Shakespeare in Performance: Film
The Merchant of Venice (1980, Jack Gold)
| Title | The Merchant of Venice |
|---|---|
| Year | 1980 |
| Release Locations | GB |
| Director | Jack Gold |
| Medium | Color video |
| Length | 2 hrs, 40 mins |
| Play Connections | The Merchant of Venice (teleplay) |
| Series | The Shakespeare Plays |
Description
Visually the production continues the BBC practice of emulating the master artists of Shakespeare's own lifetime in the mise en scène. Belmont, the seat of Portia's ancestral home, swirls in a gauzy mist of airy color. Venice is earthier in texture, as it should be. For Belmont, the model was Titian; for Venice, Canaletto or Watteau. Thus the director played off the idealism of the rural retreat against the crassness of the commercial city, though ironically neither locale is invulnerable to folly or evil. He also accented the play's artistry, which relies on the tension between Portia's surface moralizing and a subterranean current of moral ambiguity
Description from Shakespeare on Screen : an International Filmography and Videography by Kenneth S. Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer. ©1990 Kenneth S. Rothwell. Cited by permission. — Added 2008-11-14
Cast Overview
Production Team and Crew Overview
Production information courtesy of: Kenneth Rothwell