The Othello Project

I'm watching the Lawrence Olivier Hamlet, something I impulsively purchased in the Cyber Monday mania of amazonian.com (yes, this is now the adjectival form of amazon.com in my world) discounts. With shipping it cost the same $5 as my equally impulse oriented annual subscription to Cosmopolitan Magazine (judge away, I am impervious to your sanctimony and stock full of ways to please him in bed while living a glamours *do* sort of life full of makeup and 1,000 dollar handbags, thank you very much).

Cheapness aside, Othello and Lear are my favorite Shakespearian anythings, although Titus Andronicus has its certain appeals. There's something distinctly *human* about these plays - a certain poignancy in the tender depiction of the darkest and most repulsive aspects of human nature. I have a difficult time putting it into words, but I think it's quite challenging to live up to the words on the page for me (there's some quote from The Object of My Affection making fun of a theatre teacher: "Rodney's very picky. He likesDamn Yankees and Shakespeare. But just to read.He's never seen a production up to his standards.") The production of Lear that I saw at the Globe was pretty darned satisfying, but perhaps because I really connected with the text of the script, I've always had a difficult time finding stage productions of either that truly satisfy and I think the move to film can be even more challenging an adaptation for a stage script - how do you recapture the resonance lost when transmitting a living performance into a two dimensional media? Never easy. But it is Olivier, right? Reputedly the best Shakespearian actor of , so I figured it might be worth a go.

Olivier's is less of a cinematic effort than a stage performance caught on film - according to the interview with him on my dvd, this was quite intentional and presented as "an experiment  in motion picture entertainment" hoping to create a movie "with all the living immediacy of the theatre." The backdrops are simple with the stated goal of *not* distracting from either the author or their performances of the author. Take as you will -  I will repeat I don't believe that a live experience can be transposed onto film and the vitality of that "immediacy" must be achieved using tools other than those of the typical actor - projecting and stage makeup, for instance... well, more on that in a sec. I would also suggest that modern stagecraft depends heavily on effective sets and lighting and so this philosophy of minimalism isn't necessary for a stage-to-cinema "experiment" and perhaps is out of place.

The film is in color, which is probably unfortunate, as close ups were not traditionally contemplated by stage performances and the particular dissonance between theatrical-larger-than-life costuming and posturing and the fastidiously detailed makeup and costume for close shots are highlighted in color. Particularly, Olivier's black-face, which is more blueish-grey face, is unsettling to look at. I'm honestly surprised that Olivier didn't opt instead to play Iago, a role he previously preferred, since it is a far more interesting part and would have involved less awkwardness with the elephant-shaded pancake makeup.

Reading about it, I guess the darkness of the makeup and the character itself was Olivier's motivation for the role - he wanted to feel "black to [his] very soul," deepening his voice by an entire octave for the role and developing three layers of makeup that took three hours to apply so that he could avoid the "trend towards a pale coffee-colored compromise." I question whether he really managed to understand the role he was seeking to embody, as the performance lingers on the edge of caricature at times - more yelling and raving with less subtlety and complexity than merited by such a role, particularly for such a famous actor. Impressive acting at turns, but I wonder if his investment in the role and its challenge left the movie a little bit out to dry. I'm sure many film buffs and theatre lovers are gasping and dying a little death inside just for my saying it, but I feel that this film serves more as a general outline for my imagination to grasp what a pleasure it might be to have watch this production in a theatre. I will also add that Maggie Smith, while a very good Desdemona, will forever make me think of Harry Potter - something that unfairly adds a retroactive dissonance.

As compensation for the power lost in removing a life performance to the silver and/or flat screen, a film maker can add something - use his wide array of cinematic tools to add back the magic lost from a live performance by reinterpreting the original vision. If I recall, I really enjoyed the Orson Welles version, less for any particular talent of traditional stagecraft than for the way Welles effectively created a cinematic endeavor, reinfusing the final produt with "magic" from a different source - the crepuscular high contrast black and white, the striking lighting and pensive scenic shots set the mood remarkably well and add a nuance far different from a stage performance:

For whatever reason, this viewing has stoked my curiosity and I've decided to watch as many different film versions of Othello as are available. A few very famous ones seem particularly difficult to find, unfortunately, but yes I will even watch 'O'- the Othello in modern highschool. I'm not sure to what end, but hopefully I will find *the ultimate Othello* film adaptation. Wish me luck.