King Lear makes delayed entrance
A film by Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard is to première in France - 15 years after it was completed.
Godard’s “King Lear” was co-written with US author Norman Mailer and both men have leading roles in a cast that also includes Woody Allen and Mailer’s daughter.
The film is set in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. After the1986 nuclear explosion, civilisation has been re-built, but mankind’s artistic legacy was lost.
One man, William Shakespeare Junior the Fifth, sets about retrieving the works of his famous ancestor. While staying in Switzerland, he encounters the gangster boss Don Learo and his daughter Cordelia.
Backers taken aback
Perhaps not surprisingly, when they saw a working cut of the movie, its original financial backers were taken aback by how little resemblance it bore to the Shakespeare play. At one stage they even threatened to sue him, but shortly afterwards the backers walked away because of their own financial problems.
Years ago, the film had also been criticised by journalists who attended a screening of the working cut, although one of them grudgingly admitted: “There are a few moments of brilliance which cause the intelligent viewer to stop and think.”
For years it languished on the shelf, but now the French distribution company Bodega Films has bought the rights, and the première is due to take place in April.
swissinfo with agencies
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