Skip to content

Michael Radford

The Merchant Of Venice * Michael Radford (2004)

IMDb.comA fairly dull film made of Shakespeare’s play. Naturally this is a costume drama. The creators decided to keep the Shakespeare dialogues, so they are often lengthy and ‘flowery’. This works better in some other Shakespeare films.

There is a merchant who takes a loan from a Jew (not the best part of Al Pacino) for a youngster (Joseph Fiennes) who wants to win the princess Portia. The loan has some pretty strange conditions that Shylock (the Jew) sets out to enforce.

The film is not really boring, but not really exiting either.

Nineteen Eighty-Four * Michael Radford (1984)

I do not suppose that I read the book (perhaps for school, but I think not), but the story is famous enough that even I understood some of the unexplained details. It looks like I never saw the film either by the way.
I do not suppose I will have to tell you much about the story. In a totalitarian future regime, “the party” tries to brainwash people so that entire society will be the benefit of “the party”. A man and a young woman (consciously I think) rebel by developing an affair. Once caught, the brainwashing takes violent forms.
The film has a rather desparate atmosphere which fits well to the story. The story is in many ways still current, so I can definately recommend my and the next generation to watch it. Of course it all looks quite 1980’ies, but that is (to me) certainly no problem.