The Robert Louis Stevenson Archive
Documentaries about Stevenson and his works
suggest an addition or correction to the list
1924 [film of Stevenson's Edinburgh days] In ‘Stevenson Unwhitewashed. Was His Story of Jekyll and Hyde Enacted in Real Life?’ (Current Opinion [New York] (Dec 1924), : 709-10), the anonymous author remarks on ‘the announcement from Scotland that a film of his "Edinburgh Days" has just been completed (709).
1938 ‘Glencoe and Appin’ (1938), filmed by E. McGinley (8 min. 16 mm amateur educational documentary)
Made for advanced children and those studying Massacre of Glencoe and novel Kidnapped. Scottish Screen Archive at the national Library of Scotland
c1946 [G.B. Stern, planned script for a film on the life of Stevenson] [G.B. Stern (1948), No Son Of Mine, London, Cassell, p. 8 (Preface): 'I had persuaded a film company to let me make a script on the life of Robert Louis Stevenson; an idea which I had treasured for many years before']
1951 Notes on the Port of St. Francis, dir. Frank Stauffacher, voice Vincent Price. [An artistic documentary on San Francisco; except for the printed quotation from Walter de la Mare at the very beginning of the film, and a word or two here and there, the words in Notes on the Port of St. Francis are from RLS’s ‘A Modern Cosmopolis’ (1883). For Roger Swearingen’s presentation at a special screening of the film at the Book Club of California]
1963 ‘A View from the Bass’ (1963), dir. Henry Cooper (Films of Scotland) – (15 min. 35 mm promotional film)
The county of East Lothian, in particular the town of North Berwick and its links with Robert Louis Stevenson. Includes shot of Berwick Law and group of Boy Scouts in kilts climbing it. Scottish Screen Archive at the national Library of Scotland
c.1970 Heather on Fire (BBC Scotland) (N) [dramatization in which S appears as a character]
1986 Tusitala - Teller of Tales (ABC-Portman, Australia) Writer:
Peter Yeldham; Producer: Ray Alchin;
Executive Producers: Chris Muir, Ian Warren; Director: Don Sharp
[a retelling of RLS's last four years in the South
Pacific; I remember it as rather boring and with a simplistic anti-English,
pro-Australian approach; six 52 mins. episodes; RLS:
John McEnery; Fanny Stevenson: Angela Punch McGregor;
Harry Moors: Ray Barrett; Cusack-Smith: John Gregg. Shown on Danish TV
July-August 1990]
1987 Knight, Alanna. Across The Plains. BBC 1. [Adaptation of The Amateur Emigrant]
1988 Knight, Alanna (script) & David Jensen. The Ballad Of Robert Louis Stevenson. [pilot TV programme by Bon Accord Productions 1988]
1989 Meet the Author: Robert Louis Stevenson (SRA/McGraw-Hill; dir. Cynthia Cowens, script/research/assoc. prod.: Frank Beck) [uses still images from the Beinecke collection at Yale and other sources, including a number of photographs never published before; named one of the ten best children's videos of the year by the American Library Association, and in 1994 it was used as part of the main Centenary commemoration exhibition at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh and organized by the Writers' Museum (where it made a very effective conclusion to the visit). Available from SRA/McGraw-Hill, 220 East Danieldale Road, Desota, Texas 75115; product No. 1-888-772-4543, ISBN 0-07-509245-X; $57.96 (schools), $77.28 (individuals); video includes teacher's guide]
199* (planned) Robert Louis Stevenson's America, dir. James S. Culp (Film History Foundation) [about Stevenson's life and work in America. More information on the events page]
1992 Treasured Islands Robert Louis Stevenson in the Pacific. Prod: Lowell Don Holmes, Richard Charles Welsbacher, University of California. Distributor: UCEMC (U of Calif Extension Media Center).
[Describes Robert Louis Stevenson's journey to the South Seas with emphasis placed on his last five years of life spent at Vailima, Western Samoa. Begins with the details of a voyage to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, the Society Islands, and Hawai'i, then describes the author's trip to the Samoan Islands where he settled down, built a home called Vailima, and became involved in the Polynesian lifestyle and local political events. Ends with Stevenson's death and burial on Mt. Vaea. 57 minutes. Holmes also published a book with the same title in 2001.]
1994 Stevenson's Travels (BBC) [Narrator: Julian Glover. interesting; divided into topological / bibliographical 'chapters', there are a good number of prominent Stevenson scholars, and the Stevenson voice-overs are very evocative; teacher's backup material ]
1996 The Birth of Horror: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, dir. Christopher Frayling (****) [stimulating (the only TV programme from which I have taken notes!); available (but only for shipment within the USA or Canada) as a 200-minute, 2-video set of the whole interesting series Nightmare: the Birth of Horror for $39.95 from A&E TV Networks (product code AAE-16076)]
2000 Robert Louis Stevenson (Alexander Kulpok, Saländischer Rundfunk (ARD), Germany). [Broadcast 13 November 2000 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Stevenson’s birth; 30 mins.]
2002 Famous Authors: Robert Louis Stevenson ( videocassette. color. 30 min). Landmark Media. 2002. [$225. For Senior High and College students.]
2003 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in
the ‘Great Books Series’ (US Learning Channel), dir./prod./wtn.
by Judith Dwan Hallet; narr. Michael Madsen; includes dramatised sections with the
following actors: Michael David (RLS), Max Macfie (young RLS), Felicitas Macfie (Cummy), Bill McDonald (Jekyll), Davyth
Hicks (Hyde), Claire Hubbard (trampled girl), John Macfie (Utterson),
Alan Marchbank (Lanyon); also interviews with Roger Swearingen, Jenni
Calder, Ian Rankin, Stephen Arata and Gordon Hirsch
[52 min.; shot entirely on location in Edinburgh,
Scotland except for three interviews in the USA; also includes stills from of
paintings and illustrations from a number of collections. Trampling,
breaking-down-the-door and exploration-of-the-cabinet scenes are well done;
interesting mirror shots. The film tells the story of Stevenson’s novella,
interweaving this with interpretation. The good vs
bad interpretation is rather reductive and also the-scientist-going-too-far and
the descent-into-addictive behaviour: these seem commonplaces taken from the
film tradition; however the interviewed commentators make some good points:
Arata, Swearingen, Calder and Ian Rankin. Broadcast in the US on 9th December
2003, at 2 am (EST) on TLC (The Learning Channel). It will also be broadcast in
Europe on The Discovery Channel, at a date not yet decided.]
2004 Jekyll and Hyde: The True Story (2004), dir. Christopher Rowley (Cream Productions, USA). 50 mins TV film. To be shown in Australia (ABC) 9:25pm Sunday, May 22, 2005
[Documentary based on the idea of Deacon Brodie was the original of Dr Jekyll and that the idea of the transforming potion came from Stevenson’s use of medicinal drugs.]
2004 Quattro chiacchiere su Stevenson (a gossip on Stevenson) (2004), dir. Costantino Sarnelli, texts by Laura Chiotasso for Le Cercle Rouge (Busca, Italy). Available as ‘streaming’ files at EDEA (Ecole Doctorale Des Etudes Anglophones), Université Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle in the section ‘Actualités’
[Video-documentary (made in the Upper Town of Bergamo in June 2004) with Jean-Pierre Naugrette, Richard Ambrosini and Richard Dury and dramatic presentation by Elisa Dani. The three Stevensonians have their ‘four gossips’ on Stevenson in particular on the role of ‘imagination’ in his thought, switching between Italian and French, and read extracts from his essays and poems in French and English in the monastery of S. Agostino, in the garden of ‘Da Mimmo’ and at the entrance of the old Teatro Socale. The EDEA site has pictures of the three participants: click on the first one and wait a several minutes for downloading (this should be indicated on the bottom line of the computer screen); the video should start automatically if you have Winamp (and maybe other players too). For parts 2 and 3 click on the other photos.]
2005 The Adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson. Sunday, March the 20th, 5.25pm on BBC ONE; 5.55pm in Scotland. Producer/Director: Andrew Thompson
[A drama-documentary with dramatized scenes from Stevenson’s life and excerpts from his letters and family albums, plus contributions from Ian Rankin, Robert Winston, Frank McLynn and Bella Bathurst. RLS is played by Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting). Attention is paid to the connections between the life and works. This documentary will be included on the DVD version of the BBC Kidnapped (2005).]
2005 Zuppello, Maria (2005). Viaggio nel Pacifico con Stevenson nei Mari del Sud [Voyage with Stevenson in the South Seas]. Produced by Macchina del Tempo channel/Mediaset (Italy), written and filmed by Maria Zuppello, edited by Marcella Simonotti, broadcast December 2005 on the Macchina del Tempo channel (Sky platform).
[Maria Zuppello is presently working on the second part of the same documentary covering the rest of Stevenson’s Pacific journeys: ‘My documentary will be the first in Italy to focus on this special aspect of Robert Louis Stevenson’s life and the associated book will permit me add things not possible on film. My aim is to show Italians how Robert Louis Stevenson can be seen as a model of a talented and modern intellectual able to regenerate in a place completely different from Europe, like the Pacific and to show his courage and continual response to challenges. A modern example. An example for everybody. Even today. Especially today.]
2006 Les aventuriers des mers du Sud, dir. Daniel Vigne, script Michel Le Bris & Daniel Vigne (ARTE France & Exilène Films) ; Stéphane Freiss (RLS), Jane Birkin (Fanny Stevenson), Géraldine Chaplin (Maggie Stevenson), Stéphane Medez (Lloyd), Maria Teresa Carrasco (Belle). Broadcast on the French/German Arte channel 14 and 21 April 2006 at 20:40.
[The two parts are (i) ‘Le falé Stevenson’; (ii) ‘La route de la gratitude’ and cover Stevenson’s life in Samoa, especially his involvement in political and colonial developments. The film is part of a series ‘Les écrivains voyageurs’ about writers and geopolitics at the turn of the nineteenth century.
2006 Ai minimi drammi. Tales of Moralities (2006), dir. Costantino Sarnelli, screenplay by Laura Chiotassi, with members of the theatrical association Le Cercle Rouge (Busca, Italy) and contributions from Stevenson scholars. Shown in Cuneo (Centro incontri della Provincia), 11 November 2006.
[Short film on Stevenson’s Fables,
described on the poster as ‘a fantasy mental journey into Robert Louis
Stevenson’s Fables’, with readings, enigmatic dramatized scenes (of people
discussing the Fables etc.), and comments and discussions on distinctive
literary features and themes by Stevenson scholars (Robert Louis Abrahamson,
Richard Ambrosini and Richard Dury), the dominant style being of fluid
audio-visual sequences (including the reading of some Fables accompanied by
music, words on the screen, patterns etc.). In mixed Italian and English with
subtitle translations into the other language. The DVD of the film is available
from le Cercle Rouge (Piazza Savoia 5, 12022 Busca, Italy; email address on lecerclerouge
site, in exchange for €15 as ‘contribution to the association le Cercle Rouge’,
to cover costs of DVD and postage.
Le Cercle Rouge (Busca, Italy) summarize their recent
works centred on Stevenson on their website at http://www.lecerclerouge.org/home/progetti/rls2008.htm.
These are two series of inter-related works:
(i) the trilogy ‘Un capitolo
sui sogni’ (centred on ‘A Chapter on Dreams’): ‘Il teatro del cervello’ (short film,
2004), ‘Quattro chiacchiere su
Stevenson’ (video docu-drama, 2004), ‘Un capitolo sui sogni – voce e percussione’ (video-drama, 2007);
(ii) two works with the general title of ‘Ho sognato
di Stevenson’ (centred on the Fables): (i) ‘Ai minimi drammi – Tales of
Moralities’ (docu-drama, 2006; see the streaming
video trailer at the bottom of the page), (ii) ‘Ho sognato
di Stevenson’ (multi-media performance). This includes ‘Il lettore
e il libro – the Reader’, a
reading of Stevenson’s ‘The Reader’ by Richard Dury mixed with music by Costantino Sarnelli (available on
streaming audio at the bottom of the page).]
2007 Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, BBC Four, 16th June 2007 9.55pm, following the first of a six-part new drama series Jekyll (set in present-day London) on BBC One at 9pm.
[‘A new documentary presented by Edinburgh crime writer Ian Rankin traces the roots of the extraordinary story back to Stevenson’s childhood in the Capital. Although the novella is set in London, Rankin tells how the grave-robbers, prostitutes and characters of his home city all helped inspire the disturbing account of Dr Henry Jekyll’s double life.
Rankin also classes Stevenson as a huge influence on his own career. He says: “When my first Rebus was published I found to my surprise that everyone thought I’d written a crime novel. Nobody guessed that I was trying to follow in the footsteps of a novelist like Stevenson.”
[…] Says Rankin: “I owe a great debt to Robert Louis Stevenson and to the city of his birth. In a way they both changed my life. Without Edinburgh’s split nature Stevenson might never have dreamt up Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and without Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde I might never have come up with my own alter ego Detective Inspector John Rebus.” ’
Evening News 13 June 2007, http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=925572007]
2007 Schatzinsel Spezial - Die wahre Geschichte ((ProSieben, Gemany,
broadcast 26 November 2007).
[a documentary (accompanying the 2007 TV adaptation of
Treasure Island) about the ‘real’ Treasure Island. This is based on Reisen im Licht der Sterne (2005) in
which Alex Capus suggests that Stevenson was inspired
to write Treasure Island by the story of the pirated church-treasure of
Lima, buried on Cocos Island. Capus
further suggests that the treasure was actually buried on another Cocos Island not far from Samoa, that Stevenson found this
out, and (possibly) found the treasure there himself.]
2007 Sara Rizzo (2008). Handle Carefully. Short video film.http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=Luif4NHyHj0
[A short cinematic version of the last chapter in JH narrated by Dr Jekyll, a part of Stevenson’s text not usually followed closely in film versions. After finishing a thesis on film and comic-book versions of JH, Sara Rizzo decided to experiment with ways in which it could be narrated as film. She says: ‘I wanted to re-focalize the existential drama on Jekyll (in the film versions Hyde ‘steals the scene’) and relegate the double to theatrical space, which of course is a projection of reality’.]