Il mercante di Venezia

Titolo originale: The Merchant of Venice

Film per la TV
1980
TV-14
2h 37min

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Warren Mitchell in Il mercante di Venezia (1980)

Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaA rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will... Leggi tuttoA rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can mar... Leggi tuttoA rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio... Leggi tutto

Vedi le informazioni sulla produzione su IMDbPro

VALUTAZIONE IMDb

7,2/10

321

LA TUA VALUTAZIONE

17Recensioni degli utenti

Vedi le informazioni sulla produzione su IMDbPro

Ha vinto 2 BAFTA Award
- 2 vittorie e 2 candidature totali

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Recensioni degli utenti17

7,2321

Recensioni in evidenza

9clotblaster

Marvelous Production That Says What Shakespeare Wrote

This is much, much better than Olivier's version, of which I own a copy and have used to teach high school Shakespeare. Gemma Jones is excellent as Portia (and not too old) and Shylock is performed the way Shakespeare wrote the part. I would argue the issue of anti-semitism in this play: it's not as cut and dried as people seem to think. But it is a product of Shak's time, not ours (which can't do anything controversial unless it is left-wing politically and politically correct). I recently saw Al Pacino play Shylock and his performance and the production was absurd. Unfortunately, because of WWII and the wrong-headed (but good-hearted) people who are afraid to touch any play that shows Jews in a negative way, this play is off limits to a decent production of The Merchant.. except it seems for the BBC production. Also, the viewer who gave this production a "one" rating obviously came to the play predisposed to dislike anything that wasn't modern in look and perspective. He/she simply didn't want to watch the play Shakespeare wrote. The BBC series of all the plays did have a number of clunkers, but this isn't one of them.

8keith_williamson

This was the program that first got me interested in Shakespeare

I remember this play very fondly, and, while it is over twenty years since I saw it and I may be more critical of it now, any program that can turn on a cynical youth to Shakespeare can't be all bad.

I have read the comments about Warren Mitchell and would disagree, his is one of the two performances I particularly remember. Yes, it is a very unsympathetic performance, why should it be other? It is also very anti-Semitic, why should it not be? Shakespeare was amongst other things a product of his age and the politics of his age. Why do we feel that we have to tinker with the past to sanitise it and to make it what it wasn't? Surely, A lot can be learnt from looking at things as they actually were and to learn from that.

I only wish it was available to purchase now.

8putzfam-828-237662

It's the best one for kids

I use this version to accompany my British Lit unit. I own all of the versions and while I love Olivier, the modernization of the play makes the themes of the play more difficult to imagine. The most recent one has so many cut lines and frankly nudity that I am not showing in my classroom, that I am left with this version. As an earlier poster stated Gemma Jones is too old for the part and not attractively made up, but maybe that age gives a sense of maturity that makes her knowledge easier to accept. In addition, when Shylock is forced to kiss the cross, I and my class always discuss the uncomfortable feeling of denying someone their heritage. The play is full of conflicts but to a certain degree if it didn't, the play would be somehow condoning the very acts we find repulsive today. The limits of the Jews, women, and social class are all symbolized in the caskets. If one is to see how this can be used in a modern connotation, you only have to ask students who has the newest ipod, car, or house and they see the concept of gold, silver, or lead in a very modern light. I warn them before they see the play that they are watching a filming of a play, the costumes are Elizabethan, not the period it would have been lived and the acting is somewhat the result of BBC trying to pump out all of the Shakespeare plays on a limited budget, but all the lines are there!

10david_barnett1

Magnificent

One is compelled to give three very rousing cheers to any performance of this, my favourite Shakespeare play, that does not cut out words and phrases offensive to that curse of the modern age, political correctness.

As another reviewer has said, The Merchant was written in another age when sentiments that would now land one in trouble were commonplace.

Shylock is definitely not the hero of this play but it is impossible to think of him as an out and out villain either. Warren Mitchell brings out this ambiguity well.

The Olivier performance, although unmissable, omits too much to the Jew's discredit.

The recent Al Pacino production, which I bought the minute it became available, was also a great letdown with potentially racist/anti-Semitic words left out and with the text, what was left of it, horribly modernised. It was visually stunning, though.

It may have been wrong of Portia to say what she did of the Prince of Morocco when he bade her a sad farewell, but those were the words that the Bard put in her mouth and they should be left there.

The whole 37 plays, that the BBC produced in the 1970s/1980s, are now available on DVD. An excellent investment!

Vinteuil

Pokerfaced Performance

If you're looking for The Merchant of Venice on video or DVD, it comes down to two versions: Jonathan Miller's National Theatre production with Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, and Jeremy Brett, taped in 1973, and this BBC effort, recorded seven years later.

This one can hardly match the star power of that earlier performance.

In particular, Olivier's Shylock was simply *non pareil*. Better than his Henry V, better than his Hamlet, better than his Lear. Unforgettable--but also tendentious. Olivier simply omitted any lines that might have compromised his sympathetic portrayal of the old usurer.

Warren Mitchell's performance for the BBC Shakespeare is both more textually complete and more ambiguous. His Shylock is not just a monster--but neither is he just a victim. He is both sinned against and sinning. This creates a context in which it's easier to sympathize with Antonio, Portia and the other Christians, even when they are played less compellingly than in the rival version.

As always with the BBC Shakespeare series, it's fun to spot actors and actresses you've seen elsewhere. Gemma Jones is too old for Portia, but if you've enjoyed her as Louisa in *The Duchess of Duke Street* or as Mrs. Dashwood in *Sense and Sensibility*, you won't mind seeing her in a more challenging role. And if you liked John Rhys-Davies as Gimli in *The Lord of the Rings, or as Macro in *I, Claudius*, watch for him here in the small role of Salerio.

All in all, this production probably won't convert anyone with doubts to the cause of Shakespeare. But for those who already know and love this particular play, it's more than worthwhile.

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Although this episode screened to relatively no controversy in the UK, in the U.S., it created a huge furor. As soon as WNET announced the broadcast date, the Holocaust and Executive Committee (H.E.C.) of the Committee to Bring Nazi War Criminals to Justice sent them a letter demanding the show be cancelled. WNET also received protest letters from the Anti-Defamation League (A.D.L.) and B'nai B'rith. Additionally, Morris Schappes, editor of Jewish Currents, wrote an open letter of protest to The New York Times. The H.E.C. stated that Shylock can arouse "the deepest hate in the pathological and prejudiced mind", urging WNET "that reason and a reputable insight into the psychopathology of man will impel you to cancel the play's screening." They later stated, "our objection is not to art, but to the hate monger, whoever the target. This includes the singular and particular work of art, which, when televised, is viewed by millions and alarmingly compounds the spread of hate." The A.D.L. stated that screening the episode would be "providing a forum for a Shylock, who would have warmed the heart of Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher." PBS and WNET issued a joint statement citing the protests of Saudi Arabians regarding the screening of Death of a Princess (1980), a docudrama about the public execution of Princess Masha'il, and quoting PBS President Lawrence K. Grossman; "The healthy way to deal with such sensitivities, is to air the concerns and criticism, not to bury or ban them." PBS and WNET also pointed out that both Producer Jonathan Miller and Warren Mitchell are Jewish. For their part, Miller and Director Jack Gold had anticipated the controversy, and prepared for it. In the Stone and Hallinan press material, Gold stated, "Shylock's Jewishness in dramatic terms, is a metaphor for the fact that he, more than any other character in Venice, is an alien." Miller stated "It's not about Jews versus Christians in the racial sense; it's the world of legislation versus the world of mercy."

Blooper
When Jessica leaves her father to go with her lover, she does not close the door. However, when she and her companions leave, the door must have been shut from within even though nobody is within.