Based on his famous stage production, Peter Brook’s King Lear is considered one of the best cinematic renditions of any Shakespeare play.  Master of the British stage Paul Scofield provides a wrenching performance as Lear while the authentic atmosphere of the exterior scenes (shot on Denmark's freezing Jutland Peninsula) enhances Brook’s nihilistic take on the tragedy, which was influenced by Polish critic Jan Kott’s controversial book Shakespeare Our Contemporary.