London theatre summer

It is shaping up to be a good summer for theatre in London with lots of new shows and revivals and transfers We enjoyed the revived BOYS IN THE BAND and the new DREAMGIRLS recently - see Theatre label for reviews. 

Now I have booked for Andrew Scott as  HAMLET (my seventh stage Hamlet) transferring from the Almeida to the Harold Pinter Theatre for the summer season; and we cannot wait to book for the new National Theatre production of Sondheim's FOLLIES (above) opening in August and running to November, with Imelda Staunton (once she finishes her stint at Martha in the current WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?) and the fabulous Tracie Bennett in the cast (she sings "I'm Still Here" ...). Others in the cast include veteran Gary Raymond. There is a cast of 37 and orchestra of 31. The last FOLLIES I saw was back in the late 80s or early 90s, with Diana Rigg and Eartha Kitt, and if the new one is as good as the National's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC we will be well pleased .... (booking opens on 5 May _ seats now booked for 20 September, whew!)

We have also booked for Part One (a mere four hours and ten minutes) of the National's ANGELS IN AMERICA, a live screening to our local cinema in June. I had better see how I like that before booking for part two! The cast includes Andrew Garfield, Russell Tovey and Nathan Lane, and is of course a revival of Tony Kushner's great play on the Aids era in Reagan America. 

I could still book for a live screening of that new VIRGINIA WOOLF ...... Imelda is giving a tour-de-force in that too, but I don't really like the play that much.
I don't usually bother with shows based on films but the new AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is getting all the raves, and could be a summer treat too ... and it has Jane Asher too. 

Hamlet, 2017

Can we take on yet another HAMLET? I missed Benedict Cumberbatch's over-hyped one last year, but will definitely want to see his SHERLOCK co-star Andrew Scott as the Dane in the current production, sold out at the Almeida Theatre, but on its way to London's West End in June, at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Scott is a fascinating actor, he was Moriarty to Benedict's Sherlock in that TV series. 

Modern versions of Shakespeare don't usually work for me (though I liked Ken Branagh's LA DOLCE VITA era ROMEO AND JULIET last summer - review at Theatre label), but this new one, directed by Robert Icke seems a fresh interpretation .... as per these comments

Celebrity Hamlets are a rite of passage for stars wishing to test their metal against The Bard's most introspective and challenging central character. 

This technologically sound production grounds the intrigue in a modern Danish court complete with rolling news and modern surveillance. Whilst it's not necessarily a new idea the live camera work picks up on subtle flashes of Scott's genius, from 'The Mousetrap' scene that's played within the auditorium itself and allows a close-up view of the murderous reactions to the filmed fencing that brings his downfall. Characters are wiretapped adding to the paranoia whilst the Ghost appears via CCTV, but the addition of guns create more problems than they solve.

Juliet Stephenson is a radiant Gertrude finding life in the poetry and carefully maintaining the post-wedding exuberance that Icke extends to hang over much of the first act played through a clinically Nordic set that allows split scenes to operate on multiple levels.

We will be booking it for June then, when it opens. It is four hours long with two intervals, so I think a matinee will be a better bet than sitting in the theatre from 7pm to 11pm, and then getting home. I did that with the David Tennant HAMLET some years ago, and it was quite a slog, and we emerged into a blinding snowstorm! Doing this long HAMLET twice a day must be quite a marathon on matinee days, just saying. 

My collection of HAMLETs include Peter McEnery, Michael York, Alan Bates, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Dillane, and David Tennant's understudy., plus the films by Olivier, the Russian 1964 one, Tony Richardson's 1968 one with Nicol Williamson, Zeffirelli's with Mel Gibson, Derek Jacobi for the BBC, and the Ken Branagh all-star marathon of 1996. 

Two Bosie's ....

Interesting for us theatre folk to see two actors who have played Lord Alfred Douglas in David Hare's THE JUDAS KISS, together in a new revival of Tom Stoppard's TRAVESTIES, currently a sell-out at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, hopefully it will get a west end transfer. The witty play features wordplay on Oscar Wilde and dialogue from his THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. 

Tom Hollander was Bosie in the 1998 original production, with Liam Neeson, as Oscar, which I enjoyed back then, Tom was a very petulant Bosie, as was Freddie Fox in the Rupert Everett version a couple of years ago, which was brilliant too (more on that at Oscar, Rupert labels). They must have had a lot to talk about the part ... Busy year for young Fox - that recent CUCUMBER and PRIDE, and also Romeo this summer in that recent ROMEO AND JULIET, reviewed recently (Shakespeare label). Tom of course also also been very busy with THE NIGHT MANGER and DR THORNE,

Summer re-views, briefly

WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED. Gilliam Armstrong's 2014 documentary on Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly, which we have mentioned here a few times before (Costumes label). The documentary, based on Orry's lush memoir which I enjoyed a lot, has taken its time appearing here, in fact in has not yet, but I got the Australian (Region 4) dvd, which plays perfectly on multichannel players. 

Its a fanciful conceit, with an actor playing Orry, who seems to be rowing a boat a lot of the time, but then we get all the clips: Orry's costumes for CASABLANCA, GYPSY and his three Oscar-winners: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, LES GIRLS (where Kay, Mitzi and Taina look divine in his creations), and of course Marilyn's still daring costumes for SOME LIKE IT HOT. Orry continued up to 1964, so we get Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury talking about his costumes for their 1963 IN THE COOL OF THE DAY - one I have never seen and can't get now, so thanks for the clips. 

Bette Davis also reigns supreme here, with those costumes Orry did for JEZEBEL, MR SKEFFINGTON, NOW VOYAGER, THE LETTER etc. 

Other talking heads include the notorious Scotty Bowers, and it rehashes all the Cary Grant and Randy Scott gossip and pictures. In fact, Orry gets sidelined for a while while the documentary focuses on Cary, who "roomed" with Orry when they were both young and starting out. But then legendary tightwad Cary always needed someone to pay the rent, hence all those years sharing houses with Randolph .... between their many marriages.

JANE EYRE - the Franco Zeffirelli 1996 version. There have been a lot of Janes around, the 1944 one with Orson and Joan Fontaine is still the one to beat for me, with delicious roles for Agnes Moorehead and Henry Daniell - but this Zeffirelli one is a nicely paced (if rather hurried at the end) version, with Charlotte Gainsbourg a suitably very plain Jane indeed (unlike Janes Joan Fontaine or Susannah York)  but William Hurt (so ideal in films like BODY HEAT or KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN) all wrong here and hardly making any impression, 

It is all grimly Victorian and Franco as usual ramps up the supporting players: a very severe Geraldine Chaplin and Amanda Root (PERSUASION) at the Lowood Orphanage; Fiona Shaw as Aunt Reed, Billie Whitelaw as Grace Poole, Joan Plowright as Mrs Fairfax, Samuel West, and two sadder appearances: Richard Warwick (whom I knew slightly) silent here in his last role as the manservant, the year before he died (he also pops up in Zeffirelli's ROMEO AND JULIET and HAMLET); and poor Maria Schneider as the madwoman in the attic ..... a worthwhile but low-key JANE then.  

JOE MACBETH, 1955. This re-view goes way back to the Fifties, as I first saw this when I was a kid in Ireland, but it made a vivid impression - though I would not have the got Shakespeare part then. It is a modern gangster version of MACBETH, by Ken Hughes, almost impossible to see now, (so thanks Jerry.) Paul Douglas is impressive as usual, and one of our Projector favourites, Ruth Roman, is as ever terrific as Lady M. Its a British production, so supporting cast includes Bonar Colleano, Gregoire Aslan and Sid James. I was pleased to see it again, and to get it on a flash drive. Its more entertaining than that dreadful recent Michael Fassbender version which nearly drove me screaming from the practically empty multiplex ...

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS. For real horror you can hardly beat Leonard Kastle's 1969 chiller, which I first saw as a supporting feature back then. My pal Stan and I were both gobsmacked by it, I can't even remember what the main feature was. 
I had not seen it since then but it lingered in the memory. so its good to see it again now on dvd.  Seems this could have been Scorsese's first feature,but he was replaced. It is a bleak tale of a murderous rampage by two seedy killers: the obese nurse and her scuzzy boyfriend (Tony Lo Bianco) as they plot to fleece lonely widows whom he romances and lets them think he is going to marry them, while she, posing as his sister, tags along in the background. Once seen, it is not easily forgotten. The film is made by the marvellous Shirley Stoler (1929-1999) as the malevolent Martha - she also pops up in KLUTE and is terrifying again as that Nazi concentration camp commandant in SEVEN BEAUTIES in 1975 .... (whom prisoner Giancarlo Giannini has to romance in order to survive - we raved about it, at Italian label). Her 40+ credits also include THE DEER HUNTER.  
It is not violent by today's torture porn standards, but once seen it is not easily forgotten as we enter than downbeat world of cheap motels and diners. It is Kastle's only credit. 

Theatre still of the day: Vivien Leigh ....

... as Tatiana in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in 1937, photograph by J B Debenham, (the image is advertising a current theatre exhibition at The British Library). This is one we would have liked to have seen, but before our time of course. I think Robert Helpmann played Oberon to her queen of the fairies. 

Vivien's THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (with Olivier) from 1941 and the 1945 CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA are both coming up this coming week on a cable channel here; not seen those, so will be factoring them in. The CLEOPATRA has a whole raft of British supporting players like Flora Robson and Stewart Granger, and one may spot newcomers like Kay Kendall and Roger Moore among the extras ...  More on Leigh at label. 

Romeo & Juliet at The Garrick

To London for the Kenneth Branagh production of ROMEO AND JULIET, co-directed by Branagh, a Shakespeare I am not that keen on and it has been done so many times (at least 6 films?), but the cast of this current production whetted the interest. 

The leads are Freddie Fox (whom I last saw on stage as Bosie to Rupert Everett's Oscar Wilde in THE JUDAS KISS a few years ago, and who has since done TV work like CUCUMBER and films like PRIDE); Freddie stepped in at 48 hours notice (due to the injury of Richard Madden); Juliet is the equally busy Lily James (DOWNTON ABBEY, WAR & PEACE, CINDERELLA), 

Meera Syal gets a lot of value of value out of the Nurse, and Derek Jacobi now in his 80s is a very lively if older Mercutio - he even dances around the stage and seems fully recovered from leg injuries. 

Lady Capulet is that international star since the 1970s Marisa Berenson (DEATH IN VENICE, CABARET), whom I like watching as The Countess of Lyndon in re-runs of Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON (currently on release again after 40 years). She is just as mesmerising and ageless on stage here. 

The production (almost three hours long) does have its longeurs when reams of dialogue have to be delivered, but the essentials grip one and the staging is eye-popping, 

set in a 1950s Verona in the grip of the LA DOLCE VITA era: cue sharp suits, white shirts, sunglasses at night. The Capulet's masked ball is rather like that disco in THE GREAT BEAUTY and it certainly commands the attention. I liked it a lot more than the drab black costumes on a black stage setting of that RICHARD III also seen recently - see Shakespeare label. 

This R&J finishes this week and we then get Kenneth Branagh as John Osborne's THE ENTERTAINER, hardly revived since Olivier did it. 

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York ...

To the Almeida Theatre in London for their current production, The Bard's RICHARD III in a highly praised production by director Rupert Goold, with Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave.

Well, no, not to the theatre itself, but to my local multiplex where the live performance was being screened, as it was in cinemas around the world. This was actually the first of these popular live theatre screenings I had been to - and it was like having a seat in the stalls, well apart from the girl next to me with a tub of popcorn and bottle of cola - I hate the stench of popcorn! - and then two old dears arrived late after 15 minutes in, and yes, they had to sit next to me too, disturbing all of us as they got to their seat and settled themselves. But apart from that .... Lets see what the Almeida says:

The Almeida will broadcast Artistic Director Rupert Goold's production of RICHARD III, with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare's most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret, live to cinemas in the UK and around the world today 21 July.

Almeida Theatre Live will give worldwide audiences the opportunity to see plays from the stage at the Almeida's London home for the first time. The Almeida Theatre and distributor Picturehouse Entertainment are partnering to broadcast RICHARD III, produced by Illuminations.

The production will be filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium, with John Wyver as producer. 

Rupert Goold said: "The chance to take the work of the Almeida to international audiences via live cinema screening is a new and timely venture for us that I'm extremely excited about. Working with Picturehouse Entertainment and Illuminations on this broadcast I'm really looking forward to seeing how audiences around the world react to our Richard III on the big screen."

Vanessa had previously worked with Fiennes on CORIOLANUS and THE WHITE COUNTESS film with daughter Natasha and sister Lynn. Great to see her back on stage and in fine form at 79, after that heart attack last year - as per this illuminating interview with her from The Guardian newspaper: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jun/13/vanessa-redgrave-interview-simon-hattenstone

Fiennes of course is on a roll at the moment, he was also recently in THE MASTER BUILDER this year, and stunning in A BIGGER SPLASH, did a neat cameo in HAIL, CAESAR and of course we loved THE GREAT BUDAPEST HOTEL.

He is of course electrifying as Richard and makes the lines sing, as does Vanessa as Queen Elizabeth, its a sort of modern dress production, complete with cell phones, but why is she dressed in a boiler suit and carrying a plastic doll? 

Anthony Sher was also a terrific Richard, almost playing him like a giant spider, and we love the Olivier 1955 version - see review, Olivier label. The one recent Richard we had not seen was the 1995 Ian McKellen one, unavailable for a long time - we finally got a German dvd recently, but I found it practically unbearable with that 1930s Fascist background and far too tricky and full of special effects, with tanks, and Battersea Power Station as the Tower of London just did not work for me at all - great supporting cast though, including Maggie Smith as Queen Elizabeth. 

Cleo, Shakespeare & all that jazz

400 years today since Shakespeare died (aged 52 in 1616) - lots of celebrations here in the UK, including an all-star marathon on The Bard on BBC tonight, while the BFI is mounting a two-part retrospective. I am sure my 6 different HAMLETs and 4 MACBETHs will get an airing too, then there's Orson's CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT ...

One Shakespeare artefact which may be overlooked now is this 1964 album by Cleo Laine. I had it at the time when I was just a teenager, so it was great to download the tracks again a while back (the album itself or the CD had not been available for a long time)\. Cleo has always been one of our favourite vocalists - her concerts with husband Johnny Dankworth were always great value as they certainly delivered and exceeded expectations. We saw them several times in the '70s and '80s, and I loved several of her other albums, particularly WOMAN TALK, another '60s classic. 

Cleo wraps her delicious tones and immaculate phrasing around those timeless words from the plays and sonnets - she swings, she hits the high and low notes as only she can. An Amazon review puts it: "A perfect marriage of words set to music, melody and jazz invention. Singing and playing of the very highest calibre. This recording has greatly improved my life". 

This is the track listing: 

1. If Music Be The Food Of Love / 2. O Mistress Mine  / 3. Duet Of Sonnets / 4. Winter / 5. My Love Is As A Fever / 6. It Was A Lover And His Lass / 7. Dunsinane Blues / 8. Take All My Loves / 9. Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind / 10. Shall I Compare Thee / 11. Witches, Fair And Foul / 12. Fear No More /  13. Sigh No More, Ladies / 14. The Compleat Works. 

In the wake of so many obituaries lately, that first verse of "Fear No More" is so apt:
"Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Nor the furious winter's rages.
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
Golden lads and lasses all must,
As chimney sweepers, come to dust."

All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter...

Good to be back at the movies on a rainy afternoon, with just 5 of us in the auditorium, so almost a private screening of this new version of The Scottish Play - very stripped down and pared back, from Justin Kurzel - its perhaps the first of the new autumn blockbusters heading our way now that the dismal summer (here in the UK) is over and we sink into autumn and the new Awards Season. Coming up will finally be CAROL and BROOKLYN and HIGH RISE and THE LOBSTER, not to mention THE LADY IN THE VAN and my friend Martin says THE MARTIAN is next year's Best Picture Winner - hmm, it may be too soon for another Sci-fi win so soon after GRAVITY - a lot of us turned our noses up at INTERSTELLAR ...

But back to Scotland, land of mists and mountains and as depicted here (a lot of it filmed on the Isle of Skye, one of my favourite places) a cruel, pitiless place; did the Highlands ever look so bleak?.... After Welles and Kurosawa (THRONE OF BLOOD, 1957) and the 1971 Roman Polanski it is interesting to see this latest vision - great visuals and that unsettling discordant score (Jed Kurzel) but sometimes a fatal slowing down of pace so some sequences start to drag and we are not sure who is who among the mostly faceless extras, if you did not know the play you would be all at sea. Highest praise though to Michael Fassbender - again astonishing us after SHAME and 12 YEARS A SLAVE, and Marion Cotillard as his Lady Macbeth. Did I mention it all looks and sounds great?  It starts though with a scene Shakespeare did not give us: the Macbeths at the funeral pyre of their child - perhaps to humanise them more, and did Lady Macduff and her children have to be burned alive at the stake - though it makes for a great panniing shot over that desolate landscape.

Its certainly a blistering, blood-stained adaptation with its ingenious staging of familiar scenes and paring down the text which makes whats left of the 400 year old verse feel fresh. The three witches on the blasted heath are interestingly done here too. I have liked its wild dialogue ever since the Classics Illustrated version I first read as a kid. Unlike all those HAMLETs though I have never seen it staged - though I do have two other versions to watch, but maybe not right away: Ian McKellan and Judi Dench as the Glamis it-couple in 1980, and a BBC version with Nicol Williamson and Jane Lapotaire who should both be ideal too. . 

To be or not to be ....

Alas, poor Benedict, as HAMLET-mania grips the city. Back in the '60s and '70s and '80s we went to HAMLETs regularly without all this fuss. Of course it is all different now in the social media age. It is not enough to see HAMLET any more but one has to post selfies with the actor or even film clips of the stage production.  Benedict Cumberbatch, the current incumbent of the sell-out production at London's Barbican first had to announce that he would not be posing for pictures or signing autographs and tried to leave the theatre by different exits (just like Barbra Streisand did when she was doing FUNNY GIRL here back in 1966 - I know, as friends and I used to hang around the theatre trying to see her, being 20 year old autograph collectors at the time). One quite understand's Benedict's stance - the last thing you need after a marathon performance is having to spend an hour or so being nice and posing for selfies and having demands on your time when you just want to get home. Then last weekend he had to plea for the audience to stop filming him on stage, as seeing all the red lights was distracting him. The intrusivness of filming a live performance seems appalling bad manners to me, but then we are dealing with a new generation, perhaps unused to live theatre, and who have to film what they see to show their friends that they really did see it .... not much fun for the actors though. The play has not even opened yet, and runs for 80 or so performances.

Which leads me to all those various HAMLETs I have seen. Famous past Princes of course include Gielgud and Burton, Peter O'Toole for the new National Theatre in 1963, David Warner's gangly student prince. My first Hamlet was Peter McEnery at Leicester in 1967, when I was 21 - a thrilling production. Then there was Michael York in 1970, also at a provincial theatre (Leatherhead in Surrey) - I had the pleasure of talking to him about it some 7 or so years ago now. Alan Bates had a west end run with it in 1973 (with Celia Johnson as his Gertrude), and Jonathan Pryce was a sensational Hamlet at The Royal Court in 1980, with Jill Bennett (below). Then there was Stephen Dillane in the 1990s, and my friend Anne got tickets for the then hot Hamlet - David Tennant of DR WHO - in 2008, but he had hurt his back and we got his understudy, but it was a long ponderous production of 4 hours: we sat down at 7 and staggered out after 11 into a blizzard. Other notable Hamlets since then have included Jude Law, Ben Whishaw, Simon Russell Beale and Rory Kinnear. There has even been a female Hamlet: Maxine Peake. It is of course the role that challenges every actor of note, with that huge amount of lines and action including those choreographed swordfights before the Prince is carried to his rest ...

On film, I have 6 Hamlets: Olivier's towering 1948 production, and the great 1964 Russian one by Grigori Kozintsev with Innokentli Smocktunovskly, a mesmerising production   ---- Nicol Williamson was a memorable Hamlet with Marianne Faithfull and Judy Parfitt at The Roundhouse, filmed by Tony Richardson in 1968. I must watch the BBC version with Derek Jacobi and Claire Bloom, and then there is the Zeffirelli one with Mel Gibson with Glenn Close, Bates, Scofield, should be an interesting reading of the play, and Kenneth Branagh's all-star 1996 production, with Julie Christie as his Gertrude. So, lots of HAMLET still to see - just like that equally fascinating MACBETH where I have Ian McKennen & Judi Dench; the Polanski, the Welles, Nicol Williamson again for the BBC and the forthcoming Michael Fassbender ..... 

Meanwhile, good luck to Benedict and his current run. The reviews are now in and very favourable, but it seems a gimmicky production - this Hamlet begins listening to a Nat King Cole record ("Nature Boy") on a wind-up gramophone!. More on Hamlet at theatre label. 

Cannes 2015

An email from the BFI on the Cannes Prize winners. 

French director Jacques Audiard has won this year’s Palme d’Or for his drama Dheepan, the story of a Tamil refugee trying to make a new life in France. A Cannes veteran, Audiard previously competed for the top prize with his 2012 film Rust and Bone and won the Grand Prix for A Prophet in 2010.

This year’s Grand Prix was awarded to the Holocaust drama Son of Saul, the acclaimed debut film by Hungarian director László Nemes, while the festival’s Jury Prize went to The Lobster, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and backed by the BFI Film Fund (above: John C. Reilly, Ben Whishaw and a nicely maturing Colin Farrell in THE LOBSTER).  

Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien took best director for his venture into the martial arts genre with The Assassin, with best screenplay going to Mexican writer-director Michel Franco for the emotional Chronic, starring Tim Roth.

Many people’s favourite for the best actor prize, Roth lost out to Vincent Lindon for The Measure of a Man (La Loi du marche). The best actress award was shared between Rooney Mara for Todd Haynes’s much-heralded Patricia Highsmith adaptation, Carol, and Emmanuelle Bercot for Maïwenn’s Mon roi.

Left: Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in Justin Kurzel's pared down MACBETH - marvellojus reports on this, we cannot wait to see it, seems its up there with the Polanski and Welles versions. HAMLET may be my most-seen Shakespeare (6 films and 6 stage productions to write about..) but I have always loved the wild poetry and imagery of 'The Scottish Play; ...(I also have the Nicol Williamson and Ian McKellen filmed theatre versions to report on). 

French new wave veteran Agnès Varda, director of classics such as Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), was honoured with a special lifetime achievement Palme.

It is the first time the coveted award goes to a woman and has only been given out three times before -- to Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood and Bernardo Bertolucci. It recognises "renowned directors whose works have achieved a global impact but who have nevertheless never won the Palme d’Or".
We have liked Varda, now 86  - right, ever since her CLEO 5 TO 7 and LE BONHEUR and her film about her husband Jacques Demy JACQUOT DE NANTES, and her later BEACHES OF AGNES. She has also been honoured this year at Brighton where she has had an exhibition. 

Cannes remains a byword for fashion and glamour, its been amusing seeing people with no movie to promote still posing on the red carpet as though they are important ... 

Cannes as usual as highlighted some fascinating films coming our way, even if, as in the case of CAROL (see Highsmith label) we will have to wait till end of the year to see them, during the next Award Season buildup .... Then there is THE LOBSTER and that new Deneuve STANDING TALL, and again, MACBETH ...

How now, Othello ?

Dipping into that Shakespeare backlog (6 HAMLETs, 4 MACBETHs, Olivier as Shylock, Welles as Falstaff, etc) finally, we get to see Laurence Olivier's powerhouse performance as OTHELLO, a National Theatre success in the early Sixties, when Billie Whitelaw and Maggie Smith alterated the role of Desdemona, but it is Smith in the film. All director Stuart Burge really had to do I imagine was let the cameras roll and capture this astonishing performance for posterity. Its stagebound of course, originally directed on stage by John Dexter, but is shot in widescreen so it looks good. This is my first OTHELLO and its rather ponderous as the characters spout reams of dialogue, but we watch for the performances. That National Theatre rep company shine here: Frank Finlay as Iago, Derek Jacobi as Cassio, Joyce Redman, Sheila Reid  Maggie Smith is a touching Desdemona and Olivier in his middle age - a decade after his RICHARD III (Olivier label), and almost two decades after his HAMLET - is simply amazing. The energy it must have taken to perform this on stage every night, as well as running the National Theatre, and then the film. (He also filmed BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING and KHARTOUM about that time, also blacked up as The Madhi for some very effective scenes - Olivier label). 

IMDB's summary puts it thus: Desdemona defies her father to marry the Moor of Venice, the mighty warrior, Othello. But Othello's old lieutenant, Iago, doesn't like Othello, and is determined to bring about the downfall of Othello's new favorite, Cassio, and destroy Othello in the process, by casting aspersions on Othello's new bride. 

Paul Robeson was by all accounts (it was not filmed) a brilliant Othello in the 1930s, and later actors to tackle it include Laurence Fishburne in 1995, Anthony Hopkins for the BBC, and of course Orson Welles' in 1952, another fascinating production, made on a shoestring. I shall be looking at that too before too long, I had a vhs cassette of it somewhere ... I wish I had seen more of those 1960s National Theatre productions, particularly their HAY FEVER, but I did see that astonishing ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN at the Old Vic, up in the gods, in 1966, where Robert Stephens was that incredible Inca king in an unforgettable production, and in 1970 Smith and Stephens in Ingmar Berman's production of HEDDA and their restoration comedy THE BEAU'S STRATAGEM, both of which I went to twice. 
OTHELLO isn't an easy view, hardly a play to like (unlike HAMLET and the others) but each generation of rising actors want to give their reading of Iago's jealousy and portray the Moor.  

It seems Maggie Smith was feuding with Olivier (left, on set) during the production, and one evening she stuck her head around his dressing room door as he was either putting on or washing off the black make-up and said "How how brown cow?"! Shakespeare as far as we know never went to Italy, but set several of his plays there ...

The Dresser, 1983

Finally, THE DRESSER from 1983, a successful play and film, which somehow I never saw until now - this is a feast of acting and another great British film of its era.

In a touring Shakespearean theater group, a backstage hand - the dresser, is devoted to the brilliant but tyrannical head of the company. He struggles to support the deteriorating star as the company struggles to carry on during the London blitz. The pathos of his backstage efforts rival the pathos in the story of Lear and the Fool that is being presented on-stage, as the situation comes to a crisis

The 1940s wartime era is perfectly evoked, and a great cast headed by two star turns from Albert Finney as Sir, and Tom Courtenay as Norman, the gay dresser, with Eileen Atkins as Madge, the long-suffering stage manager, and with Edward Fox, Zena Walker, Michael Gough, the great Betty Marsden and Sheila Reid rounding out the cast. Sir is surely based on Sir Donald Wolfit who not only was a tour de force, but was forced to tour endlessly with his gallant troupe, especially during those war years boosting morale. The author Ronald Harwood was in fact a dresser to Wolfit ... so all this feels even more authentic and one feels the love for the theatrical life.

Finney (an actor, like David Hemmings, with no vanity whatsoever) commands the screen as usual -not least when he stops that train!, matched every step of the way by Courtenay as the camp dresser, endlessly fussing and looking after Sir, helping him to keep going, but Sir's tyrannical rule over the company is beginning to crack under the strain of age and illnesss as he prepares to tackle KING LEAR. The fastidious and fiercely dedicated dresser, copes with Sir's unreasonable demands, tends to his health and reminds him of what role he is currently playing. Its a mutual double act. It is a story rich in detail, comedy, compassion and love for the theatre. 
Courtenay also essayed another gay theatrical gentleman in a Noel Coward play ME AND THE GIRLS, in 1985 which is part of that BBC NOEL COWARD COLLECTION, and of course Albert went gay as that Dublin bus conductor in A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE in 1994 (gay interest label). Albert and Tom also co-starred in another fascinating television production A RATHER ENGLISH MARRIAGE in 1998. 

Peter Yates (BULLITT) directs with a sure hand and THE DRESSER was nominated for 5 Oscars. Harwood's script (as with his THE PIANIST) is rich in detail, and great acting does not come much better than this. Glad I finally saw it.  The BBC are showing a new version later this year, where Sir and Norman are - who else? - Anthony Hopkins and Sir Ian McKellen. 

Great performances: Olivier's Richard III

Great performances come in various shapes, few as stunning at the spider-like, stunted king who dominates Laurence Olivier's 1955/56 film of RICHARD III, which he produced and directed, as well as starring as the much-maligned monarch. Now that Richard's remains have been found (under a car park in Leicester!) and authenticated there is revived interest in the fate of this king - was he really as dastardly as Shakespeare painted him? 

Yes, this is the work of a ham in full overdrive mode - all rubber nose and moptop wig and a cushion up the back of his shirt, but nobody before or since has told the tale with greater clarity. By making Richard so comical and witty and clever and running rings around everybody else as he exacts revenge for his deformed body by killing his way to the Throne of England, Olivier's performance still resonates now. The stellar cast Olivier surrounded himself with - Gielgud, Richardson, the silent Pamela Brown as the old king's knowing mistress, Stanley Baker, Laurence Naismith, Cedric Hardwicke and particularly Claire Bloom as Lady Anne - none of them steals Larry's thespian thunder. 

From his first approach to the camera as he draws us into his confidence with those lines: "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York" - to that final "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" on the battlefield before he is hacked to death - this is a performance for the ages. I saw it as a child when most of the verse would have been over my head, but that scene where the murderers (Michael Gough and Michael Ripper - both very appropriately scary) drown Clarence (Gielgud) in the vat of wine is one moment that stayed with me, they also get the princes in the tower. It all looks great too, with fascinating costumes, music score by Sir William Walton, production design by Roger Furse, 

There was though another King that year: Yul Brynner, also mesmerising, in THE KING AND I and it was he who won the Best Actor Oscar (the others nominated were Kirk Douglas for LUST FOR LIFE and both Dean and Hudson for GIANT. It must be tough for an actor to have maybe one's greatest role the same year as a standout turn - but this was Brynner's breakout year (he also had his imposing Rameses in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and ANASTASIA out there), like 1954 was Brando's. 

This though was Olivier's greatest decade - he went on to direct and star in THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL with Marilyn, his icy Crassus in SPARTACTUS, his great THE ENTERTAINER, TERM OF TRIAL and running the new National Theatre and that other towering Shakespeare role in OTHELLO and blacking up again for KHARTOUM (see Olivier label); his energy must have been prodigious. 

Ian McKellan's modern-dress 1995 version which I did not see seems unobtainable now (unless for very silly money). 

A lot more Shakespeare to investigate over the coming months: 6 cinematic HAMLETs: Olivier again with his Oscar-winning 1948 version, the Russian 1964 one by Grigori Kozintsev with the brooding Innokenty Smoktunevsky as the Dane (that impressed me once at the BFI and I have now got the dvd); then there's Tony Richardson's 1969 one with Nicol Williamson, Derek Jacobi for the BBC in the 80s, Zeffirelli's with Mel Gibson (it also features Bates and Scofield) in 1990 and the 1996 Kennth Branagh all-star one (Julie Christie as Gertrude!) - then there's 6 Hamlets I saw on the stage: Peter McEnery (1968), Michael York (1970), Alan Bates (in '72 with Celia Johnson as Gertrude), Jonathan Pryce (Jill Bennett was his Gertrude in 1980), Stephen Dillane in the '90s and David Tennant's understudy, a few years ago. Couple of MACBETHs too: Orson Welles in '48, Nicol Williamson for the BBC, Polanski's in 1972 and another television one with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench. and of course Welles' 1966 CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT is stunningly marvellous, as is his OTHELLO, both made on very shoestring budgets ..... Its going to be a winter of drama then .... I imagine Zeffirelli's HAMLET should look as good as his TAMING OF THE SHREW and ROMEO AND JULIET.

Life upon the wicked stage . . .

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE was one of those polarising movies back in 1998/1999 - did you prefer it or SAVING PRIVATE RYAN ? (just like in 1994 were you a PULP FICTION or FORREST GUMP kind of person? - It was definitely PULP for me, I have never wanted to see GUMP!). While I enjoyed SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE at the time, it was a great evening at the cinema, I have hardly thought about it since, and now that we have Shakespeare debunked in ANONYMOUS, a television showing of SIL made me relish it all over again.

A friend of mine, Leon, over at IMDB puts it perfectly in his review:

Given the little information available on Shakespeare the Man a movie, either full of gravitas or, as here, a tongue-in-cheek entry, was a brilliant idea waiting to happen and the only mystery is what took so long. The two writers have contrived to cater for just about everyone from the Shakespeare scholar to those with a reasonably nodding acquaintance - i.e. someone who can name say ten of the plays off the top of their head and are aware of Marlowe as the author of The Jew Of Malta, Tamburlaine and Dr. Faustus but wouldn't necessarily associate 'Kit' with CM - to those who wouldn't know Shakespeare from Pete Doherty but have a thing about Gwynneth Paltrow, Joe Fiennes or both and provided humor for all from the 'in' jokes such as the bloodthirsty young boy who identifies himself as John Webster, to the conceit of Shakespeare seeing a shrink to say nothing of the Victor Victoria spin on girls playing boys playing girls and the wry twist on Romeo and Juliet. This movie has just about everything, spectacle, social history, satire, romance, glamor and top quality thesping all round. Definitely one to own on DVD and replay annually.

The cast certainly dazzles: Joseph Fiennes is ideal as is Gwynneth - will they ever be as iconic again? - and they are surrounded by Colin Firth amusing as the obnoxious beau, Judi Dench makes an unforgettable Elizabeth I in her few minutes, then there is Simon Callow, Anthony Sher, Tom Wilkinson, Geoffrey Rush, Imelda Staunton perfect as usual, Rupert Everett, Ben Affleck, Jim Carter, Martin Clunes and the rest. [Fiennes was also in Tudorbethan mode the same year as the Earl of Leicester to Cate Blanchett's Virgin Queen in ELIZABETH]. Tom Stoppard's script amuses too as writer and actor Shakespeare strugges with his new play "Romeo and Ethel the pirate's daughter" and then he spies the lady Viola who loves the theatre but women cannot appear on stage, and there is that arranged marriage ... It ends on a satisfying note though with Will getting his inspiration, Viola going to the New World and the Queen demanding "a comedy next time for Twelfth Night".

At the time it was considered by some with disdain as the perfect Miramax/Harvey Weinstein production designed and marketed to win all those awards, but here is one instance when they were deserved. Costumes, scenery, lighting, and sound - all the technical and design elements are incredibly well researched and well executed as love, life and the theatre are conjured up in the Elizabethan era. I never wanted to see director John Madden's follow-up CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN which by all accounts was a filleted version of a book I loved, rendering it just a Greek travelogue with some very questionable casting ...

My friend Daryl adds that SAVING PRIVATE RYAN seemed too self-important at the time when it was really an updated version of those World War II war movies like THE STORY OF G.I JOE, whereas audiences actually enjoyed the verbal wit, romance, comedy and great period detail of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.