King Lear (1987) - film review

After the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, civilisation has been re-built, but mankind’s artistic legacy has been lost.  One man, William Shakespeare Junior the Fifth, sets about retrieving the works of his famous ancestor.  Whilst staying in Switzerland, he encounters the gangster boss Don Learo and his daughter Cordelia...

Those who might have expected Jean-Luc Godard’s King Lear to be in any way a retelling of the famous Shakespeare play are in for a disappointment.  Although the film makes a number of connections with the play (the character Learo and his daughter, the occasional use of lines from the original play, and some excruciatingly bad puns), it should be considered as a very different work.  As ever, Godard appears to be more preoccupied with lecturing his audience on his own philosophy of film-making than on making a remotely coherent reworking of the Shakespear play.

Although the film repeats itself ad nauseum (and Godard adds little to what he has already stated in earlier films), there are a few moments of brilliance which cause the intelligent viewer to stop and think.

For the most part, Godard’s quirky humour is unusually cheap and tiresome.  This has the unfortunate effect of undermining some of the more interesting philosophical points he is making, particular in relation to the importance of image in defining a cinematographic experience.

Godard’s appearance in the film is far from flattering – he presents himself as an ageing fool, dribbling incoherently in a world of his own.  However, his artistic vision manages to shine through and, possibly like the fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear, it is he who has the greatest insight of all.

Maybe this is really a great film, offering a profound insight into the value of art and imagery in human existence.  Unfortunately, with its lack of focus, diverging strands of thought and off-putting self-mockery, it just doesn’t convince.

© James Travers 2001

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