Julie Taymor (director/producer/writer)
USA. 2010. 110 minutes. Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films
The vertiginous camera work in the early moments of The Tempest, where a ship founders in a sudden storm, gives viewers a good idea of what they're in for--an explosive, visceral ride. Julie Taymor (Frida, Across the Universe and Broadway's The Lion King) will swirl her trusty wand, conjuring a primal island commanded by Prospera (Helen Mirren), a female version of Shakespeare's master of high magick, cunning and insight.
Taymor's Tempest is "such stuff as dreams are made on"--silky, romantic dreams as well as fearsome nightmares, all larger than life. Huge close-ups of faces; vivid, textured landscapes; reverberating sound: This hallucinatory sensuousness bears down and sweeps you up.
Beneath these heady visions, though, lies the bedrock of things more inescapably human than magical: envy, betrayal, vengeance as well as the capacity for compassion and forgiveness. Shakespeare's Tempest is a tale in which the attainment of justice requires acceptance of humanity in all its light and dark elements, acceptance of the limits of one's power as a mortal being. The freedom Prospera frequently promises her helper spirit Ariel is the freedom she most craves for herself.
Mirren, our North Star, is an elegant authority. The mercurial play of thought across her face's terrain illuminates this narrative of an exiled leader and powerful mage at a personal crossroads.
Julie Taymor talks about The Tempest (AUDIO)
(New York Film Festival press conference, September 30, 2010)
Beneath these heady visions, though, lies the bedrock of things more inescapably human than magical: envy, betrayal, vengeance as well as the capacity for compassion and forgiveness. Shakespeare's Tempest is a tale in which the attainment of justice requires acceptance of humanity in all its light and dark elements, acceptance of the limits of one's power as a mortal being. The freedom Prospera frequently promises her helper spirit Ariel is the freedom she most craves for herself.
Mirren, our North Star, is an elegant authority. The mercurial play of thought across her face's terrain illuminates this narrative of an exiled leader and powerful mage at a personal crossroads.
Julie Taymor talks about The Tempest (AUDIO)
(New York Film Festival press conference, September 30, 2010)
Russell Brand (Trinculo)
Alfred Molina (Stephano)
Djimon Hounsou (Caliban)
David Strathairn (King Alonso)
Chris Cooper (Antonio)
Alan Cumming (Sebastian)
Ben Whishaw (Ariel)
Reeve Carney (Prince Ferdinand)
Felicity Jones (Miranda)
Tom Conti (Gonzalo)
Composer: Elliot Goldenthal
Production Design: Mark Friedberg
Costume Design: Sandy Powell
Public festival screening: Saturday, October 2 (10pm)
New York and Los Angeles release: December 10
Alice Tully Hall
New York and Los Angeles release: December 10
Alice Tully Hall
Broadway and 65th Street, Manhattan
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