2:30 mins, DV-PAL, 2001
Finally we arrived in Cambridge in the afternoon, were given tea and then dined with the president of the society and some of his friends. It was very pleasant and after dinner we went to the lecture room. It was a varied audience, men and women. Gertrude Stein was soon at her ease, the lecture went off very well, the men afterwards asked a great many questions and were very enthusiastic. The women said nothing. Gertrude Stein wondered whether they were supposed not to or just did not. The day after we went to Oxford. There we lunched with young Acton and then went in to the lecture. Gertrude Stein was feeling more comfortable as a lecturer and this time she had a wonderful time. As she remarked afterwards, I felt just like a prima donna.
The lecture room was very full, many standing in the back, and the discussion, after the lecture, lasted over an hour and no one left. It was very exciting. They asked all sorts of questions, they wanted to know most often why Gertrude Stein thought she was right in doing the kind of writing she did. She answered that it was not a question of what any one thought but after all she had been doing as she did for about twenty years and now they wanted to hear her lecture. This did not mean of course that they were coming to think that her way was a possible way, it proved nothing, but on the other hand it did possible indicate something.
From "After the War - 1919-1932" in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein, 1933.
Lecture in Cambridge
Format: DV-PAL
Running time: 2:30 minutes
Year of production: 2001
Country of production: Netherlands
Language: Italian spoken with English subtitles
Directed by Anita Di Bianco
Performed by Elisabetta Milani
Camera by Anita Di Bianco and Shahryar Nashat
Edit by Cristina _
Thanks to De Balie Cinema, Amsterdam