... lust for power and lost loyalties. Directors" Richard Eyre and Michael Elliott have produced two distinctively different film adaptations of Shakespeare's play King Lear. Richard Eyre's King Lear production aired on television in 1998 and earned Ian Holm the 1997 Olivier Award of the Society of London Theatre. Eyre's production ... the use of setting, the framing of certain shots and costuming that Eyre is focusing on a nihilistic and slightly feminist reading of King Lear. Costuming as an important element of characterisation. Through costuming, Eyre explores the idea that there is no p...

• Word Count: 1073
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... taken from two different points in history reveal how social and political context can shape very different interpretations of the one text. When King Lear was originally written, most audiences would have interpreted it through an Elizabethan perspective. The Elizabethan society believed very strongly in social order and ... poorest shape, That ever penury in contempt of man, Brought near to beast." (Act 2, Scene3, lines 7-8). In a contemporary society however, King Lear has been received very differently. No longer preoccupied with social order and structure, people have taken on an an...

• Word Count: 1119
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... thinking his other son Edgar is betraying him. In 1998, the play was turned into a film. The film "King Lear", directed by Richard Eyre (1998) is an expressionist interpretation of the play King Lear by William Shakespeare The film and play have many main themes including good versus evil and blindness. The composers have used ... see that Goneril and Regan are lying to him. He also doesn't realise that Cordelia is his only true loving and pure daughter. As a result of King Lear's blindness Cordelia is banished and disowned, leaving him vulnerable to his evil daughters. Gloucester is met...

• Word Count: 760
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... and television projects. He was in Eugene O"Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Love Among the Ruins, and Brideshead Revisited. In 1983 he starred in an acclaimed television staging of King Lear. Towards the end of Olivier's career (1970's), he was repeatedly stricken by illnesses that impaired his strength and good health. Despite his poor health he continued to act, and made ... ...

• Word Count: 657
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School