King Lear (1987)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Gilded Butterflies

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

In what is (I think?) Jean-Luc Godard's only primarily English-language movie, there's only a little Shakespeare. We hear a couple of monologues from King Lear, Burgess Meredith plays a Lear-like figure in Don Learo (a man obsessed with old-time mobsters), Molly Ringwald plays Cordelia, one of Lear's three daughters, and filmmaker Leos Carax plays Edgar. But otherwise, it's a very Godardian meditation on… nothing, or "no thing." It's set after the Chernobyl catastrophe, and all culture has been wiped away, including Shakespeare's plays. William Shakespeare Jr. the Fifth (Peter Sellars) has taken it upon himself to re-create them, starting, presumably, with Lear. He seems to be inspired by overheard conversations by Learo and Cordelia. (Meredith gives a stirring recitation of the "come, let’s away to prison" monologue.)

Godard plays a professor with dangling baubles in his hair. A young Julie Delpy wafts onscreen sometimes. Norman Mailer plays himself in an opening scene, which is repeated for some reason, completing his "screenplay" for King Lear. And Woody Allen appears as an editor called "Mr. Alien" at the very end, cutting film together with safety pins and yarn. Various title cards pop up throughout, and the sound of screeching seagulls is heard throughout. One thing Godard and Shakespeare have in common, at least to me, is that, unless you're familiar with their specific languages, you're going to get lost; so you allow yourself to get lost, drift with the flow, and eventually you'll begin to pick up a few things. Godard's King Lear has many themes, fragmented, obtuse, and obscure, so meaningful that it comes back around to meaninglessness.

The Criterion Collection released this film on Blu-ray and DVD in February of 2025. I've long been curious to see it, eager to know what the old scoundrel would do with Shakespeare and Ringwald and Allen, and it's nothing (and everything) like I expected. It contains a crisp transfer, from the original 35mm camera negative, and a 2.0 surround soundtrack. Bonuses include a 31-minute interview with New Yorker film critic Richard Brody (who considers this the best film of all time), a 25-minute interview with Sellars, a 19-minute interview with Ringwald (the teenager didn't know who Godard was and explains that there was no wardrobe and she ended up wearing her own clothes in the film), and an audio recording of the Cannes press conference. A liner notes booklet contains an essay by Brody. (See also Akira Kurosawa's majestic adaptation of Lear, Ran.)