The Hollow Crown
Directed by Richard Eyre
UK | BBC Mini-Series | 2012
Starring Jeremy Irons, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale, Julie Walters
On the 400th Anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, and in preparation for the Burlington Film Society screening of Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight, join film historian and BFS co-founder Barry Snyder for a screening and discussion of “The Hollow Crown.”
The 2012 BBC series “The Hollow Crown” is the best film version of the tetrology of Shakespeare’s history plays telling the touching story of the relationship between Prince Hal, the future Henry V, and his erstwhile companion in hedonistic revelry, Falstaff. Both are among the most fully delineated characters in all of Shakespeare and form the basis for Orson Welles’ 1966 masterpiece Chimes at Midnight, the culminating work of his lifelong engagement with Shakespeare’s work in general and Falstaff in particular, and Welles’ personal favorite among all his films. Film historian Barry Snyder will talk about the parallels people see between Welles and his fictional alter-ego Falstaff, screen some scenes from the BBC series (primarily Henry IV Parts I and II) that set up the story of Chimes at Midnight, and discuss some of the ways critics read the themes engaged by the Falstaff storyline, in anticipation of the Burlington Film Society’s special screening of the newly restored and rediscovered Chimes of Midnight on April 28th.