Film Series: Filming Othello
***All film programs are held in the East Building Auditorium except where noted***
Othello
January 5 at 12:00 p.m.
January 6 at 12:30 p.m.
Reviled by American critics in the racially tense 1960s, Laurence Olivier's blackface portrayal of the Moor of Venice was audacious, openly theatrical, and a replication of his performance on the London stage — even the film's sets and props had been recycled from that production. As critics today generally allow, this Othello is true to the soul of Shakespeare's problematic play. All of the performances — Frank Finlay's rash Iago, Maggie Smith's edgy Desdemona, and Derek Jacóbi's charged Cassio — are among the most eloquent ever filmed. (Stuart Burge, 1965, 165 mins.)
Calendar of Events | Filming Othello
Othello
January 5 at 3:00 p.m.
January 6 at 3:30 p.m.
Orson Welles' poetic Othello spins the play into a probing study of the Moor's demise, focusing on the interaction between Othello (Welles) and Iago (Michéal MacLiammoir). With deft editing, the film lays bare their twisted emotions. Filming mostly outdoors with pounding winds and screeching gulls as backdrop, "Welles never made a more coherent or beautiful film," wrote Charles Hingham in his study of the director. "The lucid, vibrant style was seldom so perfectly wedded to its subject." (Orson Welles, 1948–1952, 35 mm, 91 mins.)
Calendar of Events | Filming Othello
O
January 13 at 2:30 p.m.
Tim Blake Nelson and screenwriter Brad Kaaya move Othello's action to the locker room of an American high-school gym as Othello becomes Odin (Mekhi Phifer), a superstar basketball player and the school's only African American, and Iago becomes teammate Hugo (Josh Hartnett), naturally jealous of Odin's fame. When Hugo concocts a scheme that forces Odin to mistrust girlfriend Desi (Julia Stiles), the plot thickens. Although hampered on initial release by the sad similarities to school tragedies of the day, O succeeds in capturing the spirit of Shakespeare's play. (Tim Blake Nelson, 2001, 35 mm, 95 mins.)
Calendar of Events | Filming Othello
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