10 - Ishiguro’s TV and Film Scripts

Summary

This chapter offers readings of Kazuo Ishiguro’s screenplays, paying particular attention to two films commissioned by Channel 4, A Profile of Arthur J. Mason (1984) and The Gourmet (1986), and to his collaboration with Merchant Ivory, The White Countess (2005). In these rarely discussed works, Ishiguro interrogates the form of film itself by drawing attention to ‘unfilmable’ aspects of experience such as memory and imagination, which also feature prominently in his novels and short stories. While often overlooked in critical examinations of his work, these films provide insights into Ishiguro’s creative process and the evolution of his recurrent themes more generally. Like his most renowned novels, the subjects of these screenplays are service, sacrifice, and self-deception.