Chimes At Midnight (Orson Welles) Part 10

Chimes at Midnight (aka Falstaff) is a 1965 film directed by Orson Welles based around the character of Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare.
The script contains text from five Shakespeare plays: primarily Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, but also Richard II, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. The film's narration, spoken by Ralph Richardson, is taken from the chronicler Holinshed.

The film was nominated (in 1968) for a BAFTA film award for Welles as Best Foreign Actor. At the Cannes Film Festival Welles was nominated (in 1966) for the Golden Palm Award and won the 20th Anniversary Prize and the Technical Grand Prize. In Spain it won (in 1966) the Citizens Writers Circle Award for Best Film.

Welles held this film in high regard and considered it along with The Trial his best work, he said in 1982 "If I wanted to get into heaven on the basis of one movie, that's the one I'd offer up". Many critics, including Peter Bogdanovich and Jonathan Rosenbaum, also consider it Welles's finest work. The scene depicting the Battle of Shrewsbury has been particularly admired, serving as an inspiration for movies like Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan.

Due to complications concerning the film's ownership, Chimes at Midnight remains unavailable in the United States. It is most readily available as an import DVD from Brazil.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• chimes
• at
• midnight
• orson
• welles
• falstaff
• shakespeare

[DrSho]

To out it in the vurnacular..."Dude, That's cold!"

[mtigers1981]

Yeah, what he said.

Poor Falstaff...

[deadman00]

not intentialy. heh.

[tangoseven70]

@deadman00 Took the words from my...keyboard

[SuperVoodooguru]

@Hendrikdevuile how ill do facile observations become thee fool

[deadman00]

Heartbreaking. 

[RavenandKidFlash]

You know, I may get flagged for this, but I actually like Hal. I mean, it was harsh how he treated Falstaff in the end, but what else could he do? If he had of excepted him, then consider how everyone else wouldn't take him seriously as a king. And you can also see in his facial expression before he turned away from Falstaff that he really didn't want to do it but he had to.

[GreatGrumbledook]

@Hendrikdevuile: Well, that's all right, then, [name known but not given here]. Sit down. Have a scone. Make yourself at home: Do you think it is nice to mention Spain in the presence of Monsieur Welles, after he had ruined himself in the attempt to make his version of Don Quixote!

[Hendrikdevuile]

For the crowd lining the procession, it was easy for Welles' casting director to find plenty of people minus some or all teeth in Spain to act as extras, as dentists have always been prohibitively expensive here and the average Spaniard much poorer rhen than today.

[JoeChrisMorris]

Jaw dropping brush off

WAY too harsh on Falstaff