Julie Taymor's Titus Andronicus

Forums: Movies
Email this Topic • Print this Page

In the middle of watching the film for the first time, and have a question. Who or what does the boy symbolize? Is he the audience?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 2,046 • Replies: 27

No top replies

You're going to have to refresh my memory...is this the film with Anthony Hopkins?

0 Replies

Yes. Abour three fourths of the way into the film, the boy begins speaking the lines for Titus' grandson Lucius, but even after he seems to me to fill the role of stand in for the audience. I have also wondered if maybe he represents the wounded conscience of the principles.

0 Replies

You could be right. Now there's a powerful film. Shakespeare could outwrite the authors of the Bible! Especially about the human condition and he certainly was simplistic about it.

0 Replies

I love how Aaron is unabashedly evil. He has his closest meet in Iago, but whereas Iago is motivated by jealousy, Aaron's motivation is simple pleasure at the chaos he causes.

0 Replies

A great Shakespearean villian, to be sure.

My favorite revisionist Shakespeare is still the Ian McKellen version of "Richard III." He was also a co-write in adapting the play to film.

0 Replies

I love that film! From the beginning, through the "winter of out discontent" soliloquy that concludes over a unrinal, through the ending at the refinery, it is great theater!

Especially fun is comparing his chracterization as Richard with that of Amos Starkadder in Cold Comfort Farm. Very Happy

0 Replies

That's extraordinary -- never thought of that! Well, I would except that from someone who has some brains and goes to the movies.

0 Replies

Speaking of production design and cinematography, that film has it all over "Passion."

0 Replies

Indeed! (the phrase that aparently drives my undergrads crazy! )
The cinematography in Titus Andronicus reminds me of the photography of Loretta Lux.

0 Replies

Ahh, I remember it now. Great flick. I'm sometimes a bit stodgy about modern 'takes' on Shakespeare, but I did enjoy Titus. I was never quite sure what the boy represented, but I did catch a whiff of a statement regarding a cycle of institutionalized/taught violence that crosses the ages.

0 Replies

I really meant both films were artistic triumphs in cinematography and production design. The use of reds in "Richard III" were so sumptuous and at the same time forbodding as to enrapture one before anyone speaks a line.

0 Replies

Indeed. In Titus, Taymor acheives the same effect with blues (The sky, the intereior of the imperial palace, etc..).

0 Replies

Yes, those gorgeous blues. It would be easy to design an interior around either film. Of course, it's those talented designers who Dubya believe should not marry.

0 Replies

Double post. Stupid computer!

0 Replies

Smile -- live and let live was certainly Shakespeare's philosophy (and he liked the boys as much as the girls himself).

0 Replies

Hmm, I can understand his viewpoint!

0 Replies

AC/DC -- just two different forms of current!

0 Replies

One of Shakespeare's greatest strengths was his ability to write believeable female characters. If one compares his female charaters with similar ones by Middleton, Rowley, Johnson, and Marlowe one cannot help but be impressed.

0 Replies

Julie Taymor's Titus Andronicus

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know