Bargain basement sets, poorly synchronized sound, battle scenes with casts of dozens-and Genius..pure, unadulterated genius. Welles, not Olivier, not Branagh, was the supreme transcriber of Shakespeare to the screen, and he did it with a fraction of their resources. Welles takes Shakespeare's great "history plays' about Henry the Fourth and Henry the fifth, and weaves them into a cinematic vision with Falstaff-drunken, cowardly, bawdy, greedy, thieving, yet ever loyal and ever lovable Falstaff_ as the hero.The title, Chimes at Midnight, is a stroke of genius. He interprets the plays as Shakespeare's half-Catholic, half-Pagan elegy for "merry england', embodied by Falstaff. The very skills that Henry the fifth MUST learn in order to become a "modern', Machiavellian Prince, led him to discard Falstaff and the whole way of life he represents. Welles captures Falstaff in an unforgettable characterization. This is a beautiful film, for all the cheapness with which it was filmed. In fact, like Macbeth and Othello it is beautiful because it is a "poverty row' film, an exquisite primitive, relying, not on richly colored set or magnificent music, but simply on the grammar of cinema. It is Welles last full vision( I have not seen "F for Fake', so I will not comment on it), and it shows Welles to be a humanistic, compassionate, and deeply spiritual film-maker. SUBLIME
Review of Chimes at Midnight
