King Lear (2018)

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

Director:

Richard Eyre

Writers:

Richard Eyre (adapted by), William Shakespeare (based on a play by)

Stars:

Jim Broadbent, Jim Carter, Tobias Menzies

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 16 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jim Broadbent	...	Earl of Gloucester
Jim Carter	...	Earl of Kent
Tobias Menzies	...	Duke of Cornwall
Emily Watson	...	Regan
John Macmillan	...	Edmund
Florence Pugh	...	Cordelia
Emma Thompson	...	Goneril
Anthony Calf	...	Duke of Albany
Anthony Hopkins	...	Lear
Simon Manyonda	...	Duke of Burgundy
Chukwudi Iwuji	...	King of France
Karl Johnson	...	Fool
Samuel Valentine	...	Lear's Gentleman
Andrew Scott	...	Edgar
Christopher Eccleston	...	Oswald

Storyline

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

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Plot Keywords:

insanity | monarch | civil war | 

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Certificate:

TV-14

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jim Broadbent (Earl of Gloucester) has said that the thrilling advantage of performing Shakespeare on-location over on the stage is that an actor can leverage the real-world surroundings in playing a character, as opposed to the experience of working on stage, "where you sometimes look off into the wings and just see coffee cups and a few stagehands looking bored."

User Reviews

A Splendid Production

Lear is one of those roles (the other is Prospero) that looms in the destiny of notable Shakespearian actors. Olivier tackled it. Gielgud (whose advice to a younger Ian McKellan, we are told, was "get a small Cordelia"), Scofield, Stewart, when an actor with in the classical repertory reaches a certain age, the challenge he faces is whether or not do Lear.

Hopkins takes this on with all his considerable skill and force, and for my taste delivers beautifully. Ably supported by a very good cast drawn from the almost bottomless pool of English talent, he portrays the spiteful, short-sighted old king who banishes Cordelia and Kent at the beginning of the piece, the king who finds his power deserting him in the face of opposition from Goneril and Regan in the next arc of the plot, the bereft old man descending into the madness he so fears, and the shattered man at the end, with range and power.

Lear is not a one-man show, but without a tremendously strong Lear you don't have a play (same goes for so many of Shakespeare's best pieces - Hamlet, Macbeth. Richard III). Hopkins hits the essential peak at the last scene, with those two famous lines of one word repeated. "Howl. Howl. Howl." and. utterly broken at last: "Never. Never. Never." These are language as music, almost in the abstracl, like sacred chant in their power, and he delivers them spot on.

I was very pleased with this film and these performances.

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

28 September 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

King Lear

Filming Locations:

Dover Castle, Dover, Kent, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Playground Entertainment, Sonia Friedman Productions, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD