Meetings With Remarkable Men [1979] [DVD]

With Gilbert Taylor's camera rejoicing in the beauty of the Afghan mountainscapes, this is an uncomfortable combination of the gloriously cinematic and the doggedly theatrical. In electing to employ his famous technique of “forced improvisation” to adapt the memoirs of GI Gurdjieff, Peter Brook conveys something of the assiduity of the mystic's lifelong search for enlightenment.

But neither his ideas nor his unique methods of meditation make for riveting viewing, especially when espoused by the singularly charmless Dragan Maksimovic. Terence Stamp enlivens things as Prince Lubovedsky, but this is strictly for the already initiated and the curious.