Othello DVD

[Flint]

As I peruse these message boards I gather that people are less than happy with the American DVD release of "Othello". People seem to be suggesting that it was assembled with little scholarly research. Can anyone be more specific?

Many thanks.

-Flint.

[colwood]

Generally, it seems to me that the "restored" version fixed some problems with the film in ways that Welles may not have done. Also the "restored" version was based on the 1955 American cut. It seems the only released version of the film that can be considered closest to Welles "director's cut" seems to be the OOP Criterion Laserdisc which was based on his original 1952 European cut.

Check out these threads:

http://wellesnet.com/cgi-bin....othello

http://wellesnet.com/cgi-bin....othello

[Noel Shane]

A generic Othello question: anyone know of any direct source(s) behind the Welles narration, as with the use of Holinshed for Chimes at Midnight? (Rather, per Bogdanovich... is this a Chinese proverb or a Welles proverb?)

Thanks for this site, too. Reading over years of posts this last week has been a tremendous and largely depressing supplementary education, particularly where it concerns the home video maze.

Respectfully,

[Jeff Wilson]

The opening narration comes from (someone correct me if this incorrect) the original source for the play, Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Cinthio, which has a passage describing the story, which Welles adapted in brief.

[Noel Shane]

Thank you, Jeff. (Knew I'd get an answer here.) Makes you wonder how many who scoffed -- or scoff -- at Welles' Shakespeare understood just how invested he was in the literature. Considering how little his work was understood in general, though, it seems a stretch that he'd get points here.

For the sake of completeness, the scribe is Giraldi Cinthio.

[Noel Shane]

Just like that... here's an 1855 English translation of the Italian. I suppose I could have readily answered my own question:

http://www.clicknotes.com/othello/Osource.html