KING LEAR

USSR, 1969, 139 minutes, Black and white.
Juri Jarvet, Regimantas Adomaitis, Oleg Dal, Elze Radzina, Galina Volchek, Valentina Shendrikova.
Directed by Grigori Kozintsev.

Many consider King Lear Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. It has been produced for television many times and Peter Brook directed a film version with Paul Scofield in 1971.

This Russian film was based on a Russian translation of Shakespeare by Boris Pasternak (Dr Zhivago) in 1949. The director, Grigori Kozintsev, was influenced by the Russian film-makers of the 1920s and 1930s. He made a version of Hamlet in 1964.

For this version of King Lear he went to the rather barren countryside in Estonia. It gives new meaning to the barrenness of Albion and King Lear’s kingdom as well as to the ‘blasted heath’. The film uses an old castle, the rocks and crags of a barren landscape.

The drama is well staged, adapted for the screen, edited well and fast paced. It complements the magnificent wide screen black and white photography.

The film is well cast. The performance by Jury Jarvet as Lear is a down-to-earth performance, a man connected with reality, but foolish and presumptuous. The performances of the actresses as Goneril and Regan are also very strong as is that for Edmund.

The script has been pared for the screen. However, the full implications of Lear and his tragic flaw, his foolish decisions and his presumption as well as his madness are well explored. Oleg Dal as the Fool makes an impact as does Edgar who is presented as a far stronger person, physically and psychologically.

The music is by celebrated composer Dimitri Shostakovich.

1.The status of this film as a classic? The Shakespearian tradition on-screen? Versions of King Lear?

2.Shakespearian tragedy: settings, the fatal flaw, the clash with enemies, the consequences? The fall of a noble man? The background of cruelty and death? The final restoration of order?

3.Bringing King Lear to the screen? The pruning of the text? The staging of the scenes? The external locations? Realistic/symbolic? Editing and pace? The musical score and its moods? The cinematography?

4.The black and white photography, austere, the use of the wide screen? Scope? Light and shadow? The ancient land, the isolation? The Estonian landscapes?

5.The dynamics of the play: Albion, a vague time in the past? Lear’s kingdom, his decision, the division of his kingdom? Wanting the daughters to profess their love? His foolishness? Goneril and Regan and their husbands? Kent and his devotion to Cordelia? Speaking up for her and his exile? The support of Gloucester? The parallel between Gloucester and Lear? His two sons? Edmund aligned with Goneril and Regan, the affairs? Edgar paralleled with Cordelia and exiled? The treatment of Lear and his entourage, ousted? On the heath, the madness, the storms and his blustering? His suffering? The comments of the Fool? Edgar and his exile, his supporting Lear? Edmund and his manipulation? The betrayals, the battles? Gloucester blinded? Edgar leading him to the cliff for his suicide and letting him live? Lear and the reconciliation with Cordelia? His death? The restoration of the kingdom?

6.The person of Lear, foolish, old, the words of the Fool, his experiences of his daughter, his being enlightened even in his madness, the reconciliation with Cordelia?

7.The portrait of Goneril and Regan, their age, relationships with their husbands, ambitions, false professions of love, ousting their father? The relationship with Edmund? The mutual betrayals?

8.Their husbands, one ambitious, one decent? The battles, deaths?

9.Edmund, illegitimate, his relationship with his father, ambitions? With the two sisters? Manipulation? His being defeated?

10.Edgar, a good man, supporting his father, ousted by his father? His pretence to be Tom in the wilderness? With Lear? Guiding his father, his father’s blindness, wanting to die, his saving him?

11.The role of the Fool, the mirror-image of the wise king? Able to say the truth even in jest?

12.Kent, support of Cordelia, contribution to the restoration?

13.A Russian perspective on Lear? A translation by Pasternak? Music by Shostakovich? The work of the director? The cinema tradition of the Soviet Union? An interpretation of Lear from the 1960s and 1970s and from this period of the Soviet Union? The film transcending the political situation in which it was made?