King Lear (1987)

Synopsis: Jean-Luc Godard's adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy shows the director at his most irreverent and esoteric. Rather than present the play in a traditional manner, Godard instead thrusts a series of characters into a French seaside hotel and lets them run with their own random thoughts and... Jean-Luc Godard's adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy shows the director at his most irreverent and esoteric. Rather than present the play in a traditional manner, Godard instead thrusts a series of characters into a French seaside hotel and lets them run with their own random thoughts and ideas. The actors include Norman Mailer playing himself, Molly Ringwald as Cordelia, Woody Allen as a confused director, and Godard portraying an off-the-wall professor. The film meanders throughout, offering endless monologues, plastic dinosaurs, famous paintings, and an array odd subjects who struggle with the father-daughter conflict of the classic play. Thrown into the mix is Godard's now-standard use of jarring inter-titles, including the film's striking opening credit: "A picture shot in the back." What all of this means is up to the individual viewer to decide, which may, in fact, be Godard's point. By distorting and blurring Shakespeare's original text, he has crafted a mysterious statement about art's ability to mirror and alter reality. Pulling together a cast of noteworthy faces, including Allen, Mailer, Julie Delpy, and bad-boy director Leos Carax (LOVERS UNDER THE BRIDGE, POLA X), Godard adds another challenging film to his extensive resume. [More]