Titus (1999)
Country: US/GB
Technical: DeLuxe/Super 35 162m
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Colm Feore, James Frain, Laura Fraser, Harry Lennix, Angus Macfadyen, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Matthew Rhys
Synopsis:
When Titus Andronicus returns victorious to Rome, only to sacrificially murder captive Queen Tamora's eldest son and support the ne'er-do-well Saturninus as emperor, he sets in motion a cycle of revenge which will engulf them all.
Review:
Shakespeare's early tragic gorefest, an ideal candidate for cinematic exploitation, is here given the Loncraine Richard III treatment, or almost: Taymor mixes her epochs and the musical backing is as deliriously post-modern as the art direction. Her visual inventiveness brings to life the poetic imagery of the text and even the play's more absurd moments, like Marcus's lament as he beholds the despoiled Lavinia, are realised with aplomb. The violence is not shirked either (it is the bloodiest Shakespeare film since Polanski's Macbeth) but the acting is brilliant enough to transcend the author's grand guignolesque flights of fancy.
Country: US/GB
Technical: DeLuxe/Super 35 162m
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Colm Feore, James Frain, Laura Fraser, Harry Lennix, Angus Macfadyen, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Matthew Rhys
Synopsis:
When Titus Andronicus returns victorious to Rome, only to sacrificially murder captive Queen Tamora's eldest son and support the ne'er-do-well Saturninus as emperor, he sets in motion a cycle of revenge which will engulf them all.
Review:
Shakespeare's early tragic gorefest, an ideal candidate for cinematic exploitation, is here given the Loncraine Richard III treatment, or almost: Taymor mixes her epochs and the musical backing is as deliriously post-modern as the art direction. Her visual inventiveness brings to life the poetic imagery of the text and even the play's more absurd moments, like Marcus's lament as he beholds the despoiled Lavinia, are realised with aplomb. The violence is not shirked either (it is the bloodiest Shakespeare film since Polanski's Macbeth) but the acting is brilliant enough to transcend the author's grand guignolesque flights of fancy.
Country: US/GB
Technical: DeLuxe/Super 35 162m
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Colm Feore, James Frain, Laura Fraser, Harry Lennix, Angus Macfadyen, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Matthew Rhys
Synopsis:
When Titus Andronicus returns victorious to Rome, only to sacrificially murder captive Queen Tamora's eldest son and support the ne'er-do-well Saturninus as emperor, he sets in motion a cycle of revenge which will engulf them all.
Review:
Shakespeare's early tragic gorefest, an ideal candidate for cinematic exploitation, is here given the Loncraine Richard III treatment, or almost: Taymor mixes her epochs and the musical backing is as deliriously post-modern as the art direction. Her visual inventiveness brings to life the poetic imagery of the text and even the play's more absurd moments, like Marcus's lament as he beholds the despoiled Lavinia, are realised with aplomb. The violence is not shirked either (it is the bloodiest Shakespeare film since Polanski's Macbeth) but the acting is brilliant enough to transcend the author's grand guignolesque flights of fancy.