The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.0813  Tuesday, 10 April 2001

[1]     From:   Mary Jane Miller <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 9 Apr 2001 12:35:48 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0782 Re: Filmic Lears

[2]     From:   Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, April 10, 2001
        Subj:   Re: Filmic Lears

[3]     From:   Chris Stroffolino <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 09 Apr 2001 12:53:13 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0792 Re: Filmic Lears


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Mary Jane Miller <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 9 Apr 2001 12:35:48 -0400
Subject: 12.0782 Re: Filmic Lears
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.0782 Re: Filmic Lears

I remember the BBC Lear very well for two things in particular.  Olivier
skinned a snared rabbit on camera to tell us how (and how long) he had
been surviving on his own - and reminding us that unaccommodated man
could survive with skills that this warrior king had had for decades.
Exile and madness had brought out new energy in him.

The other thing I remember is that he shaded a cool ironic sense of
humour  and   flashes of tenderness into his last encounter with
Gloucester.  To me this much shortened version improved as it went as
far as  the interpretation of Lear was concerned. However if memory
serves me correctly, after a superb scene over the body of Cordelia he
reverted to G Wilson Knight and 'saw' her spirit  as he died.  'Dying of
joy' being a pet hate of mine in interpretations of Lear  I found it
hard to remember for a while all the good things in the production.
Playing clips of both Olivier  and Scofield with Gloucester in IV vi
provides good class discussion on that scene.

It was indeed a stellar cast.

Mary Jane

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, April 10, 2001
Subject:        Re: Filmic Lears

Mary Jane is actually referring to the Granada TV Lear and not to the
BBC in her post above. For anyone interested I have a paper comparing
these two Lears ("Two Lears for Television: An Exploration of Televisual
Strategies." Literature/Film Quarterly. 14 (1986): 179-186.) that you
can order from the SHAKSPER fileserver or read on the website. The essay
opens:


The fifth season of *The Shakespeare Plays* opened in America on October
18, 1982, with the last play that Jonathan Miller directed for the
series.  The result is a provocative version of *King Lear* that marked
the third time that Miller had cast Michael Hordern in the role of the
foolish, old king.[1] Fifteen months later, on January 26, 1984,
Americans finally got to see the much heralded *Laurence Olivier's KING
LEAR*.  This version, taped earlier in England for Granada Television,
was directed by Michael Elliott and produced by David Plowright.  These
two productions of the play differ radically, each with instructive
strengths and weaknesses.  Having these two recent productions of the
same play to compare and contrast provides us with a valuable
opportunity to examine some of the choices that the directors of each
production made in "translating" *King Lear* to television.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Chris Stroffolino <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 09 Apr 2001 12:53:13 -0400
Subject: 12.0792 Re: Filmic Lears
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.0792 Re: Filmic Lears

Does anybody know of any good critical, and/or scholarly analyses of the
Jean-Luc Godard "Lear"?

Chris
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