Marie Seton

Marie Seton (20 March 1910 - 17 February 1985) was an actress, art, theatre and film critic and biographer of Sergei Eisenstein, Paul Robeson, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Satyajit Ray.

In 1935 she helped to establish the reputation of Jamaican sculptor Ronald Moody.

In 1936, she helped her friend, the Trinidadian writer and radical political activist C.L.R. James put on his play about the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture, which starred Paul Robeson in the title role, with the Stage Society.

Marie's reconstruction of Sergei Eisenstein’s projected epic, ¡Que viva México!, as a film released in 1939 entitled Time in the Sun, considered by many critics as probably nearest to Eisenstein's concept because of her close relationship with the filmmaker.

In the late 1930s she became part of the circle of P. D. Ouspensky and later worked for him after his move to New York.

According to her friend, Pamela Cullen, Marie "...had a fascination for India and as a young woman she had been introduced to India’s fight for independence by one of India’s greatest political figures, Krishna Menon, who was then a struggling lawyer in London. She also had family associations with India through her father, who had served as an officer in the Indian Army and been seriously wounded during one of the many uprisings of the period".

Nehru invited Marie to India to help with the University Film Society and the Children's Film Society. She was probably recommended to him by D.G. Tendulkar who must have known her during the time he was in Moscow studying cinema with Sergei Eisenstein. Over the years, Marie became a friend of Indira Gandhi. For sometime in 1960s, Marie was a house guest of Nehrus and stayed in Teen Murti.

Marie lived in India in 1960s and 1970s and was actively involved in the film society movement at the same time a close observer of Indian politics. In recognition of her work, the Indian government honored her with the civilian award, Padma Bhusan, in 1984.

Bibliography

• Seton, Marie (1952). Sergei M. Eisenstein: a biography. London: The Bodley head. 
• Seton, Marie (1958). Paul Robeson. London: Dobson. 
• Seton, Marie (1967). Panditji: A Portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru. London: Dobson. 
• Seton, Marie (1971). Portrait of a director: Satyajit Ray. Vikas Publications. 
• Seton, Marie (1981). Song of the Atom. London: Dennis Dobson. 

References

• Marie Seton at the Internet Movie Database
• Marie Seton, a wiki is a collaborative space for people who are interested in the life and work of Marie Seton. Some of them personally knew and worked with Marie Seton and one of them is working on a biography of Marie Seton.
• "In Excess: Sergei Eisenstein's Mexico": review of Que Viva Mexico by Isabel Arredondo in The Americas 66.4 (2010): 583-585. Project MUSE. Web. 24 Apr. 2011.
• Crowther, Bosley (1 October 1940). "Time In The Sun (1940)". New York Times Review. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F01E2DC1639E23ABC4953DFB667838B659EDE. Retrieved 24 April 2011. </ref>