Othello
- Synopsis
- A recording of the National Theatre production, directed by John Dexter, restyled somewhat for film, but retaining much of its ‘staginess’, Olivier doing little to adapt his towering and extravagant performance for the screen.
- Language
- English
- Country
- Great Britain
- Medium
- Film
- Technical information
- Colour / Sound
- Year of release
- 1965
- Duration
- 166 mins; 18,675 feet
Credits
- Director
- Stuart Burge
- Producer
- Anthony Havelock-Allan; John Brabourne
- Cinematographer
- Geoffrey Unsworth
- Writer
- William Shakespeare
- Music
- Richard Hampton
- Art Direction
- William Kellner
- Cast
Additional Details
- Theatre
- National Theatre, London
- Theatre company
- National Theatre Company
- Production type
- Fiction Films
- Plays
- Othello
- Subjects
- Drama
- Keywords
- Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
- Related items
- Kenneth Tynan - In Praise of Hardcore
- Laurence Olivier
- Olivier Talks About Othello
- Othello
Notes
- Notes
- The British Library Sound Archive holds a live sound recording made at a performance at the Old Vic 29 January 1965. This recording is catalogued separately.
- Figures
- $1.2m in the first weekend of release in the US
- Awards
- All four principals - Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay and Joyce Redman - were nominated for (but did not win) Academy Awards.
- Reviews
- Davies, Anthony ‘Filming Othello’ in Davies, Anthony and Stanley Wells (eds). Shakespeare and the Moving Image: the Plays on Film and Television. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 196-210. [Compares the films of Othello by Orson Welles, Stuart Burge, and Sergei Yutkevich].
"A dulled Maggie Smith notoriously accentuating Olivier’s mannerisms, the overall effect being that of a rather bad-tempered member of ‘The Black and White Minstrel Show" (McKernan & Terris, Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive’, London:BFI, 1994, p127).
Birmingham Shakespeare Library holds a typescript.
Production Company
Distributor (Sale)
- Name
Retail outlets
How to cite this record
Shakespeare, "Othello". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/15830 (Accessed 19 Sep 2024)