1 Beckett on film: da literacia teatral à literacia audiovisual 1 Gabriela Borges CIAC - Centro de Investigação em Artes e Comunicação Universidade do Algarve, Portugal Palavras Chave: Beckett on film; intermidialidade, literacia audiovisual, Samuel Beckett, Act without words II. Abstract The Beckett on Film Project raises very interesting questions related to film literacy, which I intend to discuss in this paper. The Beckett on Film project was a co- production involving the Irish television channel RTÉ, Channel 4, Irish Film Board and Blue Angel Productions for the adaptation to cinema and television of all 19 plays written by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. Firstly, it brings a new understanding of Beckett’s works to new generations as his plays become more popular and accessible. These audiovisual works also contribute to enlarge the critical scope of Beckett’s oeuvre, as they highlight the performance of the plays and the use of technology to represent memory and time, important themes both for Beckett and film studies. Secondly, it draws attention to the importance of cinema and television convergence in the 21 st century and the creation of a new audiovisual space that promotes a dialogue amongst various media. And finally, I will focus my analysis on the play Act without words II, a 10-minute mime written in French in 1956 that involves two players, 'A' and 'B', who are in two large sacks on the stage. Therefore, I intend to analyse on one hand the importance of this initiative to Beckett’s canon and, on the other hand, Enda (ughes’ aesthetic choices regarding the materiality of film and the substratum of audiovisual language on the adaptation of a play to a (tele)film. 1 Artigo publicado em Avanca Cinema 2010 Proceedings. Avanca : Ed. Cine-Clube de Avanca.