AB's PAGE
Grovelling apologies for usurping the Barrie site for my own ends, but until I get round to creating a site for myself, I need a place to park various efforts of mine currently cluttering up my hard-drive.
This script was commissioned by Hallmark in 1999, originally as a 2-parter. Thanks to Depardieu's rival French TV production of Napoleon, the project got shelved, but such was my passion for N that I extended it into three parts and have tinkered with it ever since. God knows why, I doubt that it'll ever get made, but if nothing else, it's a pretty fair take on N's life, and I not-so-humbly think it the best thing I've ever written - largely because 70% of N's dialogue is by N Bonaparte, not A B. The copyright is partly Hallmark's, partly mine, mostly N's.
Written back in 1978 for the BBC, and finally available on DVD.
Written in 1982, finally filmed by good self in 1991, and available on DVD in both PAL and NTSC
While working with Luc Besson on his Joan of Arc: the Messenger, I compiled my own version of her trial, based on various translations, plus the old French and Latin transcriptions, assuming that he would want to use it in the third act. In the event he had other ideas (= the Dustin Hoffman character), and Joan's trial was reduced to about 3 minutes.
Bernard Shaw's St Joan notwithstanding, I consider Joan's trial one of the great documents of the world, and without altering a single word knocks every other attempt at dramatising her life into a cocked hat. What's particularly poignant is the silent interplay between Joan and the Guilliame Manchon, the young priest who recorded her words, and clearly fell in love with her during the course of the trial.
Written back in 1972/73, while spending many months with Albert Speer. I still have over 40 hours of taped conversations with him, pouring over every aspect of his life and the script.