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King Lear (1970)

Director: Peter Brook

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From Time Out Film Guide

Made on location in what looks like a perilously cold Denmark, Brook's only Shakespeare on celluloid found a similarly frosty reception, especially as it came out just after Kozintsev's grandly conceived Russian version. Brook's filming is graceless - looming close-ups, perverse camera moves - but there are some remarkable performances (developed from his much praised stage production a few years before with Scofield). The conception is consistent with the influential views of Jan Kott, who saw Lear as a precursor to Beckett's plays about human blindness and nothingness (a line reinforced by the casting of MacGowran as the Fool, and Magee as the Duke of Cornwall). A bleak interpretation, in every sense.

Author: DT 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Peter Brook

Producer: Michael Birkett

Cast: Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, Alan Webb, Tom Fleming, Susan Engel, Annelise Gabold, Jack MacGowran, Cyril Cusack, Patrick Magee, Jack MacGowran, Robert Langdon Lloyd, Ian Hogg full cast

Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers

Duration: 137 mins


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