Titus (1999)

Director:

Julie Taymor

Writers:

William Shakespeare (play)
Julie Taymor (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 February 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | War

Tagline:

If you think you know Shakespeare....Think again.

Plot:

This film is an adaptation of the Shakespeare play "Titus Andronicus." Titus returns victorious from war, only to plant the seeds of future turmoil for himself and his family. Who says revenge is sweet?

Plot Keywords:

Hand | Revenge | Pie | Queen | General

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Osheen Jones	...	Young Lucius
Dario D'Ambrosi	...	Clown
Anthony Hopkins	...	Titus Andronicus
Jessica Lange	...	Tamora
Raz Degan	...	Alarbus
Jonathan Rhys Meyers	...	Chiron
Matthew Rhys	...	Demetrius
Harry Lennix	...	Aaron
Angus Macfadyen	...	Lucius
Kenny Doughty	...	Quintus
Blake Ritson	...	Mutius
Colin Wells	...	Martius
Ettore Geri	...	Priest
Alan Cumming	...	Saturninus
Constantine Gregory	...	Aemelius
James Frain	...	Bassianus
Colm Feore	...	Marcus Andronicus
Geraldine McEwan	...	Nurse
Laura Fraser	...	Lavinia
Tresy Taddei	...	Little Girl
Bah Souleymane	...	Infant
Antonio Manzini	...	Publius
Leonardo Treviglio	...	Caius
Giacomo Gonnella	...	Sempronius
Carlo Medici	...	Valentin
Emanuele Vezzoli	...	Goth Leader
Hermann Weisskopf	...	Goth Soldier (as Herman Weiskopf)
Christopher Ahrens	...	Goth Soldier (as Cristopher Aherns)
Vito Fasano	...	Goth General
Maurizio Rapotec	...	Goth Lieutenant
Bruno Bilotta	...	Roman Captain

Directed by
Julie Taymor

Writing credits
William Shakespeare		(play "Titus Andronicus")
Julie Taymor		(screenplay)

Produced by
Conchita Airoldi	....	producer
Paul G. Allen	....	executive producer
Stephen K. Bannon	....	co-executive producer
Robert Bernacchi	....	associate producer
Mark Bisgeier	....	co-associate producer (as Mark D. Bisgeier)
Adam Leipzig	....	co-producer
Ellen Dinerman Little	....	co-executive producer (as Ellen Little)
Robert Little	....	co-executive producer
Brad Moseley	....	co-associate producer
Jody Patton	....	producer
Linda Reisman	....	consulting producer: U.S.
Julie Taymor	....	producer
Karen L. Thorson	....	associate producer
Michiyo Yoshizaki	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Elliot Goldenthal

Cinematography by
Luciano Tovoli

Film Editing by
Françoise Bonnot

Casting by
Irene Lamb
Ellen Lewis

Production Design by
Dante Ferretti

Art Direction by
Pier Luigi Basile		(supervising art director)
Massimo Razzi
Domenico Sica

Set Decoration by
Carlo Gervasi

Costume Design by
Milena Canonero

Makeup Department
Giusy Bovino	....	key hair stylist (as Giusi Bovino)
Ana Bulajic-Crcek	....	assistant makeup artist
Jana Carboni	....	assistant makeup artist
Maria Pia Crapanzano	....	hair stylist
Tony Gardner	....	special makeup effects artist
Paola Genovese	....	assistant hair stylist
Vincenzo Mastrantonio	....	makeup artist (as Enzo Mastrantonio)
Dorothy J. Pearl	....	makeup artist: Jessica Lange (as Dorothy Pearl)
Luigi Rocchetti	....	key makeup artist
Gino Tamagnini	....	key makeup artist
Mauro Tamagnini	....	key hair stylist

Production Management
Robert Bernacchi	....	unit production manager
Pino Butti	....	production supervisor
Dino Di Dionisio	....	production supervisor
Marco Greco	....	unit manager
Marco Olivieri	....	unit manager
Stefano Sciarra	....	assistant production manager
Gian Paolo Varani	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Vanja Aljinovic	....	co-first assistant director
Tony Brandt	....	assistant director (as Antonio Brandt)
Gilles Cannatella	....	third assistant director
Henrique Laplaine	....	third assistant director (as Henrique de Araujo Laplaine)
Zdravko Madzarevic	....	assistant director
Luigi Spoletini	....	third assistant director
Boyana Sutic	....	second assistant director (as Bojana Sutic)
Guy Travers	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Alessia Anfuso	....	assistant set decorator
Carlo Avvisato	....	props
Luigi Calvitti	....	carpenter
Dimitri Capuani	....	assistant art director
Roberto Casale	....	assistant art director
Maria Rita Cassarino	....	assistant set decorator
Roberto Cingolani	....	draperies
Cristiano Donzelli	....	storyboard artist
Biagio Fersini	....	assistant art director
Ettore Guerrieri	....	prop master
Barbel Elizabet Krisel	....	assistant set decorator
Barnaba Pagliarini	....	draperies
Bruno Ranieri	....	head painter
Luigi Sergianni	....	construction manager
Luca Tranchino	....	draftsman
Claudio Villa	....	props

Sound Department
Jennifer Barin	....	sound re-recordist
Benjamin Cheah	....	supervising foley editor
Marko A. Costanzo	....	foley artist (as Marko Costanzo)
Chris Fielder	....	assistant sound editor
Jonathan Greber	....	sound transfer supervisor
Gabriel Guy	....	machine room operator
Lora Hirschberg	....	sound re-recording mixer
Frank Kern	....	foley editor
George A. Lara	....	foley engineer (as George Lara)
Blake Leyh	....	sound designer
Blake Leyh	....	supervising sound editor
Skip Lievsay	....	foley mixer
Debora Lilavois	....	assistant adr editor
Debora Lilavois	....	assistant sound editor
Kimberly R. McCord	....	dialogue editor
Michael Miller	....	adr recordist
Cate Montana	....	sound intern
Igor Nikolic	....	assistant sound editor
Tim O'Shea	....	foley editor
Glenfield Payne	....	sound effects editor
Jay Peck	....	foley artist
Juan Peralta	....	sound mix technician
Jennifer Ralston	....	foley editor
Alex Soto	....	assistant sound editor
Daniel Sperry	....	stereo sound consultant: Dolby (as Dan Sperry)
David Stephenson	....	sound mixer
Gary Summers	....	sound re-recording mixer
John Torrijos	....	video services
Christian von Burkleo	....	video services
Deborah Wallach	....	adr supervisor
Colin Wood	....	sound maintenance
Steve Romanko	....	sound (uncredited)
David Warzynski	....	foley librarian (uncredited)
David Yonson	....	adr recordist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Renato Agostini	....	special effects supervisor
Massimo Ciaraglia	....	special effects technician
Claudio Quaglietti	....	special effects technician
Fabio Traversari	....	special effects technician
David Bracci	....	prosthetic effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Andrea Adams	....	CG animator: Peerless
Stefano Ballirano	....	senior digital artist
Martin Body	....	optical cameraman
John Paul Docherty	....	digital effects supervisor (as Paul Docherty)
Ditch Doy	....	visual effects
Deak Ferrand	....	senior matte painter/designer: POP animation
Lori Freitag-Hild	....	digital compositor
Kent Houston	....	visual effects supervisor
Arnon Manor	....	CG animator
Gian Luca Rizzo	....	digital compositor
Susi Roper	....	visual effects producer
John Swinnerton	....	compositor
Marc Twinam-Cauchi	....	CG artist: Peerless Camera (as Mark Twinam-Cauchi)
Bob Wiatr	....	digital effects compositor
Pat Wong	....	digital compositor
Cheryl Bainum	....	digital effects producer: POP Animation (uncredited)
Andy Davis	....	digital compositor: Imaginary Forces (uncredited)

Stunts
Alessandro Borgese	....	stunt performer
Stefano Maria Mioni	....	stunt coordinator (as Stefano Mioni)

Camera and Electrical Department
Enrico Appetito	....	still photographer
Roberto Bagalá	....	best boy grip
Eric Biglietto	....	focus puller: "b" camera
Alessia Bulgari	....	still photographer
Daniele Cafolla	....	light board operator
Alessandro Cardelli	....	electrician
Raffaele Chianese	....	focus puller: "b" camera
Daniela Chioffi	....	clapper loader
Marco Contaldo	....	best boy
Sergio De Luca	....	assistant camera
Francesco Di Giacomo	....	second assistant camera
Roberto Emidi	....	key grip
Stefano Falivene	....	focus puller
Paolo Frasson	....	grip
Samba Kosak	....	assistant camera
Samba Koschak	....	camera trainee
Simone Lucchetti	....	electrician
Enrico Lucidi	....	camera operator
Valter Pavia	....	grip
Francisco Pintore	....	second assistant camera
Andrea Quaglio	....	clapper loader: "b" camera
Cristiano Sergioli	....	grip diver
Marco Sticchi	....	electrician
Giovanni Tancredi	....	electrician
Giorgio Tasso	....	video assist operator
Giorgio Toso	....	second assistant camera
Lorenzo Tovoli	....	focus puller
Massimiliano Trevis	....	Steadicam operator
Massimiliano Trevis	....	camera operator: "b" camera
Mario Tursi	....	still photographer
Carlo Vinciguerra	....	gaffer

Casting Department
Marcia DeBonis	....	casting associate
Shaila Rubin	....	casting: Rome

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Angela Anzimani	....	seamstress
Alma Barbieri	....	workshop tailor
Mariella Dirindelli	....	wardrobe assistant
Nicoletta Ercole	....	associated costume designer
Annie Hadley	....	chief costume cutter
Giovanni Lipari	....	costumer
Gabriella Loria	....	costume assistant
Arthur Rowsell	....	dresser: Mr. Hopkins (as Arthur Roswell)
Marco Scotti	....	wardrobe master
Lucilla Simbari	....	costume assistant
Emanuele Zito	....	costume workshop supervisor (as Emanuele Zito)

Editorial Department
Bob Allen	....	assistant editor
Anna DiNuovo	....	editing production assistant
Dale E. Grahn	....	color timer (as Dale Grahn)
Mo Henry	....	negative cutter
William Henry	....	first assistant editor (as Bill Henry)
Peter Phillips	....	post-production coordinator
Sara Thorson	....	second assistant editor
Josh Wick	....	editing production assistant

Music Department
Michael Connell	....	music editor
Deaf Elk	....	musician: guitar
Robert Elhai	....	orchestrator
Matthias Gohl	....	music producer (as Teese Gohl)
Elliot Goldenthal	....	music producer
Elliot Goldenthal	....	orchestrator
Page Hamilton	....	musician: guitar
Joel Iwataki	....	music mixer
Joel Iwataki	....	music recordist
Joel Iwataki	....	music score mixer
Todd Kasow	....	music editor
Daryl B. Kell	....	music editor (as Daryl Kell)
Lawrence Manchester	....	music recordist
Richard Martinez	....	electronic music producer
Stephen Mercurio	....	conductor
Curtis Roush	....	music editor
Jonathan Sheffer	....	conductor
Mark Stewart	....	musician: guitar
John Thomas	....	musician: trumpet
Bruce Williamson	....	musician: saxophone

Transportation Department
Roberto Leone	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Eleonora Baldwin	....	assistant to director
Cicely Berry	....	voice specialist
Giuseppe Cancellara	....	armorer
Carmela Compagnone	....	payroll accountant
Kyle Cooper	....	producer: "Penny Arcade Nightmare" sequences
Jennifer Zolten Freed	....	post-production accountant
Linda Gamble	....	unit publicist
Constantine Gregory	....	dialogue coach
David S. Leong	....	additional fight choreography
Norma Marie Mascia	....	production coordinator
Paola Mengoni	....	script supervisor
Claudia Moscatello	....	production secretary
Anna Orieti	....	production accountant
Alex G. Ortoll	....	main title sequence designed and produced by
Giuseppe Pennese	....	choreographer
Barbara Petrelli	....	location manager
Patrizia Pierucci	....	assistant payroll accountant
Katherine Profeta	....	script researcher
Luigi Rocchetti	....	prosthetic devices
Sergio Stivaletti	....	prosthetic devices
Gino Tamagnini	....	prosthetic devices

Thanks
Eileen Gregory	....	thanks
Steven Spielberg	....	thanks
Baby Walker	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Clear Blue Sky Productions
• Overseas FilmGroup
• Urania Pictures S.r.l.
• NDF International
• Titus Productions Ltd.

Distributors

• Paradiso Entertainment (2001) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (Argentina) (VHS)
• Distribution Company (Argentina)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2001) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS)
• Ekaterinburg Art Home Video (EAHV) (Russia) (VHS)
• Fox Searchlight Pictures
• GAGA Humax
• GAGA
• Laurenfilm (Spain)
• New Films International
• Opening Distribution (France)
• Paradiso Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Tantra DMPC Ltd.
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
• Visual Filmes (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• e-m-s the DVD-Company

Special Effects

• Alterian
• Germano Natali

Other Companies

• London Metropolitan Orchestra and Chamber Choir  music performed by
• Skywalker Sound  sound re-recording services
• Sony Classical  soundtrack
• The Mask Orchestra  music performed by
• The Pickled Heads Band  music performed by
• Titus Productions Ltd.  closing credits
• Trevanna Post  post-production accounting

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violent and sexual images.

Runtime:

162 min

Country:

Italy | USA | UK

Language:

English | Latin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Canada:18A (Alberta) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | Singapore:R21 (re-rating) | Iceland:16 | Australia:MA (TV rating) | Singapore:R21 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | France:U | Germany:16 | Italy:T | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Singapore:R(A) | UK:18 | USA:R | Spain:18 | Philippines:R-18

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Clear Blue Sky Productions

Trivia:

Harry Lennix originally played Aaron for Julie Taymor's off Broadway production of Titus Andronicus. When informed of the impending movie he felt obligated to reprise his role for the screen.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Tamora leaves the party/orgy to join Aaron on the balcony, her hands are clasped across her chest. In the next shot she is holding a cigarette.

Quotes:

Demetrius: Chiron, thy years wants wit, thy wit wants edge and manners, to intrude where I am graced, and may for aught thou knowest, affected be.
Chiron: Demetrius, thou dost overween it all and so in this, to bare me down with braves. 'Tis not the difference of a year or two makes me less gracious or thee more fortunate. I am as able and as fit as thou to serve and deserve my mistress' grace, and that my sword upon thee shall approve. And plead my passions for Lavinia's love.
Aaron: [to the camera] Clubs, clubs! These lovers will not keep the peace.
Demetrius: [to Chiron] Why, boy, although our mother, unadvised gave you a dancing rapier by your side are you so desprite grown to threat your friends? Go to! Have your lath glued within your sheath till you know better how to handle it.
Chiron: Meanwhile, sir, with the little skill I have full well shalt thou perceive how much i dare.
Demetrius: Ay, boy, grow ye so brave?
[they draw]
Aaron: [Aaron stops them] How now, lords! Here in the emperor's palace dare you draw and maintain such a quarrel openly? Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge. I would not for a million of gold the cause were known to them it most concerns. Nor would your noble mother for much more be so dishonored in the cort of Rome. For shame, put up.
Demetrius: Not till I have sheathed my rapier in his bosom and withal thrust those reproachful speeches down his throat that he hath breathed in my dishonor here.
Chiron: For that I am prepared and full resolved. Foul-spoken coward, that thunderest with thy tongue and with thy weapon nothing darest perform.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Features Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991) (VG)

gripping, absurdist view of Shakespeare

In recent years, a new fashion has sprung up among filmmakers who have attempted to bring Shakespeare's works to the screen. No longer content to keep the plays bound to the historical eras in which they are set, many an adapter has chosen to transport the plots and dialogue virtually intact to either a completely modern setting or a strange never-never land that combines elements of the past with elements of the present. In just the last few years, we have seen this done with `Romeo and Juliet,' `Richard the Third' (albeit this one made it only as far as the 1940's) and even Kenneth Branagh's `Hamlet,' which, although also not exactly contemporary in setting, did at least move that familiar story ahead in time several centuries. Now comes `Titus,' a film based on one of Shakespeare's earliest, bloodiest and least well known plays, `Titus Andronicus,' and, in many ways, this film is the most bizarrely conceived of the four, since it creates a world in which - amidst the architectural splendors of ancient columned buildings - Roman warriors, dressed in traditional armor and wielding unsheathed swords, battle for power in a land disconcertingly filled with motorcycles and automobiles, pool tables and Pepsi cans, punk hair cuts and telephone poles, video games and loud speakers. The effect of all this modernization may be unsettling and off-putting to the Shakespearean purist, yet, in the case of all four of these films, the directorial judgment has paid off handsomely. Not only does this technique revive some of the freshness of these overly familiar works, but these strange, otherworldly settings actually render more poetic the heightened unreality of Shakespeare's dialogue. Plus, in all honesty, Shakespeare's plays are themselves riddled with so many examples of historical anachronisms that the `crime' of modernization seems a piddling one at best.

Those unfamiliar with `Titus Andronicus' may well be caught off guard by the ferocious intensity of this Shakespearean work. Moralists who decry the rampant display of unrestrained violence in contemporary culture and look longingly back to a time when art and entertainment were supposedly free of this particular blight may well be shocked and appalled to see Shakespeare's utter relishment in gruesomeness and gore here. In this shocking tale of betrayal, vengeance and rampant brutality, heads, tongues and limbs are lopped off with stunning regularity and it is a measure of Julie Taymor's skill as a director and her grasp of the shocking nature of the material that, even in this day and age when we have become so inured and jaded in the area of screen violence, we are truly shaken by the work's cruelty and ugliness. Yet, Taymor occasionally injects scenes of daring black comedy into the proceedings, as when Titus and his brother carry away the heads of his sons contained in glass jars while his own daughter, who has had her own hands chopped off in a vicious rape, carries Titus' own dismembered hand in her teeth! There are even meat pies made out of two of Titus's enemies to be served up as dinner for their unwitting mother. Thus, even though we can never take our eyes off the screen, this is often a very difficult film to watch.

`Titus' is filled with elements of character, plot and theme that Shakespeare would enlarge upon in later works. It includes a father betrayed by his progeny (`King Lear'), a Moorish general (`Othello'), a struggle for political power (`Julius Caesar' among others) and - a theme that runs through virtually all Shakespeare's tragedies - the need for revenge to maintain filial or familial honor. Anthony Hopkins is superb as Titus, capturing the many internal contradictions that plague this man who, though a beloved national hero and military conqueror, finds himself too weary to accept the popular acclamation to make him emperor - a decision he will live to rue when his refusal ends up placing the power directly into the hands of a rival who makes it his ambition to bring ghastly ruin upon Titus' family. Titus is also a man who can, without a twinge of conscience, kill a son he feels has betrayed him and disembowel a captive despite the pleas of his desperate mother, yet, at the same time, show mercy to the latter's family, humbly refuse the power offered him, and break down in heartbroken despair at the executions of his sons and the sight of his own beloved daughter left tongueless and handless by those very same people he has seen fit to spare. Jessica Lange, as the mother of the captive Titus cruelly dismembers, seethes with subtle, pent-up anger as she plots her revenge against Titus and his family.

Visually, this widescreen film is a stunner. Taymor matches the starkness of the drama with a concomitant visual design, often grouping her characters in studied compositions set in bold relief against an expansive, dominating sky. At times, the surrealist imagery mirrors Fellini at his most flamboyant.

The fact that this is one of Shakespeare's earliest works is evident in the undisciplined plotting and the emphasis on sensationalism at the expense of the powerful themes that would be developed more fully in those later plays with which we are all familiar. At the end of the story, for instance, many of the characters seem to walk right into their deaths in ways that defy credibility. We sense that Shakespeare may not yet have developed the playwright's gift for bringing all his elements together to create a satisfying resolution. Thus, it is the raw energy of the novice - the obvious glee with which this young writer attacks his new medium - that Taymor, in her wildly absurdist style, taps into most strongly. `Titus' may definitely not be for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach, but the purely modern way in which the original play is presented in this particular film version surely underlines the timelessness that is Shakespeare.