Othello

The general Othello (Orson Welles) wins the love of the young Desdemona. However, the relationship is a thorn in the side of her father Brabantio, a Venetian aristocrat. Out of a desire for revenge, the scheming ensign Iago frames the beautiful Desdemona for having a secret relationship with Cassio because Othello has appointed the educated Florentine lieutenant instead of the deeply disappointed Iago. Othello is unable to resist Iago's whispers and begins to believe his supposed evidence of Desdemona's infidelity, which leads to a fateful decision... 40 years after the painstaking completion of the film by master director Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) in 1952, the restoration of the tracked-down version of an old nitrate negative was undertaken in the USA. The result of the work presented in 1991 was not a completely new film. The restorers' approach was also not without controversy - but the new look of “Othello” is undeniably impressive: What a great Shakespeare adaptation, bursting with directorial ideas and exquisite camerawork! “The grandiose four-minute introductory sequence - reminiscent of (silent) films by Eisenstein or Dreyer - is both the beginning and the end, death and life. After the close-up of the dead Othello's head, the camera reveals the coffin, its bearer and finally the entire scene. Desdemona's and Othello's bodies are carried to their graves, while Iago, the culprit of this desperate act, is dragged up the fortress tower, trapped in a cage. This exposition is followed by a flashback narrated by Othello, the highly esteemed commander in the service of the Republic of Venice. [...] Orson Welles immerses the medieval setting, the fortified stronghold and the ominous lagoon city, in an expressionistic effect of light and shadow. The two main locations are divided into unusual, bizarre shots of interior and exterior spaces, so that many of the difficulties and interruptions of the filming are concealed.” (Josef Nagel, on: filmdienst.de)