King Lear (1970, U.K./Denmark)

Majestically heart-rending production of Shakespeare’s c. 1605 play about a once-mighty monarch driven to madness by his daughters’ betrayal. Director Peter Brook’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s towering play was made under the influence of Polish theater critic Jan Kott, who focused on the contemporary, existential aspects of the playwright’s work. As a result, the film, which stars Paul Scofield as the eponymous monarch, seems less about the betrayal of an arrogant father by his grasping children, than about a Beckett character wandering the landscape of a meaningless universe. When Lear has decided it’s time to divide his realm among his daughters Goneril (Irene Worth), Regan (Susan Engel), and Cordelia (Anne-Lise Gabold), he foolishly disinherits the latter for her honesty. The other sisters quickly dispense with their father’s claims to dignity, and, traumatized by their cruelty, the ex-ruler is soon wandering the moors and ranting at the elements, in the company of his loyal Fool (Jack McGowran). By shooting his exteriors on Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula, an environment as inviting as the surface of the moon, and garbing his cast in primitive costumes, Brook strips the grandeur from royalty, displaying the struggle for power as nothing more than a bestial pursuit. By utilizing the constant intercutting of extreme long shots with close-ups, he emphasizes both the tragedy and the absurdity of Lear’s fate, which only enhances Scofield’s magnificent performance. Enacted by an exceptional cast including Cyril Cusack and Patrick Magee, this film is a powerfully bracing experience.