Laurence Olivier: 'Richard III'- Richard woos Anne (1 of 2)

Laurence Olivier's Richard III tries to woo Anne (Claire Bloom) over-- making it harder than in the original Shakespeare--her husband's dead body.


Olivier splits the seduction scene into two parts (this is part one), and some of the lines (like "Clarence beware thou keepest me from the light....) are from Cibber in the scene that follows.

see the second part here:

Ralph Richardson ... Duke of Buckingham
John Gielgud ... George, Duke of Clarence


Richard III: Act 1 Scene 2 (lines 33-186) (SATS 2008)

The funeral of Henry VI. Richard woos Anne.

'Stay, you that bear the corpse, and set it down'

to

'I will not be thy executioner'

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• SATS-2008
• Laurence-Olivier
• shakespeare
• ClaireBloom

[phantom4087]

In my opinion, the other characters don't matter too much. What I love about Richard III is the contrast between Richard and all the other characters: Richard III, who is a despicable vile human being, is the most witty and interesting character in the history, whereas the other characters, who tend to be good and just people, are gullible and uninteresting, so it presents a dilemma for the audience: do I side with Richard, or the good people?

[elenapulli]

Unforgettable and haunting; Sir Laurence Olivier could not be bettered.

[BigAl9432]

Anne (Claire Bloom) was also the queen in The King's Speech

[hididdlyho82]

@Jedermann101 Have you seen Branaghs hamlet? Branaghs hamlet was magnificent!

[Nelsonhojax15]

Am I the only one who finds this Anne really sexy. She's got that "hidden desire" thing down really well. I know Olivier rocks these two scenes, but she helps, I think, to really add that extra level of sexual tension.

[novadrian]

I am SO confused. Am I right in thinking that the scene with Anne, which is just one scene in the written text has been split into two in this film, and placed on either side of the scene with Clarence?

[jg2904]

@spide429 Cool to know! I often like (or can at least tolerate) an effect more when I know the reason behind it.

[spide429]

@jg2904 Olivier felt that verse spoken on real sets would be jarring and laughable. He deliberately used "sets" to let the language create the atmosphere.

[jg2904]

@port304 I do love b&w films... but something about the early technicolor stuff just really does nothing for me. It's like they forgot everything they learned shooting with b&w and made all the lighting flat and obviously unnatural in these early color pictures. The sets look SO studio and unreal, too. The realism and attention to detail is really what separates films like Branagh's Henry V from Olivier's for example. Anyway, to each his/her own. Touché, my first comment was bit harsh.

[port304]

@jg2904 Oh you poor sensitive troll. Let me apologize on behalf of the thousands of artists whose work causes you such cruel torment. You know, some of these criminals had the termity to work with black and white film and monaural audio. Philistines and barbarians!!!

[port304]

@jg2904 Oh you poor sensitive troll. Let me apologize on behalf of the thousands of artists whose work causes you such cruel torment.

[jg2904]

SOOOO Golden Age... I don't know how much of this I watch before going insane. It's a shame such great performances are buried under this awful early technicolor cinematography and an array of horrendous sets!