F. Scott Fitzgerald reads a slightly edited version of Othello's speech from Act 1, Scene 3 of Othello
Ian McKellen as Lear. Cannot Wait! May be his last recorded play of the Bard's. it was Olivier's last, wasn't it? Hope he has a thin Cordelia.......... King Lear - National Theatre Live
My wife and one of our daughters saw him play Lear in Stratford a few years ago. They were in the front row and were a little surprised to find they had his dick waving in their faces...most impressive, apparently!
Let me recommend the 1968 BBC television production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" with Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren (both wearing minis and go-go boots), Ian Holm, Lady Judy Dench's uh, charms.
Hamlet at Elsinore Filmed on location at Elsinore Castle in Denmark for the quadricentennial (is that a word?) in 1964. Christopher Plummer played the title role; I believe this remains Michael's Caine's only performance in Shakespeare.
I must nab this great complete (37? play) 38 DVD BBC Ambrose Video set before they all go from eBay. It's a mixed lot in terms of production value but a must buy for Bard lovers, imo.
Those of you with Amazon Prime, check out their recent King Lear with Anthony Hopkins in the title role, and terrific (deliciously evil) performances by Emma Thompson as Goneril and Emily Watson as Regan. Also a great performance as Kent--Jim Carter (he played the butler Carson in Downton Abbey.) It's an adaptation, but all the important stuff is in there. Highly recommended.
Funny, I was just looking over the description of that production of Lear last night and decided to bookmark a fine free version of it for viewing after the Eagles win tonight. Looking forward to it. Also, I came across a 1981 version of Othello starting William Marshall (of Blacula fame, a film I'd almost rather watch due to my distain for the Iago play): Marshall had a sumptuous baritone so suffering the absurdity of The Moor's situation will at least be tolerable.
Thanks. Not crazy about the casting save Hopkins and, as usual, John MacMillan (bless him) as Edmund, who has the third largest role, is nowhere near the equal an actor as Hopkins - and, ideally, he should be. Otherwise, the Gloucester/bastard son subplot is merely a break in between Lear's dramatics. Also, it's hard to justify a fool who clearly looks older than Lear (Hopkins calls him "boy", for Pete's sake!). A serviceable version in all.
Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet is actually quite good. They did not change the language at all, but in updating it to current times a "Sword" is a brand of semi-automatic gun, and the Montagues and Capulets are rival crime families.
The American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stafford, Connecticut, famous for having had stars like Kate Hepburn Chris Walken and Chris Plummer burned to the ground yesterday morning. It had been vacant for years, though; the last production, a one person show of The Tempest, in 1989. Eerie.
After seeing Sir Ian McKellen doing a pretty faithful Lear (at least in text), I need to put some miles on that before I see Hopkins' version. Regan was played as kind of an airhead in fancy clothes and spike heels. The actors playing Cordelia and the Fool were great.
If you like listening to Shakespeare there is a podcast called The Shakespeare Sessions. It's a BBC production and what I've listened to I like. The productions are recent and are either versions of the Bard's plays or documentaries on the subject. I listened to Merchant of Venice with some known British actors and it was very good.
TBH, I've seen Macbeth only 1 1/2 times. One was a high school production, the other was this version you speak of. The hs one, I only stayed for support and barely remember but oi, this other, I guess was done so well I wanted to kill myself. I had to stop watching.
Macbeth (1982) A Hungarian TV movie adaptation by Béla Tarr, consisting of only two shots, one of which lasts 57 minutes.
