#stuart burge

[audiemurphy1945]

Othello(1965)

[audiemurphy1945]

Othello(1965)

[audiemurphy1945]

Frank Finlay as Iago, 1965.

[ferretfyre]

Review: Julius Caesar (1970)

You know, some movies are so bad they don’t deserve long reviews.

This is one of them.

The 1970 version of Julius Caesar, starring Jason Robards, John Gielgud and Charlton Heston is awful.

Only Heston gives a good performance, Gielgud phones it in, and Robards is flat as a board. The costuming is terrible, the sets look cheap, and the pacing is downright glacial.

I suppose the first half or so is only worth it if you’re in full blown riff mode, or you just love hurting yourself by seeing great actors turn in horrible performances.

Skip it.

0.5 out of 5

[ferretfyre]

Movies in 2015:

Julius Caesar // 1970 // Stuart Burge

”The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

[second-tolast-blog]

#104 Othello (1965)

This version of "Othello" is steeped in tradition. And because it is so bound by the traditions of the classical interpretation of the play, the film fails to become anything but acting onscreen. The film makes no attempt to tell the story using the cinematic language. They might as well be filming this adaptation onstage because there is no difference between a stage production and this film adaptation. Because of the tradition, the results were also Laurence Olivier in blackface and in terribly offensive blackface. He is a great actor but that decision is terribly short sighted and the film did not work because of it. 

[loveless422]

Maggie Smith is Desdemona in Othello (1965).

[illustraction]

OTHELLO - Playwrights and Thespians (Part 2)

OTHELLO Japanese movie poster (1965)

William Shakespeare was again ahead of his times when he penned the story of Desdemona, the rich young daughter of a Venetian senator, who falls for the dark skinned moorish prince, Othello.

The interracial tone infuses the entire play and is perfectly recreated in the 1965 movie directed by Stuart Burge (see Jules Caesar in part 5 of this Blog) with the actor's actor Laurence Olivier as Othello and Maggie Smith as Desdemona. The cast is a who's who of the Royal Shakespeare Company with future British theater legends, Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi making their film debuts.

Because an image is worth a thousand words, the Japanese poster above sums up the story in one single kiss.

OTHELLO Japanese poster courtesy of ILLUSTRACTION GALLERY (All posters ON SALE till January 31)