There have been a number of notable films of King Lear including Peter Brook's 1971 film with Paul Scofield as Lear, Michael Elliott's production with Olivier as Lear and Richard Eyre's adaptation with Ian Holm as Lear.


Brook originally directed Scofield as Lear at the RSC in 1962 at Stratford. The radical, minimalist production, one of the first ‘bare stage’ productions, followed the Quarto text. His relentlessly cold and unemotional film version was heavily influenced by the essay, "King Lear or Endgame", in which the Polish poet/critic/academic Jan Kott argued that Lear should be interpreted in terms of Samuel Beckett's New Theatre as a play devoid of any consolation, morality or universal justice. Brook’s bleak film was set in a desolate, barren landscape. The violence is brutal – Brook depicts deaths which Shakespeare keeps off-stage - Cordelia’s neck in the hangman’s noose is heard to snap and Gonerill dashes out Regan’s brains against a rock before killing herself.

Cast includes Paul Scofield (Lear); Irene Worth (Gonerill); Susan Engel (Regan); Anne-Lise Gabold (Cordelia).


Critical responses to Michael Elliott's King Lear;

“Tyranny Terror Tragedy” it says on the video cover

The Washington Post said this ‘may well be the best Shakespearean
production ever made for television.’

‘With a stretch of imagination the name of William Shakespeare could
be added to the list of those in attendance. Never before on television has he had so much life breathed into one of his plays … it’s a memorable television classic.’ (The Guardian)

Not all critics were so ecstatic:

“Confronted by the cloudy eyes, frail body and strained voice of
Laurence Olivier as Lear, the king’s opening promise to ‘crawl toward death’ has never sounded so credible, or so poignant…Olivier’s half-senile mind wanders distractedly from thought to thought.” (Daniel Rosenthal, Shakespeare on Screen, Hamlyn, London 2000 p. 194)

“Olivier is too mellow, too childlike to hurl forth Lear’s imprecations
and too cosy for the character’s anguish.” (Wall Street Journal)


The BBC introduced its screening by describing Eyre’s award-winning production as a “powerful portrayal of treachery, madness and brutality”.

Critics raved about this “deeply moving” production. Benedict
Nightingale (The Times) thought Ian Holm possibly the best Lear he had seen. Another critic wrote “we are unlikely to leave this century with a better Lear.”

Sheridan Morley, writing in the Spectator, said that he had seen
upward of 50 Lears “but never have I seen one more intimately moving or immediately accessible.”

“Watching Ian Holm portray King Lear is exhausting and exhilarating.
The diminutive actor puts in a giant performance which touches almost every emotion – from a man of childish self-pitying rage to compassion and tenderness.” Jo Carlowe, Jewish Chronicle

“Ian Holm has entered a special hall of greatness… He portrays a
truculent little man who watches people, not so much to find out what they think or feel, as to see what effect he is having on them.” John Peter Sunday Times

“Rarely is the performing of Shakespeare this exciting and absorbing.”
Shaun Usher Daily Mail

Cast includes Ian Holm (Lear); Barbara Flynn (Gonerill); Amanda Redman (Regan); Victoria Hamilton (Cordelia).

A useful website for this production is the ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre on King Lear. The site includes an in depth exploration of the film version starring Ian Holm. Features images, an interview with Ian Holm, links to other Lear sites, and a bibliography.

Classroom task:
1. Cue up the videos/dvds to the division of the kingdom in Act 1 scene 1 from Lear’s introduction of the subject (‘Meantime we shall express our darker purpose’) to Kent’s banishment and exit.

2. Divide the class into 6 groups. Each group will focus on a different aspect:

- Group 1 will follow the script in their texts and make a note of
cuts and edits
- Group 2 will make a note of the use of music/sound effects in
the scene
- Group 3 will be asked to comment on set/ costumes/
props /furniture
- Group 4 will make a note of staging (movement,
relationships, eye contact, focus etc)
- Group 5 will talk about Lear
- Group 6 will talk about the daughters

3. Print off and hand out the points to consider below

4. Read the questions out loud

5. Watch first film version

6. Discuss answers

7. Repeat for second and third film versions

8. Discuss the different ways directors realise the division of the kingdom in the 3 versions. Discuss what was successful and why. Analyse what didn’t work in production (if anything).

Next
Watch the opening sequences of Ran, A Thousand Acres and My
Kingdom (see below).

Divide the class into three groups and decide which group will talk
about which film.

After watching the 3 adaptations, each group will make a presentation
detailing to what extent Shakespeare’s story has been successfully transplanted to 16th-century Japan (Ran), 1979 in the MidWest (A Thousand Acres) and 2002 in Liverpool (My Kingdom). Do the counterpart characters and settings work?

How much of Shakespeare’s story was left in tact? How successfully did the story transfer to a totally different setting? How can these three films add to our understanding and appreciation of King Lear?

Points to consider:
Click here for a downloadable sheet of points to consider when watching Lear's division of the kingdom.


Adaptations of Othello on film, include, in chronological order: Ran, directed by Akira Kurasawa (Japan, 1985); A Thousand Acres directed by Joelyn Moorhouse (USA 1997); My Kingdom director Dan Boyd (UK 2002).


Kurasawa’s staggeringly powerful and visually memorable film sets the story in 16th-century Japan. Lear is a 70-year old warlord, Hidetora, father of three sons. Japanese culture places great emphasis on children’s respect for elderly parents, so that Hidetora’s treatment and humiliation is particularly excruciating when the eldest son forces his father to sign away all power and the second son treats his father with disdain. Ran is a savage and bloody war-torn revenge drama.


Cast: Jason Robards, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Jason Leigh.


NB this film is CERTIFICATE 18.

Harris plays the head of a crime family in Liverpool. When his wife dies is a random mugging incident, Harris has to divide his empire amongst his squabbling daughters. Kath (Gonerill) is a former model turned madam who runs a tatty brothel in the docks. Tracy (Regan) is a celebrity tart who owns a football team. Jo (Cordelia) is a former junkie and hooker trying to straighten herself out and get a degree. She wants nothing to do with her inheritance, leaving her sisters to fight over her share.

Cast: Richard Harris and Lynn Redgrave.

For discussion:
1. What do these versions add to or take away from the story of King Lear?

2. Discuss the difficulties of updating a play written 400 years ago. How do directors and writers ensure that their concept works? Which elements of the play need explanation when modernised? What issues or ideas require further explanation in a modern film adaptation of an old play?

3. Directors of Shakespeare aim to make his plays accessible for modern audiences. How do the directors of Ran, A Thousand Acres and My Kingdom engage viewers in their versions of the story of Lear? What makes these versions of a very old story appealing?


1. Divide the class into small groups. Ask each group to pick a setting in which to base a modern film version of the play and think about possible cast lists/soundtrack ideas. Each group should develop ideas for set, costume and props based on the text and their modern concept. Make certain each group can discuss any essentials of the play that might seem anachronistic (swords, horses, etc.) and can explain how they might update these elements. Next ask the groups to update one scene from Shakespeare’s play using modern English.

2. Imagine you have been asked to make your own version of the play. Keep a director’s notebook which answers the following questions:

what difficulties are involved in updating a 400-year old play for modern (teenage) audiences?

where and when would you choose to set your modernized version?

how much of Shakespeare’s text would you cut or retain?

how would you introduce us to the characters?

If you are teaching King Lear using film versions of the play, a fantastically useful resource is Daniel Rosenthal’s excellent book, Shakespeare on Screen (Hamlyn, London 2000)