An absolutely golden treat has been posted on YouTube with a whole lotta Sirs and Dames! The BBC documentary called “Great Acting,” with interviews from 1965 to 1967 with Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Albert Finney, Maggie Smith, and Noel Coward.

Ralph describes how he decided to be an actor, and how he goes into a kind of trance on stage. Gielgud criticizes how he used to recite verse. Larry admits his rivalry with Gielgud. Richard Burton talks about his performance as Hamlet. Sybil Thorndike bursts through the screen with sheer joy and vitality. Noel Coward tells how he dealt with his biggest failure by repeatedly taking curtain calls while the audience booed. And wonderful moments with very young and serious Albert Finney and a fetching Maggie Smith.

J'ai faim, j'ai froid (Chantal Akerman, 1984)

“To get anything out of this life, you gotta put something in it.”

Marlene Dietrich in an interview conducted c. 1971: