Il potente racconto di Shakespeare del malvagio e deformato Re e delle sue conquiste, sia sul campo di battaglia che nella camera da letto.Il potente racconto di Shakespeare del malvagio e deformato Re e delle sue conquiste, sia sul campo di battaglia che nella camera da letto.Il potente racconto di Shakespeare del malvagio e deformato Re e delle sue conquiste, sia sul campo di battaglia che nella camera da letto.
- Candidato a 1 Oscar
- 9 vittorie e 3 candidature totali
- Monk
- (as Wally Bascoe)
Trama
Lo sapevi?
- QuizMichael Gough got his part (Dighton, the first murderer) by making a fuss to his fellow actor friends about only established stars getting cameo parts and leaving nothing for struggling actors like him. One night he got a phone call, and a voice said "You've been stirring it, haven't you? Right little shit." Gough demanded to know, "Who is this?" only to be stunned by the response, "It's Larry", which of course was Sir Laurence Olivier. Olivier was just having some fun at Gough's expense, had taken on-board his criticisms and was ringing to offer him the part of one of the murderers in this movie. When asked which one he wanted to play, Gough quickly said "Whichever one has the most lines", and he got his wish. Olivier arranged matters so that Gough's scenes were split over several days, instead of all being done in one day, so that Gough would maximize his per diem fee.
- BlooperIn the scene when Richard tells King Edward of Clarence's supposed treason, two monks are singing hymns from a large book: their lips are not only out of sync with their singing, but with each other.
- Citazioni
Richard III: I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall,/ I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,/ Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,/ And, like a Sinon, take another Troy./ I can add colours to the chameleon, /Change shapes with Proteus for advantages, /And set the murderous Machiavel to school./ Can I do this,and cannot get a crown?/Tut, were it farther off,/ I'll pluck it down.
- Curiosità sui creditiMost of the film's credits are shown at the end. The opening credits show only the title of the film, William Shakespeare's name, and the names of the main actors.
- Versioni alternativeReleased in Great Britain at 155 minutes; some of the prints released in the USA are 139 minutes.
- ConnessioniFeatured in Great Acting: Laurence Olivier (1966)
Quite well. Because "Richard III," like "Patton" or "Scarface," is essentially a one-man show, and Olivier was the best Shakespearean actor of his time or since, we are in good hands. As a director (and uncredited co-writer), Olivier telescopes the action on screen in such a way as to negate the necessary stageiness of Shakespeare's text. He moves us the audience from one scene to another by pulling back a curtain and nodding to us to come closer, as if we were an old friend. He yells some lines, then coos others, his vocal dynamics challenging even seasoned readers of the play in terms of what he chooses to accent and what he does not. Finally, he finds the ample stores of humor Shakespeare gave this, one of his darker plays.
"A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman...the spacious world cannot again afford," Richard says of one man he killed, and Olivier invests moments like this with a firm tongue in cheek. While wooing that man's wife (strictly for political gain), he actually draws a sword when presenting himself as the widow's new suitor, telling her to plunge it into him if she won't be his bride. She tells him he's a liar. "Then never man was true!" Richard shouts, and Olivier as he says this rolls his eyes shamelessly, like a silent-screen matinée idol. I can't watch that scene without laughing; it's a Mel Brooks moment.
The film does move slowly, despite Olivier's trims. Entire scenes get cut out, yet the first act is drawn on for nearly an hour with the help of some dialogue brought in from another Shakespeare play. Surely Olivier could have set more up as part of the opening text narrative, and gotten down to business with that famous opening soliloquy.
A worse fault is the woodenness of some of the actors, like the ones who play Catesby, Brackenbury, and especially Lord Hastings. It doesn't help that they don't get the same chance to address the viewer that Olivier avails himself. Sir John Gielgud even seems lost playing a naive victim of Richard's complots. Seen to better advantage are Claire Bloom as the woman Richard woos, Michael Gough as a murderer, and Patrick Troughton as the nasty child-killing nobleman Tyrell.
Ralph Richardson gives the second-best performance in the play as the Duke of Buckingham, a half-step behind Richard in guile and cruelty, but trying to catch up in his own cold-blooded way. It's funny to read here that Olivier wanted Orson Welles in the role. Welles would have seemed too crafty. Richardson makes a believable victim as well as conspirator. Also, you have to mention Pamela Brown's Mistress Shore, who has no lines (because Shakespeare wrote none for her) but manages in Olivier's direction to play a central role by currying the bedside favor of King Edward and of Hastings.
But Olivier of course is the only reason this movie is still watched. And he's worth watching as long as movies are seen. Yes, he may have won World War II making his movie version of "Henry V," and his "Hamlet" was when he became Hollywood's favorite emissary of high culture, but "Richard III" is still the thing to catch the conscienceless of the king, his moment of highest dungeon and merriest perversity. It's movies like this one that remind us why acting can be a noble profession, even for those who aren't knighted for their excellence in it.
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- Tempo di esecuzione2 ore 41 minuti
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