More on Retracing ;-)

July 13th, 2024

"If I fall, don’t pick me up"

That’s the title Declan Clarke chose for his latest film that focuses on the friendship of two of the greatest men of our time: the writer Samuel Beckett and the theater director Walter Asmus.

The film deeply resonated with me because of the approach chosen by Declan Clarke. It resonates so much with my immersive experience The Hague Hostel!

Retracing is the perfect word to describe it.

The definition of this word by Merriam Webster reads:
“retrace: to trace (something) again or back: such as
- to go over or along (something, such as a course or path) again often in a reverse direction
- to go over (something) again in memory : recall
- to discover the origin or early history of (something) by going back over previous steps
- to follow, study, or present (something) in detail or step by step […]”

Declan Clarke’s film does exactly all the above-mentioned.

Physical objects – handwritten letters from the archive of Walter Asmus (letters and cards written and sent to him by Samuel Beckett) appear as a unique and precious trace of the person as well as of the moment itself, the moment when Samuel Beckett wrote them and the moment Walter Asmus received them and read them, tearing open the envelopes in his excitement. It is impossible not to get deeply moved by these objects alone, even if you know very little about Samuel Beckett!

No matter how great digital means of communication are, they can never have the same meaningfulness as a physical, hand-made object, an object you can touch, smell, feel, an object that keeps the energy and the intention of the person who made it.

Sadly, these beautiful objects are almost extinct as means of communication nowadays, which echoes poignantly with one of the themes of Beckett’s greatest work “Waiting for Godot” – the meaninglessness in communication.

Through the letters and different written materials on Beckett, Declan Clarke went to physically retrace Beckett’s steps in Berlin, finding and visiting different places where Beckett went. That’s another magical process. Of course, time flies and places change, but finding a specific place where a person that means a lot to you went at some point, going there and standing where they stood, seeing what they saw or imagining what they might have seen is a truly unparalleled experience.

“Impressive and moving” – that’s how Walter Asmus described Declan Clarke’s film. I can only agree with him.

(C)Photo credit: If I fall, don't pick me up by Declan Clarke