Before Branagh took up the mantle of Shakespearean film interpreter, there was Sir Laurence Olivier. Branagh owes a great debt to Olivier, and adapted some of the same Shakespearean plays into films. This year marks the centenary of Olivier’s birth, so there have been tributes aplenty—and with good reason. Some of Olivier’s most impressive achievements (in a career that had many) were his Shakespearean films: his seminal Richard III (1955); the buoyantly theatrical Henry V (1945); the blackface Othello (1965, not long before this kind of performance would no longer be considered appropriate); and, of course, his best known Shakespearean film, the Oscar-winning Hamlet (1948).

Olivier stood tall among contemporary Shakespearean actors (and sometimes directors) such as John Gielgud and Richard Burton. In many ways, Olivier represented the ideal balance between the extremes embodied by the other two. Gielgud was the consummate poet, with graceful movements and a mellifluous, resonant voice. Burton was Gielgud’s opposite—gruff and animalistic, with a larger-than-life personality. Olivier in his Hamlet found both the elegance and the turmoil in the character. His decidedly Freudian take on the material may have helped him give both qualities equal attention. His monologues were pure poetry while his scenes with other characters, particularly Jean Simmons’s tremulous Ophelia, were passionate and visceral. Olivier brought this duality to many great performances. Even late in his career, when he was consigned to the role of Zeus in the ultra-cheesy Clash of the Titans, Laurence Olivier remained a class act.
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Posted Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:24:24 and filed under Branagh, Laurence Olivier, Film, Henry V, Acting, Hamlet, Richard III, Othello, Theatre. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.