466 - Othello, United States, United Kingdom, 1995. Dir. Oliver Parker.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

466 - Othello, United States/United Kingdom, 1995.  Dir. Oliver Parker.

Hell hath no fury like Iago scorned.

Not that Iago has been scorned, but he thinks he has.  And he has fury.

Fury that Cassio has received the promotion Iago felt was his.

And fury over the mere thought that his wife Emilia may have made the beast with two backs with both Cassio and Othello.  (What does he think of his wife to think of that?)

He will show them.

He will make Othello believe that Othello's wife Desdemona has gotten pregnant by Cassio, Othello's most trusted lieutenant.  That being the position Iago coveted.

Othello is from Morocco.  The rest are from Venice.  The play takes place in Venice and in Cyprus.

It is not as though Othello needs new resistance.  Desdemona's father Brabantio is already giving him a hard time for marrying his daughter.  Iago has instigated that problem too by going with his friend Roderigo to Brabantio's house to inform him of his daughter's elopement with the Moor.

They really are making the beast with two backs.  "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe."

Eew.

He cannot stand the thought of their tupping.

He goes before the court.  Challenges Othello.  Othello defends himself by saying he won her with his story.  Ask her.  They call her in.  Her father asks her.  She tells him.

As with Cordelia in speaking to her father King Lear, Desdemona in speaking to her father Brabantio loves him according to what is right.  Balance.  Not too much and not too little.  "To you I am bound for life and education."  Her life and education have in turn taught her how to respect him.  She honors him.  But her greater love and duty belong to her husband.  Just as her mother once left her father and preferred her husband, Brabantio.

And like Lear, he too does not appreciate his daughter's measured and appropriate expression of love.  It is not enough for him.  He wants more.  He regrets his begets.  Which begets regrets.

"I had rather to adopt a child than get it."

Apparently he does not approve of his own tupping either.  At least he is consistent.

Brabantio plants the first seed of doubt in Othello's mind, before Iago does.  "She has deceived her father and may thee."

You know the rest.  And if you do not, read the play.  You will be investing in yourself as you do so.  And yourself will pay you back in dividends as well as interest.

Othello is played by none other than the marvelous Laurence Fishburne.

Desdemona is played by the one-and-only Irene Jacob.  Whom we know from Three Colors: Red and The Double Life of Veronique.  And Gang of Four.

And Iago is played by that great Shaekespearean himself, Sir Kenneth Branagh.

Good night, honest Iago.