Titus
Released December 1999
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange (as Tamora), Alan Cumming, Laura Fraser, Harry Lennix, Angus MacFayden
Directed by Julie Taymor
162 min.Box Office gross - $1.9 million
See complete credits at Internet Movie Database
Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays and is also one of his darkest and most violent containing elements of carnage, torture, mutilation and cannibalism. Theater director and set designer Julie Taymor had directed Titus on stage in 1994 and she chose it for her motion picture directoral debut. Taymor had just had an astounding success with her stage production of The Lion King and her unique and vivid imagination was perfect for the filmization of Titus.
This is a daring film and an unusual one. The dialog is all Shakespeare, verbatim from his play, but Taylor surrounds her actors with magnificent set pieces and outrageous costumes. The cinematography is gorgeous and some scenes actually resemble paintings. Taymor sees Titus as a timeless story and she adds modern elements into the mix, so we have automobiles, microphones, video games, etc. sharing the stage with Rome's coliseum.
Lange said that she never had the desire to do Shakespeare - "I never had that insane actors' urge to do it. I know with some actors that is really what they're always yearning for, striving for. But I never did. It never really presented itself anyway, and I never really went after it. So when this came up, I read it with a certain amount of trepidation."
Critical Sampling:
"The happy surprise is Jessica Lange, who carries off the sexy, ruthless Tamora with force and conviction." - Jonathan Foreman, New York Post
"Lange, bedecked in gold braids, makeup, armor and tattoos, enthusiastically enters into the spirit of the piece with a crafty portrayal…" - Variety
"This is Lange's first attempt at Shakespeare, and she couldn't have found a role more suited to her." - MIke LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"...she plays Tamora like a snake-woman: sinuous, seductive, and poisonous. - James Berardinelli, Reelviews