Directing Adaptation: Analysis and Production.

I will start first with the version of Paul Scofield in Peter Brook’s film (UK/Denmark, 1971).

I believe the main  strength of this film is the way the camera is positioned to convey the strong point of view of the characters and the story line. The use of the camera makes you feel like you are not simply an audience member but you are on the person who is being spoken to, as if the fourth wall is broken down and non existent and although we see Goneril ad Regan, we see their reactions to their father cursing them, etc., it seems like the viewer is the who is the anger is being directed back and is taking the beating.

This is well seen when Goneril is approaching her father and we see her ascend in her black furry type cape and there is a close up shot of just Lear’s face and he is praying or speaking internally saying:

“Who comes here? O heavens,
If you do love old men, if your sweet sway
Allow obedience, if yourselves are old,
Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!”

This is interesting because we do not see his mouth moving, just his eyes and we hear the voice over of his thoughts, he is reacting to the situation of being the outcast of his daughters, Goneril even approaches him and he actually speaks to her. The intensity of the shot and Lear’s eyes makes you feel like are the one being spoken to, the viewer is being shown with such intensity his eyes, it is hard to look away from someone looking at you. You can not help but look back, especially if the person he is about to actually converse with in the scene is not even within speaking distance yet.

And I love the very moment Goneril shows up. Regan appears more confident or somewhat powerful. Their very presence together shows strength, it surely threatens Lear. It is not just his daughters saying no to him, it is the fact that they are “teaming” up and saying no and the fact that they are not afraid of him, not in the least. They are the ones in control, Lear knows this and Lear shakes his head in disbelief and confusion and perhaps fear, at least a little bit of it. I see this when Regan says:

“You will return and sojourn with my sister,
Dismissing half your train, come then to me:.

I also like the camera shot after this. Lear says:

“Return to her, and fifty men dismiss’d?”

And we see the back of Regan’s blonde hair (?) and Lear is elevated and his eyes are cast downwards.  The viewer feels very much to be in the position that Lear is speaking to them because we do not really see Regan’s face, we just see the back of her head. Her face is irrelevant, we see see the emotions expressed to her by her father looking down on her, literally.

And then the closeup intensity of the scene with Goneril and Lear when Goneril says “At your choice sir”.

I think this scene is interesting because Goneril is wearing  a back feather/furry coat like her father wore in the beginning scene of film when dividing his kingdom. And Lear does not elevate himself as he did with Regan. He comes down to wear Goneril is and is in her face. She doesn’t flinch in fear. I believe she knows the roles between them are switched now and she doesn’t have to.

The last part I enjoyed was the last cry by Lear when he says “Question not the need!” The camera focuses in on his entire face, he comes extremly close to the shot, until you are seeing his eyes again. The viewer feels that Lear is just inches away from his or her face. Then as Lear says the word “beasts”, there is a pan to both sisters and the camera closes in on them, as Lear is doing to the viewer. It is like this is the very motion of what Lear’s words are doing. Yet, the sisters do not move, Lear does. He walks very boxlike into the scene. Then, as he got into your face, he walks out, boxlike, backwards in the shot.

I also liked how after this scene, there were a lot of close ups, even of the horses in the storm. I would have loved to see this in color, the earthy materials in the film: the wood of the set (including the wooden stick/min staff Lear has in this scene), the leather, the fur, the feather, very interesting stuff. I even see the breath of the actors in the colod air, how intricate the film is without color…!

I also like how the actors, their necks are covered, with fur, with feathers, etc. This reminds me of the word “stiff necked” stubborn, etc.

Now, to discuss Jüri Järvet in Grigorii Kozintsev’s film (Russia, 1970).

This scene shows a very contemplative, intuitive and quiet King Lear. He seems solitary, even with other people. He is seen sitting at a long table, with his hand underneath is chin. And there is space between him and the other people. He is seated ahead of the others, with them in the backround. When he gets up, he is walking ahead of the others in the backround and there is a definite space in the blocking that the director is using to place the characters.

When Regan greets her father,  it appear very friendly, even caring and loving..he takes her by the hand, she sits next to him as if an equal and she kisses his hand and put it to her face. She asks him to return to her other sister. Then Lear responds by saying:

“Dear daughter, I am old.”

He puts his hands together as people do when they pray. He does not seem threatening in any specific way.

I like the backround in the shot of him walking to greet Goneril when he says:

“Oh, heavens, if you love old men.”

It is a wide shot (most of the scene seems to be shot in a wide angle) and the wind is blowing his hair. iI seems as if he is walking outside into “fresh air”.

And like the Peter Brooks movie, the very min. Goneril enters the scene, the sisters are seen as a power duo. Here, they are wearing the same exact clothes basically, walking with the same rhythm towards King Lear, speaking with one following the other. And very quickly, it pans to the audience watching, and the audience is commenting, whispering.

The only time Lear is spacially close to the “power sisters” is when he yells to command their attention to response as they walk past him. He says:

“But yet, though art my flesh”.

Even when he is close o Goneril, she is not even looking at him. Like the wounded King is not even worth a glance. She is listening to him, however. And Kign Lear continues to walk after them and literally closes the door on his face!

He is seen as completely alone at the end. Just his speech to the heaves and the skies. He looks up at the heavens and speaks, perhaps to get attention from the gods to glance on his poor condition, for at least to gain sympathy from somewhere. And then the scene cuts to a big shot of the cloudy sky and loud, brassy/trumpet dramatic sound with drums.

And as he leaves the town and tells the fool he will go mad, he is shut out yet again, by the guards. He is not very welcome in many places to many people…