Richard III
Introduction by Producer Stephen Bayly
Screening on Film
Screening on Film
Directed by Richard Loncraine.
With Ian McKellen, Kristin Scott Thomas, Annette Bening.
UK/US, 1995, 35mm, color, 104 min.
Print source: Swank
With Ian McKellen, Kristin Scott Thomas, Annette Bening.
UK/US, 1995, 35mm, color, 104 min.
Print source: Swank
Richard of Gloucester is transported to England in the 1930s in this modernist retelling of one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. Director Richard Loncraine constructs an alternative reality in which the British government and monarchy have been overtaken by a group of black-shirted, motorcycle-riding fascists headed by one of the Bard’s most villainous creations. Ian McKellen, who co-wrote this inventive adaptation with Loncraine, provides a masterful interpretation of the title role that strikes a near-perfect balance between the comedic and dramatic elements of the original material.