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Auction archive: Lot number 255

An original manuscript to an unproduced

Estimate
£2,000 - £3,000
ca. US$2,578 - US$3,867
Price realised:
n. a.
Auction archive: Lot number 255

An original manuscript to an unproduced

Estimate
£2,000 - £3,000
ca. US$2,578 - US$3,867
Price realised:
n. a.
Beschreibung:

An original manuscript to an unproduced film POTTER DENNIS: (1935-1994) English Dramatist & Screenwriter. Autograph Manuscript, signed ('Dennis Potter', to the holograph title page), 165 pages, 8vo, n.p., 27th February 1980. The handsomely bound manuscript is of Potter's unproduced screenplay for a film project entitled Unexpected Valleys, commissioned by the director and choreographer Herbert Ross. Set at the time of writing, the screenplay has a balletic theme and explores life, death, love and relationships, with the action taking place in Manhattan, New York, and Los Angeles, California. Potter's work centres on the major characters of the ballet dancers Zina Gant ('a beautiful dancer….in her twenties, approaching all sorts of peaks and maybe an unexpected valley or two….') and Gregor ('a sardonic, mildly cynical yet secretly vulnerable character dancer….in his late 40s….a Russian who defected well over a decade ago….') and the Californian based writer Daniel Westenberg (who suffers from alcoholic tendencies, occasionally falling off the wagon, and is experiencing writer's block) and his estranged wife, Ruth ('a quietly rather than strikingly pretty woman in her early thirties'). They are supported by a small cast including Ned, another dancer with Zina and Gregor's company, Nick, a music student who plays the violin, Daniel and Ruth's son, Simon (who becomes unexpectedly hospitalised) and Tony, Westenberg's literary agent. Potter opens with a scene set on Madison Avenue where Zina and Gregor, whilst having dinner in a basement restaurant, encounter an elderly Russian lady, whom Gregor recognises as Natalia Vaganovna. Described as an eccentric recluse with the appearance of a vagabond, Vaganovna is nonetheless a former dancer, a revered name in the world of ballet, who, when she defected to the West in the 1950s, caused a diplomatic storm. Gregor and Vaganovna have a brief, but frosty, exchange of words in their native tongue before Vaganovna promptly leaves the restaurant, only to result in drastic consequences that continue to haunt Zina throughout the story. The plot subsequently follows the life of the nymphomaniac Zina ('she is reaching her climax, with a hungry, demanding intensity that helps illuminate what men would call her ''promiscuity''….she likes it, and how!') whose numerous sexual encounters result in her being forced to make not just one, but several, life changing decisions. Potter entwines the action between Zina's life and that of Daniel, a former lover who remains infatuated with the ballerina. Zina and Daniel's paths cross again as the writer finds himself in New York whilst researching Natalia Vaganovna for a book he is struggling to complete on defectors and Western culture. Typical of Potter's screenplays, the personalities within Unexpected Valleys are interlinked and their destinies are revealed as the screenplay concludes with a perhaps surprising outcome, 'They were growing anxious for they saw now that the house might be hidden anywhere between them and the mountains. Then came an unexpected valley, narrow with steep sides, that opened suddenly at their feet'. Potter's manuscript, which features just a minimal number of minor corrections in his hand, is typically neatly written on individually numbered pages and comprises over 300 numbered scenes complete with slug lines, screen directions and dialogue. Unexpected Valleys demonstrates many characteristics found in Potter's other screenplays as he explores the concept of betrayal and provides various flashbacks throughout the work. Potter pioneered the use of music in his dramatisations and the present manuscript is no exception with various scenes being acted to music including extracts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Bizet's Carmen, as well as incorporating Cole Porter's song Night and Day and Lilly & Loesser's I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle. The manuscript is written on good quality cream paper with uncut edges and is attracti

Auction archive: Lot number 255
Auction:
Datum:
16 Aug 2017
Auction house:
IAA International Autograph Auctions Ltd.
Foxhall Business Centre, Foxhall Road
Nottingham, NG76LH
United Kingdom
info@autographauctions.co.uk
+44 (0)115 8451010
+44 (0)115 8451009
Beschreibung:

An original manuscript to an unproduced film POTTER DENNIS: (1935-1994) English Dramatist & Screenwriter. Autograph Manuscript, signed ('Dennis Potter', to the holograph title page), 165 pages, 8vo, n.p., 27th February 1980. The handsomely bound manuscript is of Potter's unproduced screenplay for a film project entitled Unexpected Valleys, commissioned by the director and choreographer Herbert Ross. Set at the time of writing, the screenplay has a balletic theme and explores life, death, love and relationships, with the action taking place in Manhattan, New York, and Los Angeles, California. Potter's work centres on the major characters of the ballet dancers Zina Gant ('a beautiful dancer….in her twenties, approaching all sorts of peaks and maybe an unexpected valley or two….') and Gregor ('a sardonic, mildly cynical yet secretly vulnerable character dancer….in his late 40s….a Russian who defected well over a decade ago….') and the Californian based writer Daniel Westenberg (who suffers from alcoholic tendencies, occasionally falling off the wagon, and is experiencing writer's block) and his estranged wife, Ruth ('a quietly rather than strikingly pretty woman in her early thirties'). They are supported by a small cast including Ned, another dancer with Zina and Gregor's company, Nick, a music student who plays the violin, Daniel and Ruth's son, Simon (who becomes unexpectedly hospitalised) and Tony, Westenberg's literary agent. Potter opens with a scene set on Madison Avenue where Zina and Gregor, whilst having dinner in a basement restaurant, encounter an elderly Russian lady, whom Gregor recognises as Natalia Vaganovna. Described as an eccentric recluse with the appearance of a vagabond, Vaganovna is nonetheless a former dancer, a revered name in the world of ballet, who, when she defected to the West in the 1950s, caused a diplomatic storm. Gregor and Vaganovna have a brief, but frosty, exchange of words in their native tongue before Vaganovna promptly leaves the restaurant, only to result in drastic consequences that continue to haunt Zina throughout the story. The plot subsequently follows the life of the nymphomaniac Zina ('she is reaching her climax, with a hungry, demanding intensity that helps illuminate what men would call her ''promiscuity''….she likes it, and how!') whose numerous sexual encounters result in her being forced to make not just one, but several, life changing decisions. Potter entwines the action between Zina's life and that of Daniel, a former lover who remains infatuated with the ballerina. Zina and Daniel's paths cross again as the writer finds himself in New York whilst researching Natalia Vaganovna for a book he is struggling to complete on defectors and Western culture. Typical of Potter's screenplays, the personalities within Unexpected Valleys are interlinked and their destinies are revealed as the screenplay concludes with a perhaps surprising outcome, 'They were growing anxious for they saw now that the house might be hidden anywhere between them and the mountains. Then came an unexpected valley, narrow with steep sides, that opened suddenly at their feet'. Potter's manuscript, which features just a minimal number of minor corrections in his hand, is typically neatly written on individually numbered pages and comprises over 300 numbered scenes complete with slug lines, screen directions and dialogue. Unexpected Valleys demonstrates many characteristics found in Potter's other screenplays as he explores the concept of betrayal and provides various flashbacks throughout the work. Potter pioneered the use of music in his dramatisations and the present manuscript is no exception with various scenes being acted to music including extracts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Bizet's Carmen, as well as incorporating Cole Porter's song Night and Day and Lilly & Loesser's I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle. The manuscript is written on good quality cream paper with uncut edges and is attracti

Auction archive: Lot number 255
Auction:
Datum:
16 Aug 2017
Auction house:
IAA International Autograph Auctions Ltd.
Foxhall Business Centre, Foxhall Road
Nottingham, NG76LH
United Kingdom
info@autographauctions.co.uk
+44 (0)115 8451010
+44 (0)115 8451009
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