Oh Mother, Mother! What Have You Done?
First-time director Ralph Fiennes makes some bold choices in this Shakespeare adaptation, and they don't always work - but Vanessa Redgrave saves the day.
CORIOLANUS
Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut was much anticipated by those who love his acting but also by those who love one of William Shakespeare’s least known works: “Coriolanus“. Fiennes, who had himself played the protagonist’s role eleven years ago in London’s Almeida Theatre, has now brought it to the big screen as a war film set in present days. The script of CORIOLANUS (UK) was adapted by John Logan and shot mainly in Serbia.
Portraying the story of Caius Martius (a general who fights for Rome but then – for his offensive indifference to the lower classes – is banished from it), this is a play of high political content. Therefore, Fiennes tries to make this movie evoke current socio-political problems (Iraq, Afghanistan) and succeeds in doing so. However, CORIOLANUS’ main problem comes from the way in which male characters speak, not from what they say (though Shakespeare’s lines may always demand extra attention) but from how they say it: most of these actors’ performances (even Fiennes’) show that they think they speak with passion when, in fact, they are only over-articulating. And so each shot draws us to focus on their mouths, which move in despair as if fighting with the phrases they pronounce. While doing so, most of these actors perform the scenes as if observed under a magnifying glass that’s about to burn them. And we know Ralph Fiennes is a wonderful actor, but in this film (he is said to be willing to take “Antony and Cleopatra“ to the big screen too) he cannot handle acting and directing.
Fortunately, Shakespeare’s works survive time and change (Baz Luhrmann gave a magnificent lesson on that in his ROMEO + JULIET). This time Fiennes tries to bring them to the present by using hand held camera, loud music, bombastic sound design and a huge display of cell phones, TVs, military tanks and guns. However, the only thing that really brings Shakespeare to this movie is Vanessa Redgrave’s performance as Coriolanus’ mother. She carries the passion that this play entails and does not show it in her way of speaking but in her way of believing in what she speaks. Her passion is not reflected by diction (that’s mostly Fiennes’ and Butler’s case) but by looks, movements and silences… Redgrave handles time, plays with it and fills it with meaning, and CORIOLANUS is completely marked by her performance: her eyes, her skin, her bearing carry Shakespeare’s words as riveting flags. And the contrast between her and all the other actors is so strong we just don’t care anymore about Coriolanus’ cause, transformation or revenge… we just want Vanessa Redgrave back on screen.
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