Word: titus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...breaks at the movies lately. Romeo and Juliet and Richard III became vigorous films that did honor to both the Bard and the medium. Now Julie Taymor, the magician who on Broadway turned The Lion King menagerie into masked enchanters on stilts, takes Shakespeare's goriest play, Titus Andronicus, and makes it vivid, relevant and of elevating scariness...
...room bursts into flames, and a giant totes him out of the late 20th century and into 1st century Rome. Hence, the action will take place in both ages. Imperial warriors, caked with the dust of conquest, tramp through the Coliseum like bulky action figures. Their leader Titus (Hopkins) is a straight-spoken military man of the past; his rival, the emperor Saturninus (Cumming), is pure oil of modern politician, oozing endearments and threats, riding through Rome in an open limo with a bubble top, seizing and betraying Titus' daughter Lavinia (Fraser). Tattoos abound, on the royal Goth captives...
...keeps the eye as busy as the ear; she embellishes the story without disfiguring it. There's room in her bestiary for fine performances, a pretty collision of histrionic styles. Cumming preens, Lennix schemes, Lange smolders. Then all cede to Hopkins, who, in the suitably grisly finale, serves up Titus as Hannibal Lecter with a noble vengeance. Rare and well done...
Other movies this season have bigger stars, higher budgets, pricier effects, deeper tans. But if you're looking for a complex weave of word and image, and an early clue to where film might go in its second century, your Christmas shopping can begin and end with this towering Titus...
...projects. Case #2: Anthony Hopkins whined last year that "I've got to get out because acting is very bad for one's mental health. I have wasted my life. To hell with this stupid show business." He promptly signed on for a role in the film version of Titus Andronicus, will reprise his role as Hannibal Lechter soon after and has been seen cavorting at parties and premieres almost every weekend. Case #3: Liam Neeson claimed that he had gotten sick of acting after filming The Phantom Menace and vowed to quit. As if. He was back...