Othello

The 1965 Othello is literally a photographed stage play: a filmed record of the National Theatre Production of 1964, as staged by John Dexter and starring Laurence Olivier. As the easily led, fatally jealous Moor of Venice, Olivier wears thick black-faced makeup and speaks in an uncharacteristically ...more

This thrilling version of +Othello really shouldn't work as a movie, because, in one sense, it isn't even a movie at all. Motion picture purists rail against the kind of adaptation in which one essentially takes a stage play and transfers it to film without rethinking it in cinematic terms, and usually with good reason. This transfer goes even further, not even bothering to change from stage settings to more realistic camera-friendly ones. This is usually a recipe for disaster, but this Othello ...more