Coriolanus rules, ok?

At last, my red carpet moment! Last night I attended the premiere of Ralph Fiennes’ remarkable film of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. Fiennes directs and acts the central role.

Actually it was a very short carpet, constrained by the narrow streets of Mayfair outside the Curzon cinema. And I was an hour late anyway, owing to the “day job”.

But the film is a startling commentary on our very present times – the Arab Spring, the Tottenham riots – even the parlous state of global leadership are all there. So too is a mother’s love. Indeed it is the mother who, with all due respect to Fiennes, steals the show. Vanessa Redgrave is the triumphant, awe-inspiring and passionate climax to it all.

The scene in which she leaves Rome unarmed, striding with the wife and boy child of Coriolanus along the road out of Rome through rank upon rank of armed men, to plead with him not to attack Rome, is an exceptional moment even by her own high standards. It is in the end what makes this such a supremely special film.
It is shot in the present, deploying the Bard’s text to enormous effect. For Rome read Belgrade, for the Roman ranks of centurions, read what appears to be the entire Serbian army together with tanks and heavy artillery. This is a bloody film, the more so for the brilliant photography of Barry Ackroyd of Hurt Locker fame. But above all it is a film about “the people” and in that regard it really does speak to the current uprisings from Moscow to Bahrain.

 But I must declare my red carpet interest – for I am in the film (and the picture shows Jon arriving at the after party). The 24-hour news cycle plays a role in the pace of it all. Key turning points are established through the TV news. So there is me, Shakespearean pentameter and all, popping up from time to time doing my “day job” but with a bit of added “pump”.

Let’s be candid, it was a thrill being directed by Fiennes – an intense intellectual man – and an even bigger thrill to rub shoulders with the cast at the post-picture party after.

Tonight I am back in my box, back in the day job, back in the real world that Shakespeare, writing 400 years ago, so vividly captures for us even for these complex days.

Follow Jon Snow on Twitter: @jonsnowC4