About This Clip
Titus
Titus is a 1999 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus, about the downfall of a Roman general, the first theatrically-released feature film adaptation of the play. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange, it was the directorial debut of Julie Taymor, who co-produced with Jody Patton and Conchita Airoldi, and wrote the screenplay.
Cast
Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus
Jessica Lange as Tamora
Alan Cumming as Saturninus
Colm Feore as Marcus Andronicus
James Frain as Bassianus
Laura Fraser as Lavinia
Harry Lennix as Aaron
Angus Macfadyen as Lucius
Osheen Jones as Young Lucius
Matthew Rhys as Demetrius
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Chiron
Kenny Doughty as Quintus
Colin Wells as Martius
Blake Ritson as Mutius
Raz Degan as Alarbus
Geraldine McEwan as the Nurse
Bah Souleymane as Aaron’s infant child
For more information, visit IMDb and Wikipedia.
Titus
Related Productions
- Taitasu Andoronikasu (Titus Andronicus) (Ninagawa, Yukio; 2006)
- Titus 2.0 (Tang, Shu-wing; 2009)
- Titus Andronicus (Wang, Chia-ming; 2003)
- Titus Andronicus (1992) (Purcarete, Silviu; 1992)
An obvious soliloquy by Titus, this is an interesting way of filming it. The beginning starts with people walking past him and even almost over him as he shouts his words out to the crowd. Instead of him having an aside or being alone on a stage, he instead is “alone” as the progression marches past. The camera also focuses solely on him with the progression acting as a background, creating a film version of an aside in a way. The dream sequence is also extremely interesting, as it is projecting his thoughts about the entire situation into view for the audience to see. Placing his son’s head in place of the tied sheep’s head while a dagger strikes down symbolizes Titus’ belief in his son’s scapegoat status (a sacrificial lamb) for the people.
I have to give Julie Taymor a lot of credit for her work. She is never afraid to risk everything for a production. She might fail sometimes, but she never holds her vision back. In this excerpt of Titus Mrs. Taymor adds in the people walking by as Titus calls out but no one listens. Nobody even recognizes his presence, which only adds to his madness. I really liked on the last shot where all of the characters are facing different pathways which is symbolic because each character has come from a different road to arrive at this moment.