17 Oct 2011

The film's the thing…

Months ago I received a call from the actor Ralph Fiennes. He was in Belgrade shooting Shakespeare’s Coriolanus for the cinema – having himself made a huge theatrical impact with the play. He urgently needed someone to do a very short newscasting appearance, could I do it and indeed could I do it quickly.

Shakespeare in today’s cinema? I thought we had moved on from the days of Hamlet and Henry V. How wrong I have proved to be. Fiennes in his first ever role as director, and continuing to play the lead part, has conjured a most exceptional and massive film for our times.

His Coriolanus is true to Shakespeare’s text but set in the present day, in modern dress. It is set in Belgrade and the political, military and violent conflict besieging Rome has all the resonance of the horror that gripped the former Yugoslavia in the closing years of the 20th Century.

The street fighting is awesome, the politics utterly in tune with the Arab Spring, the London Riots and today’s Wall Street protests…yet all these events occurred after the film had already been shot.

The film made me cry

Last night I attended the film’s premier. Part of the BFI London Film Festival, the cinema was packed. I arrived expecting a gentle snooze in the back row and a dose of embarrassment at my subliminal appearance.

Not so. You are swept into the drama from the off and then emotionally and politically swept helter-skelter through the action to the climatic mother and son moment in which Rome’s fate – besieged by the warring Volsky’s – is at stake. Vanessa Redgrave at 74 is utterly sensational in the play as are Fiennes himself and Brian Cox who play the two key clashing Senatorial roles.

My micro own role turns out to be surprisingly pivotal – delivered in lyrical Shakespearian pentameter, it I has an eerie power…

I had determined not to act when Fiennes asked me to do it – thirty takes later – er, judge for yourself when the film opens in January!

But this is a blockbuster of a 21st century film – Shakespeare writing for our now. The only problem I can foresee is persuading people to go and see it. I confess I have never cried in Shakespeare – I rarely willingly attend Shakespeare any more.

Last night I admit moments made me cry. But Fiennes has transcended all reservation. I would not have missed seeing it for anything, but I shan’t be giving up the day job!

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