King Lear [1987]

From wikipedia, quoting David Sterritt:

The film deliberately does not use conventional Hollywood filmmaking techniques which make a film 'watchable', but instead seeks to alienate and baffle its audience in the manner of Bertolt Brecht [4]

In this manner I consider it a remarkable success; I was alienated and baffled. I wish perhaps it starred the other Peter Sellers. It most certainly was not King Lear as I've understood it to this point, but I've spent 90 minutes in worse ways.

I feel like the massively democratized cultural production apparatus of the internet has poisoned the notion of dada-like absurdism and with that apothecariosis we've lost something important. A way to sit and ponder and breath while turning over an object of conversation in our mind. Now it all has to have a point and a narrative so that someone with a beard and a shelf full of bric-a-brac can talk about it like

Which is to say, you could not make this picture today; not in the Blazing Saddles "sensitivities have changed" sense but an "audiences have stricter expectations and shorter attention/retention spans that narrow their own minds as to the realm of what is enjoyable to witness as media". Remaking this for vertical video (in 'quick bites', as the phrase goes) would be an comedic but likely unappreciated endeavor. I'm glad it exists, though I am surprised at how it can.

Next month we are doing Hamlet and there's a lot of double episodes. The schedule is as follows:

• August 2: Hamlet [1996]
• August 9: Let the Devil Wear Black [1999] + The Lion King [1994]
• August 16: Hamlet [2000] + The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride [1998]
• August 23: Renaissance Man [1994] + Grand Theft Hamlet [2024]
• August 30: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead [1990] + Hamlet 2 [2008] + The Lion King 1½ [2004]

And next week, we're finishing the month of fools with King Lear (1999) - the Brian Blessed one, not the 1998 Ian Holm one. It's on tubi. Thank you for reading, watching, and breathing along with My Year of Shakespeare.