Falstaff (Chimes at midnight) / Internacional Films Espanola, S.A. ; Alpine Productions ; Harry Saltzman presents ; produced by Emiliano Piedra and Angel Escolano for Internacional Films Espanola, S.A. ; directed by Orson Welles.
Edition:
Blu-ray special edition.
Publisher:
The Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2016
Description:
1 videodisc (116 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded insert.
Title from title screen. Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, Sir John Gielgud, Marina Vlady, Walter Chiary, Fernando Rey ; narration based on Holinshed's Chronicles spoken by Ralph Richardson. Adapted from plays by William Shakespeare. Originally released as a motion picture in 1965. Wide screen (1.66:1). Special features: audio commentary featuring film scholar James Naremore; new interview with actor Keith Baxter; new interview with director Orson Welle's daughter Beatrice Welles; new interview with actor and Welles biographer Simon Callow; new interview with film historian Joseph McBride; interview with Welles while at work editing the film, from a 1965 episode of The Merv Griffin show; trailer; essay by film scholar Michael Anderegg.
Summary:
The crowning achievement of Orson Welles's extraordinary film career that was the culmination of the filmmaker's lifelong obsession with Shakespeare's ultimate rapscallion, Sir John Falstaff. Usually a comic supporting figure, Falstaff; the loyal, often soused friend of King Henry IV's wayward son Prince Hal, here becomes the focus: a robustly funny and ultimately tragic screen antihero played by Welles with looming, lumbering grace.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.