Shakespeare "King Lear"- Ian Holm - Act 1, iv and v

Ian Holm ... Lear
Michael Bryant ... Fool
David Burke ... Kent
Barbara Flynn ... Goneril
David Lyon ... Albany


Holm was 10 years younger than Olivier when he filmed this scene. The youthful energy helps.

Olivier's version here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQzDIYdFIy0

from an interview with Ian Holm:

Could you contrast your own Lear with some of the other celebrated interpretations, for example those of Laurence Olivier and Paul Scofield?

All I can say is that mine was subjectively an unfussy performance. I tried to be as clear as the text allowed. I didn't see Olivier's, except his television performance in the last days of his life. It was really rather a sad affair. It was more King Olivier than King Lear. Paul Scofield I saw, a great performance in a very different production by Peter Brook. All performances are different. I don't think it's necessary to compare one with another. I am just me playing the role of Lear. You're bound to get a Holm approach to it, whatever that may be. I just got out there and did it. I'm very much a doer in my acting.

Anyway, you cannot play the king on your own. Richard Eyre surrounded me with an absolutely brilliant cast: a magnificent Kent and wonderful performers like Michael Bryant as the Fool. Good idea to have an elderly Fool, I think -- an old guy who's been around the court all his life cracking bad jokes. It becomes a sort of gerontocracy, a story about old men. I don't think that's going against the text at all.


How would you describe your acting approach?

I grew up with the great Sir Laurence Olivier, and I think it's fair to say that a lot of actors of my age were influenced by his very individual vocal delivery. He was a showman who would always play to the gallery. I would tend much more toward that aspect of acting as opposed to the style of some of the great actors like Charles Laughton or Sir John Gielgud, who concentrate almost entirely on the words. Having said that, the words are of paramount importance. The verse tells the story. I try to achieve both. I try to be emotional and big, and at the same time very true to the verse. Inevitably, because I am not a man of big stature, something else is going to come out. I think the word "Napoleonic" is quite often used.

You have to come out "every inch a king." Well, the crown helps. If I started to think of myself as a small human being, then I wouldn't be a king. So when Lear says "every inch a king," you have to imagine yourself to be ten feet tall.


I'm sure you've heard Kenneth Branagh's quote where he describes the Ian Holm school of acting as: "Anything you can do I can do less of." How do you interpret that?

As a huge compliment. I think he means I'm kind of subtle. I'm of a minimalist nature. Someone once said, "The greatest lesson you can learn is to do nothing." If I can do less -- I'm talking about on screen now -- if I can be subtle and use my eyes, I'm much more at home with that aspect of acting than I am with the big stuff. As I say, I regard that as an enormous compliment. It just means that I'm Mr. Subtle.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

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• IanHolm
• KingLear
• Ian
• Holm
• King
• Lear

[KevinZS]

i laughed when Lear leaves and come back then leaves again XD

[deedee9960]

Ian Holm plays a brilliant Lear love it 

[cvallone1]

Judging from these two scenes, I like this interpretation a lot, more than Olivier's Lear who is a little too pathetic for my taste. The fool is great--he's like a cynical old comedian who is running through his schtick somewhat less than half-heartedly. The relationship between the fool and Lear is really interesting and totally unexpected.

[BSFBOPE]

holm plays it with a lot of anger, an angry short guy almost like joe pesci at times but its a fine performance in which the level of anger and emotion is taken to an extreme degree, he and scofield are the most pissed off lears i have seen, other actors play him as a romantic tragic figure in lower tones, but i prefer the pissed off lear that rages against the world.

[kadiekerr]

Thank you!

[MrYpres]

i played kent in school,, we wached this version too

[StevieFan85]

The setting's abit plain, the fools a fat cockney.

[14santiago52]

What a terrible fool. Ian Holm is very good though.

[SiN3MATIC]

7:04 - hahahahaha

[x0chrystinax0]

hahahaha i was the fool in grade 8!

we watched this version and like 2 others before we started rehearsals teehee

this brings back memories