The past is myself: Peter Watkins’ Edvard Munch (1973)

The following article will examine one of those works made in ‘exile’: Watkins’ acclaimed television film, Edvard Munch (1973), which was first transmitted by the Norwegian public television service, NRK (Norsk Riksringkasting), as part of a joint production and telecast with its Swedish counterpart, SR (Sveriges Radio) on 12 and 13 November 1974. At the time, it was generally regarded as Watkins’ greatest film. Ingmar Bergman, after a screening in Sweden, was reported to have remarked ‘the film was made by a genius’ whilst that doyen of English critics, Kenneth Tynan, asserted this of Edvard Munch alongside Culloden and The War Game, following a transmission by BBC TV in March 1976: ‘That makes three masterpieces, more than any other English living director can boast.