Prospero's Books

1991
R
2h 4m

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

6.8K

YOUR RATING

John Gielgud, Isabelle Pasco, Mark Rylance, and Michael Clark in Prospero's Books (1991)

The magician Prospero attempts to stop his daughter's affair with an enemy.

Play trailer1:14

1 Video

29 Photos

Drama Fantasy

The magician Prospero attempts to stop his daughter's affair with an enemy.The magician Prospero attempts to stop his daughter's affair with an enemy.The magician Prospero attempts to stop his daughter's affair with an enemy.

Director
- Peter Greenaway
Writers
- William Shakespeare
- Peter Greenaway
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

6.8K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Peter Greenaway
Writers
- William Shakespeare
- Peter Greenaway
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 3 wins & 4 nominations total

Trivia
Prospero was Sir John Gielgud's favorite stage role and he had attempted to mount a movie of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" for decades, contacting Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and Ingmar Bergman about directing, and Welles and Albert Finney about playing Caliban. The version with Welles directing and playing Caliban was in preparation until the financial failure of Welles' and Gielgud's movie of Falstaff (1966) forced the project to fall through, where it laid dormant until Gielgud finally convinced Peter Greenaway to make this version.

Alternate versions
The German DVD version has two title cards before the opening credits explaining prior events and the premise of the film.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Paradise/Livin' Large/The Fisher King/The Indian Runner (1991)

Soundtracks
Prospero's Magic
Written by Michael Nyman

User reviews90

Review

Featured review

worth it, just for Gielgud's voice

i miss Gielgud very much already. his voice was so rich, and this film is a smorgasbord of his voice. i find most Shakespeare a bit heavy and sluggish, so strangely perhaps, i find this movie a nice interpretation. and the books, the water, and the nudity are all wonderful. Greenaway is with imagery a bit the way Shakespeare is with words, a bit over-flush, over-ripe; so sometimes he's good and sometimes it just seems like excess. the blue guy was interesting to watch as well. maybe not best to be viewed in one sitting, but more than just a mere film, like being drunk in a flower garden in spring. or perhaps i'm just being poofy.