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MovieMail's Review
This is a superbly acted, handsome adaption of Shakespeare’s play that rattles along in thrilling fashion. Alex Davidson reports from Venice.
Shakespeare’s Othello has rarely made a successful transition from stage to cinema. The 1965 feature is now hard to watch, with an embarrassing performance from Laurence Olivier, gibbering in blackface. Orson Welles’ version, though interesting and worth seeing, does not rank among the director’s most successful films, and crucially neglects the theme of race. O, a modernisation set in an American high school featuring a rap soundtrack, simply does not work. All the more remarkable, then, that Oliver Parker’s directorial debut, actually shot in the Venice of the play, is such a success.
The acting is superb. The racism of the original is tempered by a bravura performance from Laurence Fishburne - brooding and conflicted for the first half, he manages to inject dignity into the Moor’s pathetic descent into paranoia and madness, as Othello is provoked by the wicked Iago into believing his lover, Desdemona, has been unfaithful. Anna Patrick, too, impresses as the fiery Emelia.
However, most film criticism has focused on Kenneth Branagh’s Iago, and rightly so - this is one of the greatest Shakespearean performances captured on film. Branagh plays Iago as a homosexual in love with Othello, adding a warped, sado-masochistic dimension to his machinations to drive Othello to murder. Branagh’s sprightly asides to camera mask the sexual jealousy that will wreak devastating results. It’s a fresh and illuminating interpretation of a classic role.
Oliver Parker, better known for his three film adaptations of Oscar Wilde, now seems to be content to direct sequels (St. Trinian’s II, Johnny English Reborn) - a great loss for film given the cinematic invention he shows in Othello. He adds scenes not present in the play - a dream sequence, a final scene of bodies being buried at sea - and crucially, a sex scene between Othello and Desdemona that depicts the passionate love that the Moor has for wife. Othello does everything film adaptations of Shakespeare should do - rather than merely recording the action, it provokes, it surprises - and makes the viewer reconsider the original anew.
A fine looking version of Shakespeare's Othello, benefiting from Kenneth Branagh's obvious love of the text as he plays a thoughtful, complex Iago, and a fine performance from Laurence Fishburne, who as Othello, smoulders with angry passions as the insanely jealous lover. Irène Jacob plays Othello's wife, Desdemona.
