Product Details

• Actors: Woody Allen, Leos Carax, Julie Delpy, Suzanne Lanza, Kate Mailer
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English, French, Japanese, Russian
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Cinematheque Collection
• VHS Release Date: October 7, 1992
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630240567X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,212 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Art House & International > European Cinema > France > French New Wave

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Godard's Best..., July 24, 2006

By	A. Perry - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Godard's King Lear is an extended meditation on the possibilty or impossibility of capital-A "Art" in the postmodern age. It engages inconsistently at best with Lear--if you're looking for an interesting, coherent interpretation of Shakespeare's play, you'll probably want to look somewhere else--but as a working-through of what it means to create Art or what counts as Art, it is incomparable.

Ironically, but unsurprisingly, this is one of Godard's most "Modernist" works, engaging in self-conscious formal experimentation in order to engage with the "essence" of the cinematic medium. Gone is the overt political aspect of his work of the 1960's, as he has come to be concerned here with aesthetic issues alone. (Arguably, this was a necessary step leading into his religious works of the 1990's.)

And all that highfalutin' interpretation aside, who doesn't want to see Burgess Meredith (and Norman Mailer) "playing King Lear" to Molly Ringwald (and Mailer's daughter's) Cordelia?

Note to Woody Allen fans: His cameo is about two seconds long. If he's your only interest, don't bother.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 'Lear' is MollyRingwald's Best Picture Post-"Pretty in Pink", July 22, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Monarch Beach, Calif., U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

"King Lear" is a fascinating film experience. Godard expresses passionate views of power vs. virtue, as appears on one of his many taglines, but what is most remarkable about this masterful picture is its sheer ability to inspire provocative thoughts of American society today. Released to video October 9, 1992 and classified PG by CARA, "King Lear" also features optimal sound (c/o of Dolby), as is appropriate and necessary for Godard's cinematic scope. Set against the backdrop of a Swiss resort, "King Lear," indeed unfolds in "post-apocalyptic"(Leonard Maltin), post-Chernobyl time, revealing a surreal picture of the world as we may come to see it. Misunderstood and underappreciated, "King Lear" is not to be missed, if only to see Brat Packer Molly Ringwald in her best picture since 1986's "Pretty in Pink."

10 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One of the most pretentious, unintelligible films ever made., March 10, 1999

By A Customer

--and please keep in mind I am a fan of Jean-Luc Godard and of Shakespeare. This painfully dull and self-important film is a waste of time and talent. Instead, check out Godard at his peak in Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live), Breathless, or Un Femme Et Un Femme or try Laurience Olivier's late 1980's BBC version of King Lear or Orson Welles' version. This is perhaps my "most unfavorite" movie ever.