Cymbeline

The BBC Shakespeare series often posed a problem - low budgets, stage-bound performances, odd camera-work, leaden pace - but this version of Cymbeline, one of my favourites of Shakespeare's lesser known plays, is not that bad.

Certainly it suffers from the same low budget and lack of location work, but it manages to transcend this with a largely excellent cast. Richard Johnson and Michael Gough, Claire Bloom and Helen Mirren, Paul Jesson and Graham Crowden, especially, keep the verse moving and get truly inside their characters. Mirren is heartbreaking as Imogen, with her husband exiled, and herself assuming a new identity in the wild when her life is in danger.

Some scenes work less well than others - the dream of Posthumous when he sees father, mother, and Jupiter (the scene gives Marius Goring and Michael Hordern a chance to shine, but it is preposterous), and the final scene's poor acting from Michael Pennington - usually reliable he goes too OTT here. But the scene with Imogen and the corpse she thinks is her husband ... and the mock-seduction scene with her asleep and Iachimo in wicked mode (Robert Lindsey, not that believable in much of this play but good in this scene).

This Cymbeline is good, mainly because it is really the only time the difficult play has been put on the screen. Within the BBC series it is one of the better ones, not too stagy, not too bland.

And the musical arrangement of 'Fear no more the heat o'the sun' is beautiful.

This play was first staged in the early 1600s and inevitably it has lost something in transportation through time and space to a BBCTV studio. The atmosphere doesn't feel right even though the costumes and sets are not bad. As for the plot, King Cymbeline (Richard Johnson) is not a happy bunny when his daughter Imogen (Helen Mirren) marries beneath her station. He banishes the husband from the kingdom and puts Imogen under the wing of her treacherous stepmother (Claire Bloom). From there the story takes many twists and turns. Robert Lindsay puts in a fine performance as a baddie, and it's nice to see Michael Gough, Patricia Hayes, Marius Goring and Michael Hordern popping up here and there. The play is not one of Shakespeare's greatest hits though, and this 1980s TV version only just held my attention; it seemed dull in parts.

Cymbeline has been described as an experimental tragi-comedy, or among the first dramatic romances, but neither is adequate to describe the perfection of the final scene of the play when Shakespeare weaves golden unity from the chaos of loose threads. Mr. Moshinsky breathes life into this production by using the palette of the great Dutch Masters whose paintings minutely chronicle the mundane but serve as visual metaphors for the existence of the transcendent which underscores every moment. In a great cast, two performances really stand out. Helen Mirren's Imogen, the symbol of fidelity, resonates with tragic depth and constancy. The range of her voice is given full sweep especially in the ironic scene in the cave after she awakens from her drugged sleep. Claire Bloom's Queen, a very glacial villainess, scared me much more than if she had been portrayed as a stock evil step-mother.

'Cymbeline' is one of the lesser known Shakespeare plays and that is evident in a very scant available video/DVD competition of film and stage productions. It is a shame, because while it is nowhere near among Shakespeare's best it does deserve to be performed more and it is more down to being difficult to stage, with one of Shakespeare's most complicated (sometimes over-complicated) plots, rather than the play's quality.

Although the BBC Television Shakespeare is not a series where all the productions of all of Shakespeare's plays, its interest point and one of the main reasons to check the productions out (especially when in a few of the plays the production in question is the only one available), are consistently great, for me a vast majority of the productions are well done to excellent. Found this production of 'Cymbeline' to be very good and despite the play being one of Shakespeare's lesser known the production is one of the better ones of the series. It's one of the more consistently and better cast productions, in a good way, and is one of the more visually striking. Personally did not find it dull, even if not every scene works.

Will start with what didn't quite work. Do agree that the Posthumous dream sequence was clumsily done and spoiled by unintentional silliness and also that there was some occasional strange editing.

Michael Pennington tries too hard as Posthumous and it comes over as very over-the-top and wild, especially at the end, and Robert Lindsay doesn't look as though he is having much fun and struggles being sinister and cunning as the Iago of the play Iachimo.

There is so much that works though. Although not exactly authentic to Shakespearean period, the production is still a treat visually and it feels coherent. A lot of work went into the sets and that is obvious, like a previous reviewer the mountain snow set really caught my eyes in a good way. Elijah Moshinsky returns to form here after disappointing so badly in the series' production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (one of its weakest). A couple of missteps here and there, especially the dream sequence mentioned above, but he does make the drama gripping, with the drama being genuinely poignant and the conflict has enough tension.

Furthermore, the rendition of "Fear No More" is absolutely beautiful and brought me to tears. It helps that it is a beautiful song with aching text already, but it is even more special when it's performed well. Shakespeare's writing still shines brightly. Excepting Pennington and Lindsay, the cast are more than strong and still stand by my thoughts of it being one of the better cast productions of the BBC Television Shakespeare series. Helen Mirren is a heart-wrenching Imogen, and that quality is matched particularly in the sensitive turn of Michael Gough. Richard Johnson is suitably cantankerous in the title role and Claire Bloom chills the blood as the queen in another one of the production's standout performances. John Kane and Paul Jesson are very good in their roles here, particularly Jesson, and Michael Hordern is luxury casting as Jupiter.

In conclusion, very good production of an in my mind undeservedly lesser known play. 8/10

Although this movie is call "Cymbeline", but we can find that in this story, Cymbeline has done nothing good. He is only a supporting role. I suggest it could be "Great Britain love tale", which may be more suitable.

Although Posthumus is the hero in this movie, he also has done nothing good nearly. Maybe the only good thing he has done is that he leaves Imogen at first, but he fixed it in the end.

Although Cloten is described as a bad guy, but all he has done is just in order to pursue Imogen. Besides he wound stay up all night just in order to wake her up with music. But he was refused by Imogen, and all the efforts were in vain. Do you think he is like most of us? But he is richer than us. So? From this we can draw a conclusion. The licking dog doesn't deserve a house.

Although Imogen is the heroine in this movie. Ok, she deserves it. Her actress also has an excellent acting.