102 Boulevard Haussmann (1990)

Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Screen Two (1985-1994)

Director: Udayan Prasad

Writer: Alan Bennett

Cinematographer: John Hooper

Cast: Alan Bates, Janet McTeer, Paul Rhys, Philip McGough, Jonathan Coy, Philip Rham, Michael Wilcox, Peter Geeves, Michael Grandage, Lesley Nightingale

On a rare trip out to a concert performance, the asthmatic, decidedly frail, and near enough bed-ridden Marcel Proust takes a shine to a young viola player (on sick leave from the raging First World War), whom he attempts to befriend through a series of private concert performances, as his devoted maid (McTeer, affectingly restrained) passively looks on, in Bennett’s tender, subtle, and gently melancholic teleplay. Iain.Stott