National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art
Apr 22, 2010 | IMDB 8
145 min Watch NowDrama, Comedy
National Theatre Live’s 2010 broadcast of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play The Habit of Art, with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings, and Frances de la Tour, returns to cinemas as part of the National Theatre's 50th anniversary celebrations. Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for 25 years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. Alan Bennett’s play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art. One of the first five episodes also released on terrestrial TV on a 2009 BBC TV series titled "National Theatre Live".
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Back to Back
Rose
Romance/Romance
Company
National Theatre Live: Amadeus
National Theatre Live: Hedda Gabler
National Theatre Live: Twelfth Night
National Theatre Live: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
National Theatre Live: Obsession
National Theatre Live: Salomé
National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part One: Millennium Approaches
National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part Two: Perestroika
National Theatre Live: Yerma
Frankenstein : The Musical Live
National Theatre Live: Dixon and Daughters
Patalliro! Stage Play
The Star Wagon
The Rainmaker
In the Bleak Midwinter
Newsies
SIMILAR MOVIES
Back to Back
IMDB 0 | Nov , 1959
These dueling one-act comedies highlight the work of playwright John Mortimer. In "The Dock Brief," an ill-prepared attorney is put to the test when his client confesses to killing his wife. In "What Shall We Tell Caroline?" a father with good intentions tries to protect his wife and daughter from the bad things in life.Rose
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2021
"Rose" is a filmed one-woman theatrical performance. A moving reminder of some of the harrowing events that shaped the century. It remains sadly relevant today as racial tensions escalate, and allegations of antisemitism are rife.Romance/Romance
IMDB 0 | Feb , 1993
This delightful pairing of one-act musicals, one classic and one modern, takes a comical and moving look at the mysteries of love. Act I, based on Schnitzler's The Little Comedy, is a delightful romp through the sexual ennui of turn-of-the-century Vienna, as two wealthy but bored socialites masquerade as impoverished bohemians seeking romance. Act II, based on the Jules Renard play Summer Share, explores modern affection and disaffection as two married couples share a summer house in the Hamptons. An Off-Off-Broadway sensation that successfully moved to Broadway, Romance/Romance is a charming and tuneful small-cast gem, here filmed live for television.Company
IMDB 6.4 | Dec , 1996
Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.National Theatre Live: Amadeus
IMDB 7.4 | Feb , 2017
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, arrives in Vienna, the music capital of the world – and he’s determined to make a splash. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy his name. Seized by obsessive jealousy he begins a war with Mozart, with music, and ultimately, with God.National Theatre Live: Hedda Gabler
IMDB 8.5 | Mar , 2017
Hedda and Tesman have just returned from their honeymoon and the relationship is already in trouble. Trapped but determined, Hedda tries to control those around her, only to see her own world unravel.National Theatre Live: Twelfth Night
IMDB 8.7 | Apr , 2017
A ship is wrecked on the rocks. Viola is washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on her own, she steps out to explore a new land. So begins a whirlwind of mistaken identity and unrequited love. The nearby households of Olivia and Orsino are overrun with passion. Even Olivia's upright housekeeper Malvolia is swept up in the madness. Where music is the food of love, and nobody is quite what they seem, anything proves possible.National Theatre Live: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
IMDB 6.3 | Apr , 2017
Against the backdrop of Hamlet, two hapless minor characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, take centre stage. As the young double act stumble their way in and out of the action of Shakespeare’s iconic drama, they become increasingly out of their depth as their version of the story unfolds.National Theatre Live: Obsession
IMDB 6.6 | May , 2017
Gino is a drifter, down-at-heel and magnetically handsome. At a road side restaurant he encounters husband and wife, Joseph and Hanna. Irresistibly attracted to each other, Gino and Hanna begin a fiery affair and plot to murder her husband. But, in this chilling tale of passion and destruction, the crime only serves to tear them apart.National Theatre Live: Salomé
IMDB 9 | Jun , 2017
An occupied desert nation. A radical from the wilderness on hunger strike. A girl whose mysterious dance will change the course of the world. This charged retelling turns the infamous biblical tale on its head, placing the girl we call Salomé at the centre of a revolution. Internationally acclaimed director Yaël Farber (Les Blancs, Hamlet) draws on multiple accounts to create her urgent, hypnotic production.National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part One: Millennium Approaches
IMDB 8.1 | Jul , 2017
The National Theatre's live theatrical production of Tony Kushner's two-part play 'Angels In America' about New Yorkers grappling with the AIDS crisis during the mid-1980s.National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part Two: Perestroika
IMDB 8.1 | Jul , 2017
America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. This new staging of Tony Kushner's multi-award winning two-part play, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes, is directed by Olivier and Tony award winning director Marianne Elliott.National Theatre Live: Yerma
IMDB 8.8 | Aug , 2017
A woman is driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child in Simon Stone’s radical production of Lorca’s achingly powerful masterpiece.Frankenstein : The Musical Live
IMDB 0 | Sep , 2025
National Theatre Live: Dixon and Daughters
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2023
Mary has just been released from prison. She wants to come home and forget all about it but Briana has other ideas. Over a tumultuous two days a family is forced to confront not just their past but themselves. Because even if you refuse to hear the truth, the truth doesn’t go away. Róisín McBrinn returns to Clean Break (Favour) to direct this powerful story of family and forgiveness by Deborah Bruce (The House They Grew Up In). A co-production from National Theatre and Clean Break.Patalliro! Stage Play
IMDB 10 | Apr , 2017
The first theatrical play adaptation of the popular manga series “Patalliro!”.The Star Wagon
IMDB 7 | Oct , 1966
The Star Wagon is a play in black and white starring Dustin Hoffman.The Rainmaker
IMDB 6.7 | Oct , 1982
Traveling rainmaker Starbuck arrives at the drought-ridden Curry place, promising rain for the farm and perhaps a romance for 'spinster sister' Lizzie.In the Bleak Midwinter
IMDB 7.1 | Sep , 1995
Out of work actor Joe volunteers to help try and save his sister's local church for the community by putting on a Christmas production of Hamlet, somewhat against the advice of his agent Margaretta. As the cast he assembles are still available even at Christmas and are prepared to do it on a 'profit sharing' basis (that is, they may not get paid anything) he cannot expect - and does not get - the cream of the cream. But although they all bring their own problems and foibles along, something bigger starts to emerge in the perhaps aptly named village of Hope.Newsies
IMDB 8 | Feb , 2017
A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.