Laurence Olivier’s Richard III tries to woo Anne (Claire Bloom) over– making it harder than in the original Shakespeare–her husband’s dead body. Olivier splits the seduction scene into two parts (this is part one), and some of the lines (like “Clarence beware thou keepest me from the light….) are from Cibber in the scene that follows. see the second part here: Ralph Richardson … Duke of Buckingham John Gielgud … George, Duke of Clarence Richard III: Act 1 Scene 2 (lines 33-186) (SATS 2008) The funeral of Henry VI. Richard woos Anne. ‘Stay, you that bear the corpse, and set it down’ to ‘I will not be thy executioner’
Am I the only one who finds this Anne really sexy. She’s got that “hidden desire” thing down really well. I know Olivier rocks these two scenes, but she helps, I think, to really add that extra level of sexual tension.
I am SO confused. Am I right in thinking that the scene with Anne, which is just one scene in the written text has been split into two in this film, and placed on either side of the scene with Clarence?
@spide429 Cool to know! I often like (or can at least tolerate) an effect more when I know the reason behind it.
@jg2904 Olivier felt that verse spoken on real sets would be jarring and laughable. He deliberately used “sets” to let the language create the atmosphere.
@port304 I do love b&w films… but something about the early technicolor stuff just really does nothing for me. It’s like they forgot everything they learned shooting with b&w and made all the lighting flat and obviously unnatural in these early color pictures. The sets look SO studio and unreal, too. The realism and attention to detail is really what separates films like Branagh’s Henry V from Olivier’s for example. Anyway, to each his/her own. Touché, my first comment was bit harsh.
@jg2904 Oh you poor sensitive troll. Let me apologize on behalf of the thousands of artists whose work causes you such cruel torment. You know, some of these criminals had the termity to work with black and white film and monaural audio. Philistines and barbarians!!!
@jg2904 Oh you poor sensitive troll. Let me apologize on behalf of the thousands of artists whose work causes you such cruel torment.
SOOOO Golden Age… I don’t know how much of this I watch before going insane. It’s a shame such great performances are buried under this awful early technicolor cinematography and an array of horrendous sets!
@phantom4087 Richard is the only one among them with any sense
Lawrence Olivier, in my opinion he played the best Hamlet I ever so. Only him was capable of giving the full measure of depth and evil that Richard is alleged to have had. Brilliant! Magnificent!
Miguel
Is it just me or do the priests at 06:50 seem like they done’t have a clue what tune they want to sing the latin in? haha
Takes an actor like Olivier to make this really improbable scene work.
Richard III is a creep who woos this widow over her husband’s dead body.
He is not the least bit subtle about it. I’ve seen more indirection in a singles’ bar.
He has personal and political reasons for wanting the widow.
Laurence Olivier is a brilliant actor and this is one of my favorite scenes in all Shakespearean plays, but they chopped out most of the lines!! He’s supposed to be quick-witted and irresistible, and compared to the original script he hardly talks in this, except to himself. Lammmmmeee
he fucks her over the coffin of her husband
@homeros8000
Shakespeare had more more insight about human psychology than pretty much everyone else on earth, but it’s up to the film director to determine how that psychology will translate onscreen. Unlike Pacino, Olivier was not making an essay film with excerpts from the play, and in this context Olivier’s wooing scene was more effective when split, as the second part indicates.
@iamanatullah
Every director has his own vision. I agree that he has a point, but I believe that the actor should take the task of convincing the viewers that this can happen in one scene. I saw that Pacino’s performance was extremely convincing, in addition to this, Shakespeare had more insight about human psychology than Olivier.