Four-star movie: Othello
Sep. 4th, 2015 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carbonelOthello
Director: Stuart Burge
1965
I am unable to watch this movie without thinking of the scene (related by another character) where people watching this version of Othello have to be dragged out of the theater because of their hysterics at viewing Laurence Olivier in blackface. Having seen it last week for the first time, I have a certain sympathy with this reaction. I didn't giggle, but I don't think Olivier quite carries it off. He apparently developed his own accent (which sounds like nothing else I've ever heard) and a manner of walking unlike his usual style as well.
Maggie Smith is luminous in the role of Desdemona, and Frank Finlay (whose work I was unfamiliar with) was believably vile in the role of Iago.
Any further gripes I have with the movie go back to William Shakespeare. The racism and sexism fairies are alive and very well in this production, and there's really not much to be done about it without rewriting the source material.
Director: Stuart Burge
1965
I am unable to watch this movie without thinking of the scene (related by another character) where people watching this version of Othello have to be dragged out of the theater because of their hysterics at viewing Laurence Olivier in blackface. Having seen it last week for the first time, I have a certain sympathy with this reaction. I didn't giggle, but I don't think Olivier quite carries it off. He apparently developed his own accent (which sounds like nothing else I've ever heard) and a manner of walking unlike his usual style as well.
Maggie Smith is luminous in the role of Desdemona, and Frank Finlay (whose work I was unfamiliar with) was believably vile in the role of Iago.
Any further gripes I have with the movie go back to William Shakespeare. The racism and sexism fairies are alive and very well in this production, and there's really not much to be done about it without rewriting the source material.
