i , claudius ( film )
excellent post. i only know i, claudius from the miniseries i watched on public television. thanks for sharing, this was fascinating to read !
i, claudius - ep. 1 - a touch of murder - legendado - youtube
today, i' m taking a behind the scenes look at the never - completed version of i, claudius (1937) starring charles laughton .
we all have guilty pleasures; i have many. one of them are watching i, claudius. i actually bought the book to put an end to the rewatches, but that book is just collecting dust .
the final episode of i, claudius is on bbc four at 10. 00pm on tuesday 4 june .
director josef von sternberg, merle oberon, and charles laughton on the set of i, claudius (1937) .
i agree and thanks for the heads up on the korda bio. i' ll definitely have to get that from the library .
i, claudius began as a 1934 historical fiction novel by robert graves about the shy, stuttering man who, against all odds, became the fourth roman emperor. i, claudius and its sequel, claudius the god, were both bestsellers and british producer alexander korda quickly scooped up the movie rights for london films .
the story of the aborted 1937 filming of
i, claudius
, starring charles laughton, with all of its surviving footage .
i, claudius trailer 1975 director: herbert wise starring: brian blessed, derek jacobi, sian phillips, margaret tyzack, john hurt, official content from pbs home video seven part masterpiece theatre series chronicling rulers of the roman empire. a public t. v. hit, it' s a juicy, high - brow soap opera. jacobi leads a masterful cast, playing the physically & emotionally deformed emperor claudius with subtle relish. movie, i, claudius movie, i, claudius trailer, i, claudius 1975, herbert wise, brian blessed, derek jacobi, sian phillips, margaret tyzack, john hurt ,
as the 1976 adaptation of i, claudius concludes its run on bbc four, ben lawrence suggests how the new hbo version can repeat its success .
fascinating documentary of an aborted 30' s filmization of the classic robert graves novel i, claudius that was to star charles laughton and merle oberon .
as an arsenal supporter, a film enthusiast, and a lecturer at university college london, i was triply foredoomed to love the arsenal stadium mystery .
q: why are people saying charles laughton could not get the part of claudius right? i did see the footage and he looked okay to me .
i’m sure that duncalf had no inkling that he was launching a whole new genre of film history on film, or that future such productions would show no such restraint in exploring and exploiting the behind - the - scenes drama .
derek jacobi:' i don’t mind people having faith. but it ain’t for me’
is this, by itself a five star movie? i don' t know, i don' t care, i don' t even know what 5 - stars means. but the footage of sternberg' s i claudius seen here (approximating 25 - 30 mins) is astonishing. it' s not just rushes, sternberg cut while he shot. and what a shame that this movie was never completed. i have zero doubt that it would have been sternberg' s greatest achievement. and such a shame that charles laughton giving the greatest performance of all time has to be in an unfinished film .
the entertaining history lesson that is i, claudius offers a rare amount of high quality acting; in addition to derek jacobi' s phenomenal interpretation of the titular claudius (quite possibly my favourite performance ever), it features excellent turns from sian phillips as livia, brian blessed as augustus, george baker as tiberius, john hurt on career - best form as caligula, and sheila white as claudius' wife messalina, but i could go on naming nearly every actor participating in the production, the performances really are that great. an adaptation of two robert graves books which i haven' t read— i, claudius and claudius the god —the film version works as well as the best of novels do, once you’ve finished a chapter / episode you immediately want to start reading / watching the next, while you at the same time wish that the story would never end .
claudius films | documentary production – specializing in creative feature - length and tv films .
claudius films prides itself on exploring important yet under - exposed issues from every corner of society. the breadth of claudius films’ catalogue is a testament to the company’s ethos .
to the screen “the greatest science film never made, ” as the movie poster tagline insists? i have my doubts. jodorowsky, director of the aggressively trippy, scruffy cult classics
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
in february 1937, an extraordinary assemblage of film luminaries converged on denham studios to start production on a brilliant but ill - fated cinematic translation of robert graves’ two celebrated novels, i, claudius and claudius the god. elaborate sets arose in the leafy london suburb for the drama of the volatile and psychotic caligula’s accession to power, viewed by the historian and scholar claudius who must pose as a groveling half - wit until his chance unexpectedly arrives to rule the roman empire .
fans of graves' novels will not be disappointed and fans of historical fiction will find much to love here. i, claudius is a fascinating portrait of the roman empire told from the inside .
- - a 10 - page booklet featuring a context - enhancing essay on i, claudius' s relationship to historical fact and a most useful family tree in which you can trace the complicated genealogy across the generations of the series' multitudinous characters. (i referred to it more than once) .
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founded in 1999, senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film - related content on the internet .
but who was thorold dickinson (1903 - 1984)? when i arrived at university college london in 1985 it was a matter of legend that a distinguished british film director, thorold dickinson, this country' s first professor of film studies, had taught film at the college' s slade school of art in the 1960s and 1970s, holding fabulous weekly screenings covering the whole history of western cinema. it was an inspiring close to a heroic, unlucky career devoted to filmmaking and film culture .
this time around i thought that i would bring my spouce along for this theatrical crazy ride. i lured him in saying that it was a perfect watch before the new game of thrones season. he doesn' t like a lot of tv - series, but he likes got and he' s a huge history nerd. even having studied a cultural history program at college for four years. there were no more excuses, and finally, after years of going on about how awesome i, claudius is, he agreed to watch it…
germannicus returns from germania in triumph and he and claudius catch up on family news - claudius now has a son but is not enjoying married life. he tells germannicus what postumus had passed onto ...
fascinating! considering the the scarlet empress is my favorite von sternberg movie, i' d probably fall in love with i, claudius - if it was ever released. those
could have beens
in the movie history are always so sad! don' t forget to read my contribution to the blogathon! :) cheers! le urltoken
robert keser teaches film at national - louis university in chicago, and is associate editor of bright lights film journal. his previous cteq annotations include edvard munch, the exile, forbidden, police, and westfront 1918 .
claudius films ltd. ben atar st. # 7 tel aviv, israel 6608725 + 972 - 52 - 2385334
a former art student who enrolled in the royal academy of dramatic arts in 1960, hurt paid his dues in british television before breaking through in 1966’s a man for all seasons, opposite paul scofield and orson welles. he earned his first bafta award in 1976, for playing gay author and ranconteur quentin crisp in the tv film the naked civil servant; that same year, he played notorious roman emperor caligula in the tv film classic i, claudius .
i thought it was interesting that he chose edward instead of his younger brother george vi who was a well - known stutterer .
to quote charles drazin' s bio :
korda britain' s only movie mogul
at p. 186 :
the pity is that the surviving footage of
i, claudius
reveals one of the great charles laughton performances .
the ostensible reason for the film being abandoned was oberon' s car crash but the film reveals that the truth seems to lie in the antagonism between the director and charles laughton, whose crippling insecurity about how to play the part of claudius doesn' t really come across in the snippets we see here: he' s simply majestic in the part .
: i now honor this noble house by appointing incitatus, the greatest race horse in the empire, a member of the senate .
just a list of some pretty cool movie posters on the lb database. i haven' t seen most of these movies. …
the life and times of the roman emperor claudius (10 b. c. - a. d. 54) .
the latest version of i, claudius has yet to find an official studio home. however, the hollywood reporter suggests the most likely backers are the disney divisions touchstone or miramax, pointing out that rudin' s production company is based on the disney lot .
) watched the film bleed to death, yet the few delightful minutes of gilliam’s finished film show us just why he continues to defy the gods and put his hubris on the line when he’s given the green light on his next cinematic labor of love. as of this writing, gilliam is once again trying to resurrect the film, with john hurt as quixote .
“i can’t say i worry about mortality, but it’s impossible to get to my age and not have a little contemplation of it, ” hurt said in a 2015 interview, after his cancer diagnosis. “we’re all just passing time, and occupy our chair very briefly. ”
with more than ten years of experience in the film and television industry as an independent producer, claudius films portfolio includes a variety of films – pitched in international financing forums – dealing with social, history and science issues, both domestically and internationally .
nearly 40 years on i can' t quite believe that this was shown on the bbc in the 1970s. an excellent drama serial with a cast of fine british actors, this covers about 70 years of the roman empire as narrated by claudius (derek jacobi) .
i, claudius was mostly forgotten until the bbc unearthed the leftover footage for a 1965 documentary, the epic that never was (if you' ve got 75 minutes to spare, i' ve included the full movie below). not only is the documentary a fascinating glimpse into how movies are made - - it' s amazing to see a roaring crowd of extras become immediately silent when von sternberg yells ,
cut
- - but it also provides a sense of what the completed version of the film might have been like .
although i, claudius has the potential to be epic in scale (marauding armies, massacres), the 1976 version had, by necessity, to keep the action off stage. what we were left with was a chamber piece which focused on the emotional and political landscape .
this british television documentary, hosted by dirk bogarde, is about the aborted 1937 film i claudius. the film, directed by josef von sternberg and produced by alexander korda with an all - star cast, was shut down after only a few weeks of filming, reportedly because of its extravagant cost. this documentary shows much of the original footage, which hadn' t been seen for 28 years, and features interviews with some of the original cast and crew, including von sternberg, flora robson, merle oberon and emlyn williams .
this list collects every film from the starting list that became they shoot pictures don' t they' s 1000 greatest films. this…
at thirteen episodes, it is certainly a commitment, but certainly no greater one than watching the latest season of the sopranos, whose classical tragedy format is obviously inspired in part by i, claudius. (you' ll note that the manipulative matriarch of both is named livia. )
it has been announced that us tv network hbo has commissioned a new adaptation of i, claudius. a remake doesn’t feel like sacrilege, and hbo are a quality broadcaster, yet it’s a considerable undertaking and other attempts to take on graves’s work have proved abortive. orson welles abandoned a proposed film at a very early stage, while in 1937 alexander korda planned a version of the first book with charles laughton in the title role. production was halted when korda’s then wife merle oberon (who had been cast as claudius’s wife valeria messalina) was injured in a car accident .
the power of the film is enhanced by its seeming simplicity, pulling together a tremendous feat of research and scholarship and leaving the commentary to the archival witnesses and to five survivors invited to view the footage (“what if i see someone i know? ” asks one woman, a question that we not only can’t answer but can’t honestly imagine asking). the more it strips itself to the evidence, the more devastating and affecting the portrait becomes .
back in the 1930' s alexander korda left hungary where he had been a film producer to settle in england and began a film studio in 1933 that he hoped could compete with hollywood. what he thought he could beat them at was historical epics and over a few short years produced such classic films as the private life of henry viii, the rise of catherine the great, the private life of don juan, rembrandt and fire over england. but he wanted something even better - even bigger - so he settled on the book from robert graves called i, claudius .
ace norton is an award - winning us director and filmmaker from venice, california. ace creates visuals on a variety of media platforms including advertising, fashion, music video and film. his work has been nominated for a grammy, awarded at milan fashion film festival and many others .
tim günther is a director, whose passion for emotive visual storytelling has seen him create a wide range of memorable and awarded commercial film work .
the mini - series follows the history of the roman empire, from approximately the death of marcellus (24 / 23 bc) to claudius' own death in 54 ad. as claudius narrates his life, we witness augustus' attempts to find an heir, often foiled by his wife livia who wants her son tiberius to become emperor. we also see the conspiracy of sejanus, the infamous reign of caligula, and claudius' own troubled period of rule .
those who always thought blessed was an old ham (“flash gordon’s alive! ”) should take a look at i, claudius. his performance as the decent, betrayed augustus is incredibly moving. blessed should be repaid for his sterling work in the original with a role in the remake – he’s a good roisterer after all .
“poetic, stylized and highly accurate film, excellently cinematographed. one of the sharpest statements in the history of documentary narrative. ” gidi osher, galei tzahal
the never - completed 1937 screen version of i, claudius is one of the great question marks in film history. would the british film, which was filled with major international talents like director josef von sternberg and actors charles laughton and merle oberon, have become a beloved classic like ben - hur (1959) or the ten commandments (1956) or would the lavish production have sunk under the weight of its own lofty ambitions like the ill - starred 1963 version of cleopatra? the only evidence we have today is about 20 minutes of raw footage that shows viewers a grandiose movie that is at times brilliant, meandering, and campy .
claudius buchzik is a managing partner and co - founder. at picsters he oversees all creative processes, from initial concept iteration and script development through storyboard and production .
i am a serious fan of robert graves' books, the bbc series, and pretty much anything else i can devour about the era of the great roman emperors. every time i rewatch the series (about twice a year), i absolutely must watch the documentary about this movie also. i find it quite fascinating, and am left with an unfulfilled longing to watch the entire movie. this is a totally emotional response to the documentary, and has absolutely nothing to do with any controversy over the production, which imho is exactly what filmmakers want - an emotional response. of course the clips we get to see have flaws, have you ever seen unfinished parts of a movie that didn' t? (or even a finished movie, for that matter) i personally believe it is a shame they had someone like von sternberg involved instead of a director that really cared about the project and was willing to do it justice. think about it... the director is pretty much the backbone of a movie. if he comes in with the attitude that he' s not happy with anything, how can anyone else be happy about what they are doing? i think it had as much potential of becoming a phenomenon as the bbc series .
included on the dvd set as an extra is the complete film of the epic that never was. in 1937, producer alexander korda attempted to bring the grandeur of robert graves' novels to the silver screen. he hired charles laughton to play claudius and merle oberon to play his wife, messalina. josef von sternberg was directing .
an enthralling documentary from the bbc, hosted by dirk bogarde, which contains most of the footage shot for producer alexander korda' s projected version of the robert graves novel' i, claudius', together with interviews with many of the surviving principals, including graves, merle oberon, emlyn williams, flora robson and the enigmatic director josef von sternberg .
the film' s own game is always an attacking one, even if it does look a touch cheap and cheerful beside the glossier hitchcock thrillers of the time that it recalls in its witty effervescence. moreover, you don' t have to be a sports fan to enjoy it - any film fan will relish its sense of fun and zip. martin scorsese has commented that, even as
someone who can' t stand sports - soccer, anything with a ball - i find the soccer scenes exhilarating
.
leonardo dicaprio could star in a big - screen version of i, claudius after the rights to robert graves' s novel were obtained by veteran producer scott rudin. according to a story in the hollywood reporter, dicaprio and screenwriter william monahan are currently circling the project. the pair last collaborated on martin scorsese' s oscar - winning crime drama the departed .
as laughton and korda were dead by the time this film was made (and now all have passed on), the history of i, claudius lies in the hands of the survivors, notably sternberg, oberon, williams, flora robson, and author robert graves. for our era of exhaustive commentaries by directors and other participants, this film seems too circumscribed (its length presumably dictated by its television origins) and too well - behaved, seemingly conscious of its debt to its interviewees, and insufficiently critical to probe deeply beneath the surface civilities. to be sure, the irascible and difficult sternberg would be a poor choice for such probing, but only emlyn williams manages to suggest a significant subtext .
what a fascinating film it would have been. laughton was a perfect choice, and how interesting that he studied king edward to capture the psychology of the man ...
“…what i was seeking in my history of cinema was to be less alone”: introduction to a true history of cinema and television by jean - luc godard (trans. and ed. timothy barnard )
i alerted his dismayed fellow players to disregard all stagecraft and follow him if need be to the ceiling. moreover, no one but the crew, who followed my slightest signal, knew any longer when we were rehearsing and when we were actually filming, for our claudius had a way of disintegrating before our very eyes as soon as he suspected that he was being recorded. (4 )
was a groundbreaking miniseries, and is still today considered by some to be the totem by which all other miniseries are measured. it stars derek jacobi as the titular emperor and autobiographer. as narrator, claudius tells us his family history from his grandmother livia' s marriage to the emperor augustus caesar to the end of claudius' own life, at the hand of others .
acclaimed blackly comic historical drama series. set amidst a web of power, corruption and lies, it chronicles the reigns of the roman emperors - augustus, tiberius, caligula and finally claudius .
a look at never completed version of i, claudius. this is a wonderful look at film making in the golden age, both as it was and as memory has made it. we get to see the stars and crew talk about a project that got away and how it still haunts them. this is one of the best films on films ever made, partly because it shows us what might have been a treasure, but also because it does what what movies do best, create an illusion of something that doesn' t really exist. with a film like this, made decades after events, the mind is left to ponder what the aborted film might have been. from the few scraps of actual footage we expand it out to a completed film that might have been one of the greatest films of all time. of course it all could have gone south as well, but the fun is in what might have been... . 10 out of 10 a personal request - would someone please put this out on dvd by itself, its stupid to make us buy the bbc miniseries just to be able to see this .
tonight, after 12 weeks of poisoning, incest, mass murder and cannibalism, bbc four’s repeat run of i, claudius comes to an end. herbert wise’s 1976 production based on robert graves ’s classic novels, while undeniably dated for a modern audience, remains a powerful, compelling piece of drama, crowned by an extraordinary performance from sir derek jacobi, both commanding and vulnerable, in the title role .
but we also see a later sequence, beautifully played by laughton, where for the first time claudius heroically asserts his moral authority in public by placing demands on the senate and the roman army .
first published in 1934, i, claudius is a roman epic purporting to be the autobiography of the fourth emperor of rome, who ruled from ad41 - 54. it detailed the political machinations at work within the empire. the tale was first adapted by director josef von sternberg in 1937, with charles laughton in the title role. in 1976 it was overhauled as an acclaimed bbc miniseries, starring derek jacobi and john hurt .
one of the first documentaries to make use of the opening theme from richard strauss' s
also sprach zarathustra
, later made more famous in the film
2001: a space odyssey
.
a superlative 13 - part saga, based on robert graves' novels, centering on the historian claudius and how, in an unlikely (and violent) chain of events, he came to rule the roman empire. brilliantly mounted, and with a memorable lead performance by derek jacobi as the stuttering and shrewd claudius, and a scene - stealing, over - the - top turn by john hurt as (more… )
includes all extant scenes shot before production problems, laughton' s struggles with the part and ultimately merle' s near career ending potentially disfiguring car crash put the final nail in the film' s coffin .
based on robert graves' famous novel, i, claudius is the ultimate soap opera, vicious, cruel, manipulative - - and this famous english miniseries grabs the attention and holds fast throughout the entire length of its complex tale of ancient intrigue. the great strengths of i, claudius are in the driving pace, sharp wit, and ferocity of jack pulman' s script and the host of brilliant performers who play it out. chief among these are sian phillips as the calculating, murderous, and unspeakably cold livia, wife of augustus; although derek jacobi gives a justly famous performance in the title role, it is phillips who dominates and drives the story with this, the most brilliant performance of her career. but this is not to disparage the overall cast, which is remarkably fine and includes such noted artists as brian blessed, john hurt, patricia quinn, patrick stewart, and a host of others. like the serpent that appears in the open credits, the story twists and winds - - and covers several generations of the ruling family as rome slips from the republic to royal rule, largely due to the manipulations of livia, who has few if any scruples in her determination to rule first through her husband and then through her son. although the look of the film is somewhat dated, it in no way impairs the power of the piece, and i, claudius remains one of the handful of miniseries that actually improves upon repeated viewings. strongly, strongly recommended. gary f. taylor, aka gft, amazon reviewer
inspector slade is a great character, not only a holmesian detective genius but also a breezy theatrical bachelor who dons a new hat for every scene. he' s first seen in scotland yard rehearsing a chorus - line of bobbies in drag for the
metropolitan police beauty chorus
. dickinson planned a follow - up - the denham studio mystery, using footage from von sternberg' s aborted i, claudius - but, alas, war intervened .
ad 54: claudius feels that rome should return to be a republic but nonetheless marries his niece agripinilla and makes her son nero co - heir with his own, teen - aged son britannicus. aware of a ...
i am too baffled to structure coherent sentences, so a few random thoughts: oh, the fratricide, the parricide, incest, lots of incest... ancient rome makes the song of ice and fire look like a fucking fairy tale... livia you conniving horrible woman... caligula you deranged monster... tiberius you colossal pawn... augustus you emotional fool... sejanus you ambitious snake. . claudius you genius fool ...
a film was commissioned to tell the story of the atrocities committed by the nazis and alfred hitchcock himself was drafted to shape the footage into a documentary that would play for audiences on both sides of the war. it was never completed. while some of the footage was used in other documentaries and propaganda pieces, most of it was unseen until the unfinished film, produced under the dry, unprepossessing title “german concentration camps factual survey, ” was reconstructed in 2014 .
i, claudius is set in ancient rome. sex and violence abound. but the new production should be wary of overloading the drama and risk desensitising its audience (see spartacus). in the original, the horrific scene in which caligula eats the foetus of his unborn child was effective in its use of suggestion. the viewer is drawn into the crazed world of caligula as he spurs himself on to commit the terrible act, but then the camera pulls away, leaving you to imagine the horror .
the film was ultimately completed by john frankenheimer, who failed to control his actors as they rewrote the script as they went along, and it became a legendary fiasco. whether stanley could have pulled his vision together under these circumstances is questionable but by any measure, his film was lost in the insanity that took hold of the chaotic production. david gregory, a veteran producer of featurettes for dvds and blu - rays, is clearly sympathetic to stanley and his vision .
a few years after world war ii, a bunker filled with canisters of film footage was discovered in the forests in east germany. among the cans of films, documentaries and raw footage was one labeled simply “das ghetto, 1942, ” containing the rough cut of an unfinished propaganda film shot in the warsaw ghetto just before the residents (aka prisoners) were rounded up and sent to the death camps. a film unfinished (independent lens, 2011), a documentary by yael hersonski, uses the footage as a starting point to examine the ordeal of the jews forced to live in the poverty and horror of this urban concentration camp as well as the efforts of the nazis to create anti - jewish propaganda .
what happened is the subject of the 1965 documentary the epic that never was, which occupies an under - populated niche as a record of an unfinished and abandoned production (one of its few counterparts being lost in la mancha, the 2002 autopsy of terry gilliam’s attempt to film don quixote). as such, duncalf’s film asserts an archivist’s belief in preserving and exhibiting valuable if unrealised work, while also providing an unwitting model, from forty years ago, for today’s dvd extras .
midnight seems an appropriate time to screen
the epic that never was ,
a 1965 british broadcasting corporation television documentary that played very early this morning on the late show at the seventh new york film festival. view full article in timesmachine »
charles laughton is mesmerizing in this scene! even when he' s just sitting there while others are talking, you can' t keep your eyes off him. thanks for posting this remarkable scene – and the fascinating story of this unfinished film .
sean axmaker is a seattle film critic and writer. his work appears in parallax view, turner classic movies online, keyframe, and he writes a weekly newspaper column on streaming video column, which you can find at www. streamondemandathome. com .
classical stage and screen actors sir patrick stewart, in his laurence olivier award - winning turn as claudius, and david tennant, as the titular dane, reprise their roles in this television adaptation of the royal shakespeare company' s 2008 stage production of hamlet .
a superlative 13 - part saga, based on robert graves' novels, centering on the historian claudius and how, in an unlikely (and violent) chain of events, he came to rule the roman empire. brilliantly mounted, and with a memorable lead performance by derek jacobi as the stuttering and shrewd claudius, and a scene - stealing, over - the - top turn by john hurt as caligula, the 1977 series became one of the most acclaimed and popular productions in the history of 'masterpiece theatre.'
von sternberg' s lighting techniques give oberon an exotic glamour and williams brings exactly the right combination of campy / crazy to caligula, but it is laughton' s performance that is the standout. in my opinion, laughton and james cagney were the two greatest screen actors of the 1930' s, and laughton certainly lives up to his reputation in the scene below where claudius addresses the roman senate. the actor is in magnificent control as he sheds claudius' simpleton persona to obtain the full might and power of a roman emperor .
david kettner is a managing partner and producer with all his heart. at picsters he is managing all strategic and operative production flow at all phases of a film, from pre - to post - production. finding ways to make things happen is his core expertise .
this is one of the best miniseries i have seen. . more of a play than a traditional television serialized format. . the acting, phenomenal. . salute to derek jacobi. . aces to john hurt on bringing out caligula' s evil to front... raw energy. .
derek jacobi' s stuttering claudius is a great performance but you never quite believe he has it in him to become a great emperor. john hurt' s caligula is dangerous because he seems, at first glance, so vulnerable, and the notorious scene with his sister tops anything in the malcolm mcdowell film. and sian phillips' livia is a superb study in evil, while brian blessed is uncharacteristically quiet as augustus, which makes his erupting fury in the scene where he finds out about his daughter' s impurity all the more powerful .
it' s chiefly thanks to the director, the splendid thorold dickinson, now unjustly neglected, whom scorsese calls
one of the most ambitious and talented filmmakers of his time
, that the film stands up so limberly after all these years in its baggy shorts .
the film allows sternberg to lay the blame for the project’s implosion squarely on laughton’s shoulders, a theme developed in sternberg’s reliably eccentric autobiography, fun in a chinese laundry, originally published in 1965, the same year as the epic that never was ‘ production. conceding a backhanded compliment to laughton (“when he was not in front of the camera he seemed no more abnormal than any other actor”) (3), sternberg accuses him of a masochism that required the pitiless jeering and rude kicks of the film’s extras to stimulate his performance .
i saw the epic that never was years ago and it made me so sad that the movie never happened! how odd that laughton couldn' t
find
the character. maybe it' s a good thing for derek jacobi that he never did! thanks so much for covering this for the blogathon !
philipp baben der erde is a creative partner and accomplished dop. at picsters he is in charge of all artistic decisions, from the creative expression and narrative of a film, through directing and cinematography. his work has been awarded the german camera award 2013 and the grimme award 2016 .
hamlet aired in the uk on boxing day at christmastime 2009, and more than 900, 000 viewers tuned in for the bbc broadcast. in an article in the observer, britain’s prime minister gordon brown wrote: “like many people, i had my love of shakespeare reawakened by david tennant’s tv portrayal of hamlet over christmas. ”
veteran stage and screen actor sir patrick stewart reprises his 2009 laurence olivier award - winning role of claudius in the screen version, which is directed by gregory doran, who also returns to reprise his stage direction of the production. co - produced by illuminations television and the rsc for the bbc, in association with thirteen for wnet. org and nhk, the adaptation recreates the tone and atmosphere of the stage production in a film - style interpretation shot in hd on location at st. joseph’s college in mill hill, london. the production is produced for television by john wyver and sebastian grant .
— was given carte blanche by columbia pictures to make a dream project. his film, a portrait of obsessive jealousy in a husband who becomes insanely paranoid and maniacally controlling of his beautiful young wife, collapsed in the director’s own obsessive camera tests and experiments, increasingly demanding direction, and endless reshoots .
claudius (derek jacobi (the king' s speech in his definitive role) begins his tale a while before he was born, though we first see him as an old, hunched, paranoid - acting man scribbling furtively by candlelight. what he is chronicling is the scandalous, taboo truth about the endlessly duplicitous, treacherous royal family he has belonged to, whose machinations he has barely survived. in flashbacks that take off from and then return to these interludes in the elderly claudius' s presence, what unravels, in delicious detail and occasionally unbearable suspense, is this ^: claudius' s grandfather, augustus (brian blessed, hamlet), has any potential male heir, and eventually his own person, systematically destroyed by his expert - poisoner wife and claudius' s grandmother, livia (siân phillips), so that she can exert her own power through her son from a prior marriage, tiberius (george baker), after he ascends to the throne upon augustus' s death. though tiberius eventually cuts the apron springs in his old age, his reign then sees the deterioration of rome' s power and grandeur through military and other setbacks, and the erosion of his own integrity through ever - lower descents into self - indulgence and degeneracy .
shakespeare’s immortal “to be, or not to be” takes on a whole new meaning (and medium) as classical stage and screen actors david tennant and (recently - knighted) sir patrick stewart reprise their roles for a modern - dress, film - for - television adaptation of the royal shakespeare company’s (rsc) 2008 stage production of hamlet. the production will be presented on pbs by the great performances series on wednesday, april 28, 2010, at 8 p. m. est (check local listings). immediately following the broadcast, the film will be available online in its entirety here on the great performances web site .
the raw footage for a segment he called “ four men and a raft ” was discovered in a film vault in the early 1990s. shot after funds had been cut off by the studio, welles resorted to continuing on guerilla style, without sound or much of a crew and welles himself often behind the camera .
dirk bogarde leads us through the history behind this unfortunate happenstance, illustrating his words with surviving clips of the unfinished film. given the evidence of laughton' s performance as shown in this footage (and despite laughton' s contrary opinion), we have missed out on what most probably would have been a classic .
though graves always dismissed the novel as hack work, the books are well crafted and say a lot about the nature of freedom and the burden of history. the 1976 version did not stint on the prose and claudius’s monologues, which unfurl as he writes his diary, crackled on - screen thanks to the richness of graves’s language .
is straightforward and unimaginative but the revelations from the interviews (many of the actors and crew members signed on for stanley’s vision and were appalled at the behavior they saw on the production) and the glimpses of stanley’s pre - production artwork and make - up designs suggest a far more interesting film than the mess that arrived out of the chaos .
, is a spellbinder of a storyteller and it’s hard not to get caught up in the vision he spins of his dream adaptation. but on any practical level, the resources at his disposal were inadequate to his ambitions and his faith far outpaced his production savvy. what i find compelling is not that the project failed to get made but that it got as far as it did .
neglectful watch). it is claudius, the accidental and very reluctant emperor, who is the common thread through those rulers' insane, unbelievable stories (including, to not much less a degree, his own), in which they are usually but the center and figurehead of a seething pit of royal and / or military vipers ceaselessly circulating the venom of murderous ambition, power, and self - indulgence. and it is through the patient, timid, posterity - minded writer claudius' s observant eye that we get to be flies on the wall for some of the most luridly spectacular makings and reversals of fortune in history as they play out against the backdrop of the vast, precarious roman empire .
2018 update [ via editor ]: terry gilliam finally got his quixote film made, starring adam driver and jonathan pryce, even though the project still seems a bit cursed: it needed court approval to screen at cannes this year, and got dumped by streaming service amazon. but eventually we can at least see it. read more on the bbc .
although claudius tells the story, its true focus is on livia, who was pure treachery in human form. whatever she wanted, she got, and she didn' t care if she had to kill for it. she even killed one son so the other could reign. in a time when only men could rule, she coveted power, and made sure that the only men who became emperor were the ones she could control from behind the scenes. this was done by eliminating all who were in the line of inheritance between the present emperor and her current choice. we only know what happened because, on her deathbed, she confessed all to claudius, who she had finally discovered was not so dumb after all .
picsters is a film production company for branded content and commercials. from one - off documentaries, scripted originals, formatted series to short form stories. raising the curtain on full service, we provide strategy, ideation, treatment development, production from pre to post, livestreaming and consulting. all the world is a stage: we are based in berlin and zurich and work internationally .
charles laughton, despite giving a splendid performance, had a great deal of difficulty getting into the role, and director von sternberg was not very sympathetic or helpful. so when co - star merle oberon was injured in a car crash during filming, he used it as an excuse to abandon the film, which was nowhere near completion. all the filmed footage survives, however .
what could go wrong? enough, certainly, for this film to never be completed. the story is pretty simple. laughton was reportedly having difficulty grasping his character and got no assistance from von sternberg, who was supposed to be a bit of a taskmaster. thus, when merle oberon was injured in an automobile accident, von sternberg took advantage of the situation to cancel filming .
he left no cutting instructions and was never able to assemble even a rough cut of the footage, so film historians and filmmakers richard wilson, myron meisel, and bill krohn didn’t even try to guess his intentions. they simply cut the footage together in a simple continuity, showing off the amazing black and white imagery and giving viewers the barest outline of the story he had in mind .
we don’t know exactly what many of these crazy, distorted, color - drenched images were meant for in the context of the film and bromberg preserves the mystery of potential in his direction. he doesn’t attempt to reconstruct, only reveal the play with imagery, the experiments in expression, the visual ideas at play and the obsessive drive to keep exploring, experimenting, perfecting and controlling every element .
serge bromberg’s documentary (co - directed with ruxandra medrea annonier) presents a rich collection of rushes and camera tests, unseen and forgotten for decades until bromberg tracked it down and negotiated access. the footage reveals an artist searching for new expressive ways to explore jealousy and madness on film and provides privileged glimpses at the fragments of a visionary’s unformed art found in reel upon reel of color and lighting tests .
the production of “the man who killed don quixote, ” starring johnny depp and jean rochefort, was hanging by threads even before pelting hail, flash floods, and a crippling injury to rochefort (who smiles through a painful day of shooting on horseback before he discovers he has a herniated disc) plagued the film, like a curse by the gods on an artist whose films are equal parts wonder and satirical cynicism .
after oxford, dickinson had become an expert film editor before directing his first feature in 1936, at the age of 33. the high command was a low - budget colonial melodrama with a young james mason. dickinson gave it class, partly by using his imagination, partly by taking a unit to nigeria and incorporating vivid location material. but dickinson' s luck lapsed for three years until he qualified for the highbury fixture .
author robert graves, director von sternberg, and cast members flora robson, merle oberon, and emlyn williams about the difficult experience of working on the film and the even harsher blow of having it all ended so abruptly (technically due to a car accident in which oberon was injured, but there is speculation here that that came as a relief to korda, who saw a project foundering on ill feeling between cast members and director) .
, orson welles traveled to brazil with a production team and the blessing of the us government to make a cinematic portrait of the country as part of the “good neighbor policy” deemed essential for the war effort. the film, which he envisioned as a lively anthology mixing documentary, fiction, and travelogue, was shut down while he was still shooting his way through the country and the footage was locked up and, for the most part, thought lost .
the acting is of the highest quality here, with perfectly targeted performances all around. brian blessed is a loving father figure / ruler as augustus. john hurt is enjoyably insane and surprisingly restrained as caligula. george baker is perfect as tiberius, the malleable son of livia who would become the next emperor. but the whole thing would fail miserably if not for the central performances of jacobi as claudius and sian phillips as livia, one of the great female characters .
korda, who hoped the production would put british cinema on par with hollywood, lined up an impressive cast and crew, including hollywood heavyweight von sternberg as director, laughton as the title character and oberon as the notorious messalina (both actors had started out in british films but were by then major stars in hollywood). the cast was rounded out by playwright and actor emlyn williams as the crazed caligula and character actress flora robson as claudius' wily grandmother, livia.
i , claudius is an unfinished 1937 film adaptation of the novels i , claudius ( 1934 ) and claudius the god ( 1935 ) by robert graves . produced by alexander korda , the film was directed by josef von sternberg , with charles laughton in the title role . the production was dogged by adverse circumstances , culminating in a car accident involving co-star merle oberon that caused filming to be ended before completion . footage from the production was incorporated into a 1965 documentary on the making of the film , the epic that never was . 
i, claudius is an unfinished 1937 film adaptation of the novels i, claudius (1934) and claudius the god (1935) by robert graves. produced by alexander korda, the film was directed by josef von sternberg, with charles laughton in the title role. the production was dogged by adverse circumstances, culminating in a car accident involving co-star merle oberon that caused filming to be ended before completion. footage from the production was incorporated into a 1965 documentary on the making of the film, the epic that never was.
i, claudius is an unfinished 1937 film adaptation of the novels i, claudius (1934) and claudius the god (1935) by robert graves. produced by alexander korda, the film was directed by josef von sternberg, with charles laughton in the title role. the production was dogged by adverse circumstances, culminating in a car accident involving co-star merle oberon that caused filming to be ended before completion. footage from the production was incorporated into a 1965 documentary on the making of the film, the epic that never was.