TITUS

UK, 1999, 162 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, James Frain, Laura Fraser, Harry Lennix, Matthew Rhys, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Colm Feore, Kenny Doughty.
Directed by Julie Taymor.

Titus is a version of Shakespeare’s first play, Titus Andronicus. It was famous for its presentation of revenge, torture, bloodthirstiness. It heralded the transition from the Elizabethan era and tragedy to the blood-soaked revenge tragedies of the Jacobean era. Shakespeare himself wrote his great tragedies at the end of Elizabeth’s reign and the beginning of James I.

Julie Taymor is an American director who produced Titus on stage. She was also the creator of the stage version of The Lion King. Her films include Frida, the portrait of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and the pastiche of the Beatles’ songs, Across the Universe.

The film is lavish in its set decoration, costumes. It was partly filmed in Rome with Croatia standing in for the countryside. It uses the atmosphere of the Colosseum as well as the Mussolini building E.U.R.

The film moves between 20th century styles, with bikes, cars, men in suits, to the armour and chariots as well as the palaces of the Roman era. The film also acknowledges directors such as Fellini – especially in the banquet and orgy sequences.

The film remains close to the play, containing the poetry, well spoken by the mainly Scottish, Welsh and Irish cast.

Anthony Hopkins is powerful as Titus. Jessica Lange very strong as the Goth queen Tamara. Harry Lennix stands out as the evil Moor (a combination of Othello and Iago), Aaron. Matthew Rhys and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are Tamara’s sons. Laura Fraser is the tormented daughter of Titus and James Frain her fiancé Lucius.

The play anticipates some of the drama of Shakespeare’s other plays – the Moor and Iago in Othello, the madness of the irresponsible old man in King Lear, the final deaths as in Hamlet.

The film is a very powerful introduction to Shakespeare’s work as well as a strong version of Titus Andronicus.

1.Shakespeare’s first play? The poetry, plot, themes? Recaptured in later plays?

2.Director Julie Taymor, her stage experience, the presentation of Titus on stage, transferred to the screen, theatrical and stylised: the arena, the palace, the exteriors, interiors, the countryside and the fields, the aqueducts, the light and darkness, the final banquet?

3.The stylised nature of the visuals, the colour photography? The score and its style in collaboration with the visuals?

4.The modern opening, the young boy playing, going through the tunnel? The audience time-travelling with him? Modern aspects: the bikes, the cars, lights? Costumes ancient and modern? The effect of the different times? The contemporary Shakespeare and the old-style Shakespeare?

5.Roman history, the empire and its collapse, military conquest, the commanders and their loyalty, the war and spoils? The prisons? Cruelty, executions? Power and the empire? The whims of those in charge? Decadence and morals, sex, cruelty, violence, deception, torture, revenge and deaths?

6.The Elizabethan era, the theatre, the presentation of violence and cruelty? Catharsis for the audience or not? The final deaths? The restoration of order?

7.The strength of the cast, power, the verse and the recital of Shakespeare’s poetry, grandeur and tragedy? Melodrama and pathos?

8.Titus and Anthony Hopkins’ interpretation? His role as leader, the conquest of the Goths, his military prowess, as a person, personality, his relationship with his sons? His assumptions about empire? The execution of Queen Tamara’s son? Pitiless? His loyalty, his relationship with his brother Marcus, the tribune? The emperor and his proclamation? His trust in the emperor? The emperor’s decision to take Lavinia from Lucius? Giving the emperor his daughter? His mental disintegration? Enmity? His sons and their deaths, the heads? Lavinia’s torture, Lucius in exile? Marcus and his support? The meetings with Aaron, the confrontations, his sons’ decapitation, Lavinia’s tongue, chopping off his hand for his sons? Tamara and her hatred? His mental condition, his pretences, Aaron and the message, keeping Tamara’s sons, hanging them, killing them, the banquet, feeding the emperor and Tamara? His revenge?

9.Tamara as queen, queen of the Goths, the death of her son, her pleading for mercy? As a prisoner, as a Barbarian, her wiles, sexuality? The emperor and his decision, the marriage? Her sons, their callous behaviour, personalities, decadence, in the palace? The orgy? Lavinia and their cruelty and rape, her tongue? Aaron as their mentor, his role with them? Their being captured, hanging, their being killed, devoured in the pie?

10.The emperor, his slight build, personality, lust for power, Titus and his support, his being crowned as emperor, his choosing Tamara as queen? His whims, the decadence in the palace? The enmity with Titus, coming to his house, the meal? Titus killing him?

11.Marcus, his loyalty, the members of the Senate, the calm members of government?

12.Titus’s sons, their fighting with their father, trapped in the pit, their deaths, their heads? Lucious and Lavinia, defying the emperor, Lavinia’s torture, her being with her father? Lucius going into exile? Lucius’s return, the restoration of order?

13.Aaron, the Moor, his relationship with Tamara, the baby? Evil incarnate? His speeches, his regrets about not being more evil, the end and his being buried? Malevolence?

14.The role of the boy, Lucius’s son, from the present, his observing the events, his contribution, the effect?

15.The senators, their dress, pawns of government?

16.War and peace, power and betrayal, vengeance – in the Shakespearean style?