Nicholas Hytner

The catalogue gives Nicholas Hytner six directing credits. David Jays, writing on Center Stage, weighs his cinema against his theatre in one judgement: the earlier films, like the stage work, come out polished but uninvolving, as though they cannot carry too much reality. Against that the piece allows him an eye for the process of theatre itself, and offers his first film as proof, the most touching scene in The Madness of King George having the king grope after his wits while reading King Lear. On Center Stage, which follows adolescent passions fed inside a ballet academy, Jays notes that the endless grind shaping the students' lives is not passed over.