SHAKESPEARE

Alternative title

Orson Welles’ Filming ‘Othello’

Synopsis

Television documentary first shown on German television. A record of the filming of Welles’ OTHELLO. The film is re-edited to make the points Welles wishes to make while discussing it. Also included is a reunion lunch party with Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir where they discuss the film and characterisations. Welles performs two key speeches from the play and the final section is from a Q&A session with film students in Boston after a screening of the film.

Language

English

Country

Germany

Medium

Film

Technical information

Colour / Sound

Year of release

1978

Transmission details

10 Jul 1978

Duration

84 mins

Availability

No archive copy or distributor found (2006)

Credits

Director

Orson Welles

Producer

Jurgen Hellwig; Klaus Hellwig

Cinematographer

Gary Graver

Music

Alberto Barberis; Angelo Francesco

Contributor

Doris Dowling; Fay Compton; Hilton Edwards; Michael Laurence; Micheál MacLiammóir; Nicholas Bruce; Orson Welles; Robert Coote; Suzanne Cloutier

Additional Details

Production type

Documentary/Educational/News

Plays

Othello

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

Notes

A full transcription of FILMING OTHELLO, and an interview with cinematographer Gary Graver by Lawrence French, can be read by visiting www.wellesnet.com

General

Welles intended to make a more elaborate film, by including cutaway scenes that would have broken up the monotony of the talking head format. Welles not only planned to illustrate his talk by re-visiting many of the key locations of OTHELLO, he shot several of these sequences, including footage of himself on a motorboat, gliding down the Grand Canal in Venice as he points out the different sites where OTHELLO was originally filmed These sequences would have significantly enhanced the static nature of the film, but it is believed all that footage was lost, after it was placed in the custody of a Spanish producer.

History

Premiered in June 1978 at the Berlin Film Festival. Shown in the 1978 22nd London Film Festival in the Documentary Section. The film’s distribution has been severely restricted prevented in part, it is believed, by a disagreement between its producers and Beatrice Welles, Welles’ daughter.

Reviews

Sight and Sound, vol. 60, Winter 1990/1, p. 51-54. Shakespeare on Film Newsletter vol. 11, no. 2 April 1987, p1,6.