Tempest synonym movie#
Tempest synonym full#
Tempest synonym free#

Tempest synonym free#

I’m guessing that his (or Jarman’s) rationale was that Ariel is somewhat detached from human concerns, maybe because he isn’t human, or he only performs actions because Prospero told him so, promising to grant him his freedom, so he’s not acting out of his free will. He makes an odd acting choice, to play the lively spirit of the island in a somewhat sedated manner. Ariel (Karl Johnson) and Prospero (Heathcote Williams)Īs Ariel, Karl Johnson wears modern clothes – some sort of white jumpsuit with white gloves and white shoes, wearing white makeup on his face. Williams is serviceable in the role, but, again, nothing memorable. This is also the only version that features a young(er) Prospero (starring a “real-life” magician, Heathcote Williams, which may be a nod to the idea that the character Prospero was supposedly inspired by the real-life occultist and mathematician John Dee). Jack Birkett manages to create an utterly disgusting, despicable, creepy, and perverse creature. Speaking of which, out of all the adaptations of The Tempest I’ve seen, this is the only version where I didn’t feel pity for Caliban. One exception, perhaps, would be Jack Birkett as Caliban – but maybe that’s more due to the role that demanded a somewhat more over the top performance. The acting, overall, was good, but nothing really memorable, no one really stands out. But, on the other hand, male nudity is not that weird for a Derek Jarman movie.

Personally, I felt it was a bit too much for my taste. Some might say that’s somewhat understandable considering there are only two roles played by women – one of whom, by the way, gets fully naked too, the other one only half-naked.

Tempest synonym full#

One can see a lot of full frontal male nudity in this movie. However, at the same time, the film has a very naturalistic feel, not detached, not theatrical, but very down-to-earth (maybe a bit too much, though). There is a touch of Buñuelian surrealistic horror (think Un chien andalou), but it’s not so much scary or disturbing, as bizarre. The music and sound design, the nighttime lighting, with muted colors (up until the wedding, at the end of the movie), and the cinematography (many close ups of the barely lit characters’ faces) work together to create the creepy atmosphere of a haunted house. One of the weirdest of Jarman’s directorial choices (but not the weirdest) is to shoot almost all of the scenes indoors, inside Prospero’s house, during nighttime, turning the play into a sort of a strange haunted house movie. Prospero (Heathcote Williams) in his laboratory, with Ariel (Karl Johnson) However, like also with Prospero’s Books, you do have to be somewhat familiar with the original play in order to fully understand what is happening on the screen.

In this sense, Derek Jarman’s film is easier to follow than Peter Greenaway’s. Unlike another The Tempest adaptation (Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books), this one doesn’t stray too far away from the original narrative path. This is a different medium, and I’m just going to state my thoughts whether it works as a movie. I don’t think that’s the right approach for any kind of film adaptation.

Tempest synonym movie#

Now, I’m not going to analyze this movie to see whether it is a faithful line-by-line adaptation of Shakespeare’s play (like, for instance, those people who are Shakespeare purists, or those who think that some comic book movies are not faithful enough to the original comics, etc., etc.). In the end, Prospero learns to forgive, allowing the two youths to marry, destroying his magical books and staff, and freeing Ariel and all the other spirits that served him. However, Miranda falls in love with Ferdinand (son of the king of Naples), who was also stranded on the island with his father. Currently, Prospero has conjured a tempest that would bring Antonio and his co-conspirators to the island to face the vengeance of the wronged Duke. Ariel now serves Prospero together with Caliban, the “savage and deformed” son of Sycorax.

Using his great magical knowledge, Prospero rescued the “airy spirit” Ariel from his entrapment by the now dead witch Sycorax (the former master of the island). We are told that Prospero, “the rightful Duke of Milan,” was betrayed twelve years ago by his brother, Antonio (helped by Alonso, the king of Naples), thus being forced to find refuge on a deserted island, together with his young daughter, Miranda, now a teenager. The story of the 1611 Shakespeare play that formed the basis for this film is, I presume, well-known. This is the kind of movie that’s obscure enough and bizarre enough to deserve a “cult” status. The weirdness in Derek Jarman’s 1979 adaptation of The Tempest is something that could attract people and repel them at the same time.