King Lear **** (1970, Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, Cyril Cusack, Jack MacGowran, Alan Webb, Patrick Magee) – Classic Movie Review 10,160

‘Know that we have divided In three our kingdom: and ’tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age; Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen’d crawl toward death.’

Well that’s how it starts. But then soon: ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.’

A royally grave and sombre Paul Scofield is a worthy, even a great Lear in writer-director Peter Brook’s dark-toned and bleak 1970 King Lear, a carefully but heavily chopped back version of the William Shakespeare tragedy, filmed arrestingly in black and white by Henning Kristiansen on chilly Denmark locations (Råbjerg Mile, the a migrating coastal dune in northern Jutland).

Råbjerg Mile.

Among the marvellous acting, Irene Worth proves her worth as Goneril and Jack MacGowran scores as The Fool, while Alan Webb as Gloucester, Cyril Cusack as Albany, Patrick Magee, as Cornwall are all outstanding in support.

Brook’s film is based on their Royal Shakespeare Company production.

Also in the cast are Tom Fleming as Kent, Susan Engel as Regan, Robert Langdon Lloyd as Edgar, Ian Hogg as Edmund, Anne-Lise Gabold as Cordelia, Søren Elung Jensen as Duke of Burgundy, and Barry Stanton as Oswald.

There no music and no ambient sound in the opening credits.

King Lear is directed by Peter Brook, runs 137 minutes, is made by Athéna Films, Filmways Pictures, Laterna Film and Royal Shakespeare Company, is released by Columbia Pictures (1970) (UK) and Altura Films International (1971) (US), is written by Peter Brook, based on the play by William Shakespeare, is shot in black and white by Henning Kristiansen, is produced by Michael Birkett and Sam Lomberg, and is designed by Georges Wakhévitch.

Filmways Pictures also produced Tony Richardson’s 1969 Hamlet and Peter Hall’s 1968 A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,160

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