Shakespeare on film
As part of its celebration of the Immortal Bard the BBC has been showing some of the more celebrated film Shakespearean film adaptations, notably 1950s Richard III and Julius Caesar.
Richard III was produced and directed by Laurence Olivier who made the title rôle definitive although the accuracy of the evil king is long disputed. It is known that Shakespeare’s sympathies lay with the Tudors.
Nonetheless Olivier’s depiction remains the ultimate in evil. Ralph Richardson plays Buckingham and John Gielgud Clarence and the only member of this great theatrical quartet missing is Alec Guinness, who played Ealing comedies and British soldiers with equal elan, in the same era.
Richard III’s evil dominates the play.
Olivier is perfect in such dark rôles with his hunchback and black garb. He is truly scary.
Yet, as with most Shakespeare, it can be hard going.
Julius Caesar, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, is more Hollywood, with Marlon Brando as Marc Antony, Edmund O’Brien as Casca and James Mason as Brutus.
John Gielgud makes an appearance as ‘lean and hungry’ Cassius ( the same name as my cat but a less appropriate description for a serial eater) and Deborah Kerr plays Caesar’s wife Calpurnia.
We studied the play at school and its problem is that too much of the action comes in the first part. The assassination of Julia Caesar, the fickleness of the mob, the treachery of the plotters, the soothsayer and the subsequent breakdown of the relationship between Cassius and Brutus is less interesting.
The question is often posed: which is better – the book, or the film? Less often the play, or the film?
You can usually recognise – especially in a court room scene – the film’s dramatic origins but not always: Alfie a BBC radio play by Bill Naughton) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey) started life as plays.
I remember being in Oxford in the late 1960s and the play was talk of the town and, when I saw it, I realised why.
The ultimate love story – Romeo and Juliet – spawned into West Side Story and it’s a testament to Shakespeare’s genius that he inspired so many operas too.
