![]() Thatleaves Irene Jacob, as Desdemona, to complete the film's catalog of charactersat right angles to one another. Later in thefilm, his character consumed by jealousy, Fishburne makes interesting physicalchoices, as when his head is so filled with images of adultery that it cannotremain still, and twists restlessly. And Othello, as played by Fishburne, never seemsthe truly happy husband and triumphant general the play initially requires, butseems even in early scenes to be somehow aware of his destiny. Iago isin love with conspiracy and his co-conspirators, and destroys Othello as aby-product of his obsession. Thatis not to say Branagh's Iago is badly done he is the best thing in the movie.But he makes Iago curiously distant from the main line of the action. In enlisting Roderigo (MichaelMaloney) to his conspiracy, Branagh as Iago sets a tone and uses body languagethat reads as homosexual he seems to be in a play of his own. ![]() Adaptedand directed by Oliver Parker and starring Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branaghand Irene Jacob (as Othello, Iago and Desdemona), the film gives us a distant,brooding Moor who seems to have had his tragic fall almost before the playbegins, and an Iago who seems more interested in seducing Roderigo, Desdemona'sformer suitor, than in destroying Othello. To some degree, any modern production must makeIago the villain and Othello the victim, and suffer as a result.īutthis production of "Othello" need not have suffered so much. andNicole Simpson projected like a scrim on top of the screen, it is difficult tofree the play to do its work. ![]() They areat risk in any modern production, where the fact that Othello is black andDesdemona white is likely to cast a longer shadow than it did in Shakespeare'stime.Įspeciallyjust at this moment of the film's 1995 release, with the fates of O. Thoseare the human emotional engines that drive Shakespeare's play and that havemade it so powerful for so many different audiences for so many years.
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