Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry
A film by Donald Brittain
Director: Donald Brittain
Producers: Donald Brittain and R.A. Duncan
A National Film Board of Canada Film
Released in 1976.
Malcolm Lowry (1909-57) considered his life a failure and an embarassment, and so he exorcised his demons through writing and gin, all the while fearing he would be engulfed by his fiction. Under the Volcano, which took fourteen years to write, was hailed as the novel of the century. Lowry wrote himself into the book, then he drank himself into the grave.
From its sobering opening with the inquest into Lowry's "death by misadventure," this film moves back in time to trace one writer's voyage through hell. Lowry's darkly humorous words, spoken here by Sir Richard Burton, swirl around spellbinding images shot in Mexico, the United States, Canada and England. Further insights into the author's life and character are supplied by the people who knew, loved, and hated him.
Like a nightmare that nevertheless fascinates, the film unfolds to reveal "something new about hellfire." More than the biography of a writer, Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry is a reflection on the greater agonies of mankind.
Click to see NFB catalogue entry for this video.
Under the Volcano
A Universal Studios Film
Directed by John Huston
Produced by Moritz Borman
and Wieland Schulz-Keil
Executive Producer - Michael Fitzgerald
Screenplay by Guy Gallo
Music by Alex North
Edited by Roberto Silvi
Director of Photography - Gabriel Figueroa
Starring
Albert Finney as Geoffrey Firmin
Jacqueline Bisset as Yvonne Firmin
Anthony Andrews as Hugh Firmin
By most accounts, the story of making Lowry's novel into a film was a complex web of movie rights, screenplays, producers, and directors. (Lowry himself recognized the cinematic possibilities of his novel and tried to interest a Hollywood studio in producing it.) The final producer, Wieland Schulz-Keil, recalls reading more than sixty screenplays before settling on Guy Gallo's.
The film that finally made it to the screen has met with mixed reviews. Some critics argue that Huston's film is too minimalistic and it oversimplifies Lowry's narrative by leaving out the rich background material contained in the internal monologues and flashbacks. Others admire the film for what the production did achieve and give high marks to Albert Finney's performance as the Consul. See the list of resources below for a variety of views and opinions.
Publicity stills from the film:
Resources:
"Under Huston's Volcano," Bill Hagen, in Literature/Film Quarterly 19:3 (1991) p.138-149.
"Under Lowry's Volcano," Pete Hamill, in Piecework, Boston: Little Brown, 1996, p. 151-67.
"The Filmmaker as Critic: Huston's Under the Volcano and The Dead," Rebecca Hughes and Kieron O'Hara, in Joyce/Lowry: Critical Perspectives, eds. Patrick McCarthy and Paul Tiessen, UP Kentucky, 1997, p.177-96.
"The 67th Reading: Under the Volcano and Its Screenplays" by Wieland Schulz-Keil, in Apparently Incongruous Parts: The Worlds of Malcolm Lowry, ed. Paul Tiessen, Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1990.
Malcolm Lowry: A Bibliography. J. Howard Woolmer. Revere, Penn.: Woolmer/Botherson, 1983, p. 158, E7.
A text of the play has been published by Talon Books, #210-1019 East Cordova Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1M8
This recording consists of three tapes.
Available from: Audio Literature, 370 West San Bruno, San Bruno, California, 94066. ISBN 1-57453-160-3, or
Order this recording now.
This recording consists of two cassette tapes.
Available from: Listen for Pleasure Inc., 25 Mallard Road, Don Mills, Ontario, M3B 1S4; 1-800-387-8023; or One Columbia Drive, Niagra Falls, N.Y. 14305; 1-800-843-8404. ISBN 0-88646-218-5; or Order this tape now.
The Day of the Dead:
Two CD's of music by the British composer Graham Collier based on the words of Malcolm Lowry.
First performed in Budapest in September 1977.
"A perfect marriage of words and music." - Alan Forrest, The Financial Times
"This is not an easy 60 minutes of listening. It takes several hearings to appreciate all the finer points of the integration of the music with the words. But it is an immensely rewarding experience which deserves the listener's attention." - Kevin Henriques, Jazz Journal International
Goodnight Disgrace a play by Michael Mercer
"From his wheelchair in a nursing home, the aging Conrad Aiken recalls his
long, stormy friendship with Malcolm Lowry. When Aiken is 40, Lowry's father pays him
to tutor the young Malcolm. But the protegé becomes Aiken's friend, and, gradually, a
real contender. Mercer's powerful play reveals the shifts in the two men's relationship
as they struggle with alcoholism, women, creative energy, and each other; and as the
student metamorphoses into a rival. "I will be the one they remember," Lowry declares in
their final scene together." (Quoted from the book cover.)
Goodnight Disgrace, directed by Leon Pownall, was first performed by the
Shakespeare Plus Theatre Company in Nanaimo, British Columbia, on July 5, 1984,
with the following cast:
Nurse ... Sheri-D Wilson
Malcolm Lowry ... Ron Halder
Clarissa Lorenz ... June Mayhew
Arthur O. Lowry ... Don Wallace
Ed Burra ... Sam Mancuso
Jan Gabrial ... Joelle Rabu
Audio tape
Recorded by arrangement with the estate of Malcolm Lowry"Beneath the twin shadows of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl in Mexico, the Consul is drunk. He staggers from bar to bar hoping to find salvation staining the bottom of the next glass. The dissolute life suits him until his former wife Yvonne returns with Hugh, the Consul's half-brother. As the trio enjoys a local festival, they discover the dead body of a local peasant, thus beginning a series of events that will decide the Consul's fate."
Audio tape
Produced by Graham Goodwin and Jigga Dunn
Abridged by Andrew Simpson"The horrors of alcoholism have never been so vividly, so comprehensively, or so sympathetically described as they are in UNDER THE VOLCANO. Equally vivid is the picture of alcohol's attractions: the blessed painlessness that beckons from within a bottle. Against a backcloth, brilliantly described, of the magnificant, uncaring Mexican
mountains, the Consul examines his disastrous life; he understands the pain he is causing to all who love him; he is aware that salvation is within his grasp; and yet he cannot save himself; he does not want to save himself."
