Directed by Derek Jarman • 1979 • United Kingdom
Starring Peter Bull, David Meyer, Neil Cunningham
Derek Jarman transforms William Shakespeare’s final great play—about the magician Prospero (Heathcote Williams), who lives on an enchanted island with his daughter, Miranda (Toyah Willcox), and exacts revenge on his shipwrecked enemies—into an original and dazzling spectacle, mixing Hollywood pastiche, high camp, and gothic horror. Shot on location at the ancient and ghostly Stoneleigh Abbey, THE TEMPEST channels the innocent homoeroticism of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s versions of classics, while its lush sense of decor and color worthy of Vincente Minnelli. Jarman’s master stroke is the finale, a wedding feast designed and choreographed as a full-scale production number, with the veteran musical-comedy star Elisabeth Welch wafting her way through a chorus line of hunky sailors as she belts out “Stormy Weather.”
Up Next in Pop Shakespeare
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China Girl
Directed by Abel Ferrara • 1987 • United States Starring James Russo, Richard Panebianco, Sari Chang
Auteur of sin and sleaze Abel Ferrara brings his inimitable brand of pulp poetry to this gritty,...
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Tempest
Directed by Paul Mazursky • 1982 • United States
Starring John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Susan SarandonPaul Mazursky updates the Bard in this loose, modern-day interpretation of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST. After he discovers that his wife (Gena Rowlands) is having an affair, New York architect ...
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Love’s Labour’s Lost
Directed by Kenneth Branagh • 2000 • United Kingdom
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Alessandro Nivola, Adrian Lester, Matthew Lillard, Alicia SilverstoneA Y2K-era adaptation of Shakespeare’s sixteenth-century romantic comedy done in the style of a classic 1930s musical? Celebrated Shakespearean Sir K...
