The term "flawed masterpiece" should have been invented for Orson Welles. His Othello is visually enthralling, filled as it is with vast spaces that somehow seem to constrict and confine the humans who move through them. Welles' juxtapositions are as sharp as jealousies - the faces of Othello and Desdemona picked out of the dark or Desdemona talking to Emilia and looking through a window filled with spikes. The film begins with funerals and with perhaps the most striking of all the visuals, Iago hanging in a metal cage as the crowds and corpses go by below.
Orson Welles is a fascinating rather than believable Othello. His great strength as an actor is not the portrayal of innocence, but his voice is often magical.
Suzanne Cloutier is a pattern for all pure and elegant Desdemonas, and Micheál MacLiammóir (who seems to have been working up to Richard III) for villainous Iagos.
Orson Welles is a fascinating rather than believable Othello. His great strength as an actor is not the portrayal of innocence, but his voice is often magical.
Suzanne Cloutier is a pattern for all pure and elegant Desdemonas, and Micheál MacLiammóir (who seems to have been working up to Richard III) for villainous Iagos.