Customer Reviews

Peter Brook's King Lear

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have never seen a better Lear - on film or in the theatre. This is such a difficult role as the King moves from pride and
folly to anger and bitterness, to madness, and then to humility and understanding. Peter Brook films the play in the winter of England which adds to the bleakness of the tragedy. The visuals are stunning in black and white - an outstanding choice to
bring out the mythic nature of the play. Outstanding...should be on DVD.

Director Peter Brook's adaptation of Shakespeare's towering play was made under the influence of Polish theater critic Jan Kott, who focused on the contemporary, existential aspects of the playwright's work. As a result, the film, which stars Paul Scofield as the eponymous monarch, seems less about the betrayal of an arrogant father by his grasping children, than about a Beckett character wandering the landscape of a meaningless universe. When Lear has decided it's time to divide his realm among his daughters Goneril (Irene Worth), Regan (Susan Engel), and Cordelia (Anne-Lise Gabold), he foolishly disinherits the latter for her honesty. The other sisters quickly dispense with their father's claims to dignity, and, traumatized by their cruelty, the ex-ruler is soon wandering the moors and ranting at the elements, in the company of his loyal Fool (Jack McGowran).

As another reviewer put it: "The power of the text is given full rein in stunning performances, in particular that of Paul Scofield, an actor of breathtaking skill, emotional depth and humility. Full accolades must go to Scofield, with his craggy face, startling eyes and suitably moody performance." And I heartily agree. Scofield's performance is incredible. This is one Lear you won't soon forget.

(This is a very difficult video to find -- some libraries still have it, and I found it there. If you can find a copy, consider yourself most fortunate. You'll find occasion to watch this excellent production by the Royal Shakespeare Company more than once!)

Shakespeare, Peter Brooks, Paul Schofield and Jack McGowan. My God, this movie is good. Will someone explain to me why it's not been released on DVD? It sliced my soul when I first saw it over 30 years ago. It continues to touch me deep down where the meanings are with it's relentless look at human despair and courage at the mercy of random fate. "We are to the gods like flies to wanton boys. They kill us for their sport".

Of all the excellent performances of King Lear available to watch, Peter Brook's version (with a stand-out performance by Scofield, with an incredible character arc that few actors could carry off within one dramatic piece) is by far the very best.

If you haven't seen Peter Brooks' King Lear, you've missed an experience of the play that will transform your appreciation of Shakespeare forever. Pure genius. Thought-provoking, disturbing, also oddly inspiring...and amazing cinematography that enhances the experience through the stark landscapes and use of light and shadow.

Highly recommended.

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To the reviewer just above me - what is offered on this Amazon page is a VIDEO, not a DVD. Brooks' Lear has (unfortunately!) not been officially released on DVD for the U.S. market and unfortunately the only DVD version I have found available is for Region 2 (PAL), which works in the U.K. Get the video version offered here if you're after the best production values available at this time for those of us in the U.S. or Canada (or any NTSC [region 1] viewing areas).

When will Criterion bring this as a DVD to us deprived in the US?

Filmed in Jutland in winter with the sand and snow and the swallowing night blowing, roaring across vast edges drear ... this is the most convincing, haunting re-creation of the Dark Ages up North ... The acting, the language, and all the rest, are as perfect as possible.

Schofield is a convincing Lear, investing the role with an intelligent balance of gravitas and confusion - a more rounded and less self conscious portrayal than Olivier's. The supporting cast is uniformly excellent - without doubt one of the strongest on film. Brooke's direction is well paced, intense and a sustained visually bleak metaphor for the text, which it should be noted is incomplete. From Cordelia's first speech, lines are cut throughout, which may facilitate the pace of the action, but which for purists may be less than acceptable. The austere intensity of the direction is well complimented by the black and white photography and occasional Beckettesque extreme close ups which lend to an existing atmosphere of brooding and almost menacing despair. The harrowing final scene is particularly well directed, cleverly avoiding easy sentimentality. This can now be bought on dvd as part of Universal's excellent 5 disc Shakespeare Collection.

The great Ingmar Bergman never got around to directing KING LEAR, but if he had the results might have looked something like this. Peter Brook, whose original stage production was influenced by the "theatre of cruelty" theories of Antonin Artaud, transferred that bleak outlook boldly unto film in this stark black and white version which was shot entirely on location in Denmark. The extremely strong cast includes Irene Worth, Patrick Magee, Alan Webb, Jack MacGowran as the Fool and the inimitable Paul Scofield as the misguided Lear. Borrowing a page from Charles Laughton's 1956 Lear performance at Stratford, Scofield takes a quiet, smoldering approach to the character which clearly shows a man who is used to being in control so he doesn't have to shout. The famous mad scene is underplayed as Lear internalizes his rage and frustration at what has happened to him. Running water on the camera lens brilliantly indicates the dissolution of his mind. The blinding of Gloucester, done from his point of view, is harrowing. The staging of Kent in the stocks, Edgar and Edmund's final confrontation and Goeneril's brutal death, help to drive home this bleakest of all Shakespeare's plays.

I first saw this movie when it first came out in the early 1970s in the wake of a rash of Shakespearean movies spurred on by the success of Zeferelli's ROMEO & JULIET. It was a slap to the face, a punch to the gut and I have never forgotten it. I always envisioned it as part of a double bill along with Roman Polanski's bloody color version of MACBETH which was shot on location in Wales and released the same year (1971). No one would leave the theater the same as when they came in. While Polanski's MACBETH is readily available, a Region 1 version of KING LEAR has yet to be issued. If you wish to see it, then you'll need to get an all region player. Then you can try out the twin bill for yourself in the comfort and sanctuary of your own home. This is certainly not a LEAR to everyone's taste but it is certainly the most cinematic especially when compared with the much better known Olivier version. The text has been shortened and altered but unless you're very familiar with the play, you wouldn't be able to tell. Once seen, Scofield's Lear cannot be forgotten so let's hope that a Region 1 release will appear before too long. This is a performance for the ages and it deserves to be better known. When you watch be sure and use the subtitles.

I first saw this film back when it was on the art house cinema circuit--1973 or so--when I was still an impressionable youth. I was so taken with it I saw it 3 or 4 times while it was still running at the local cinemas. Since that time I've seen a number of productions of Lear, both film and stage, but have always felt that something was missing; that, while good, they never matched the power and profundity of this Peter Brook production. I wondered if this feeling was just residue from an overheated youthful enthusiasm, so I recently resolved to view the film again. Getting my hands on a copy wasn't easy; it appears to have essentially disappeared from distribution, available mostly in used VHS format. I eventually did secure a used copy in good shape from an Amazon seller. I fired it up in the old VCR, and...it's not just as good as I remember, it's better. Scofield is a complete virtuoso, supple in his expression while tapping a deep, profound reserve of slowly building tragic suffering. Honestly, as much as I enjoy Olivier, when it comes to Lear, Scofield simply overwhelms him. In the scene on the heath during the storm, when Lear goes mad, Scofield erupts with unearthly moans and howls that seem to come from some primal recess of the soul. The austere black-and-white cinematography is stunning and it, along with the bleak landscape, adds to the pervasive atmosphere of loss, groundlessness and chaos. It's still the best production of Lear I've ever seen. Highly recommended, even if it means shelling out what seems like an exhorbitant amount for a VHS tape.

When Ingmar Bergman stated Peter Brook was the most important dramaturge of the century, many people could have thought this was a cordial and showy distinction, but the unerring test of time has dictated its last word and seems to sustain with legitimate argumentation this affirmation.

Paul Scofield (1922-2008) (A man for all seasons), made probably his most extraordinary lifetime role with this enigmatic and emblematic personage of Shakespeare's genius.

Respect King Lear and Orson Welles there's a curious and worthy to tell fact. Lear was the first Shakespeare's work learnt by him when he was just a kid and finally it was his unfinished project when the death surprised him in October 10, 1985. Previously, in 1957 O. W. recreated King Lear under the direction of Peter Brook too but in theatre, as well as Laurence Olivier during the early eighties, but as far as I know, the powerful ambiance and primitive stages in which this existential drama was conveyed nurtured and provided of ferocious realism this outstanding adaptation. Of course, we should not ignore the mesmerizing adaptation of Kurosawa in Ran in 1985.

Sequences like the fury of elements, the initial statement of Lear, the disinheritance of Cordelia, the curse over Goneril, the painful dialogue with Gloucester in the middle of nowhere on that lonely shore and his last words hardly will be able to be erased from our memory.

Special kudos for the unforgettable Irene Worth as Goneril and Patrick Mac Gohan as Duke Cornwall.

A film that has become legend since its immediate release.

You need to see this one more than once. The first take will leave you a little unimpressed. The second will peak your curiosity and the third will hook you. The actors steal the show. Their minimalist approach is extremely effective, but it takes a few viewings to relish the complexity of the characters. Scofield in particular is in his best form, despite what others may say. His portrayal of Lear's madness is the most convincing I have seen. The only criticism I have is that there are parts of the film that are hard to follow during the first and second look, if you are not familiar with Shakespeare.

This film is a classic and is one of the most underrated movies made.

Mark Watson