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Shakespeare
Online
The Hollywood
Bard
The Merchant
of Venice
There are exactly a dozen versions
of this play listed by the Internet Movie Database, five theatrical
releases and seven made-for-TV versions. The most recent version
is from 1996, stars nobody I've ever heard of, and the IMDB
listing doesn't even show a country or language of origin.
 The
only one of the lot that I've seen is the 1973
Laurence Olivier made-for-TV version, directed by John Sichel.
Other than Olivier (as Shylock) the cast included Joan Plowright
(who was, not incidentally I think, married to Olivier) as Portia
and, most surprisingly, Jeremy Brett as Bassanio. I say "surprisingly"
because I didn't even recognize him in the film, although I did
recognize his name from the end credits. I was more familiar
with Brett as the gaunt, pale Sherlock Holmes from the series
of BBC movies he made as that character, but obviously, he looked
nothing like that in this movie.
What's interesting is that the
most recent U.S. version of the play is a black-and-white silent
version from 1914. All the others are British, Canadian, or Italian.
Is this perhaps because of the perceived Anti-Semitism of the
play? What do you think? E-mail
me if you have a theory. |
