefilm ‘disastrous’, which led to his subsequent refusal of similar proposals for his works to be adapted. However, rather than rejecting its execution on technical and artistic grounds, it seems that Beckett was above all displeased with the altered meaning the radio piece acquired by its visualisation. The chapter situates this rarely discussed telefilm, and Mitrani’s work in general, in the context of the transformations of the television medium in France in the 1960s – the period which coincided with Beckett’s first attempts to write for the small screen. Since Beckett directed and supervised the filming of his TV plays outside of France (with the exception of Dis Joe, also directed by Mitrani), the developments in French television broadcasting during its peak period have been overlooked as a possible source of inspiration. By exploring conceptual and formal parallels between their work, the chapter ultimately proposes that Mitrani’s experimentation in the medium contributed to Beckett’s revaluation of television as a medium suitable for creative expression.