1

Oliver Parkers Othello film adaptation: analysis

1. Othello and the cinema

After the earliest known performance of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, on November
1, 1604, the numerous times it has been performed ever since have contributed to the plays
enduring popularity. Othello was a great success in Shakespeares time, and since then, it has
remained one of the most popular plays on the English stage. For this reason it was one of
Shakespeares most performed play.
After the first performance in 1604, in which Shakespeares most famous actor, Richard Burbage,
interpreted Othello, the play was widely performed during the centuries.
Until Victorian Age, for Othellos role were employed only white actors. Only after 1860 some
African American actor, proceeding from slave families, began to be casted to perform this role.
Over two hundred years after Richard Burbage, Ira Aldridge became the first black actor to perform
the lead role in 1826. There was considerable resistance to the presence of the worlds first black
Othello. At that time only the idea of a black man touching a white woman was considered
something unnatural.
In one of his two Othello performances at the Covent Garden theatre in 1833, The Atheneum objected to
actress Ellen Tree as Desdemona, being pawed about on the stage by a black man. The Times
newspaper had been just as scathing eight years prior, when it commented that, Owing to the shape of
his lips it is utterly impossible for him to pronounce English.
1


To see a black actor interpreting Othello on the big screen we have to wait until 1995, when director
Oliver Parker chose Laurence Fishburne as protagonist of his adaptation of Shakespeares play.
In fact, the first Othello film adaptation date back to the silent films era. In 1922 the Russian
director Dimitri Buchowetzki directed his Othello, a historical drama film based on Shakespeares
play.
2
The impossibility to use language to express characters emotions was solved thanks to the
use of lighting, mise-en-scene and the juxtaposition of images.
3

Only with the advent of fully synchronized sounds, directors were able to use all the potential of
Shakespeares verses.
One of the first most important productions of cinema new era was the 1952 Othello directed and
interpreted by Orson Welles. Welles was passionate about Shakespeare, and wanted to bring it to

1
http://www.arogundade.com/ira-frederick-aldridge-first-black-actor-to-play-shakespeares-othello.html
2
see Russel Jackon Skakespeare and the cinema in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, edited by Margareta de Grazia e Stanley Wells
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 217
3
ibidem p. 218
2
the public in a way they could understand and appreciate. The film was a major success, also
winning the Palme D'Or at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
4

In this film Welles performed Othello wearing blackface. It was a troubled production because of
Welles' lack of time and money. He had to finance the project by himself, picking up all the work
he could find as an actor in order to find money for his Othello. For this reason it was a very long
production and the scenes were sometimes filmed at years of distance. These problems made the
film very experimental and peculiar because sometimes the editing connected scenes filmed at
distance of some years, sometimes also in different locations.
Welles did not hesitate to cut and rearrange the texts he used, [] expressive dislocation in []
Welles films are largely the result of artistic strategy
5
. He used a heavily abridged text, and the
final result was a 91 minutes film. The action opened with the funerals of both Othello and
Desdemona, prefacing the tragedy we know will come. The style of cinematography is dark and
moody, using shadows to create atmosphere. In all his Shakespearean productions, Welles tried to
explore the psychological states of the characters, so question such as language, text fidelity, are left
in the background.
6

Some critics, such as F.R. Leavis, argue that Welles film made no reference to Othello's colour.
7

He focuses on differences such as age and attractiveness between Othello and Desdemona rather
than race. Considering all the troubles this production had to face it is considered a masterpiece of
cinema, although the film was the least critically acclaimed of Welles films of the era.
Sergei Yutkevichs 1955 Othello was the first film shot in full colour. It was a minor production
compared to the 1965 Stuart Burges, that is the first English-language adaptation of Othello in
colour. For his film, Burge chose a great actor like Laurence Olivier to perform Othello. The film is
based on the National Theatre Company's staging of Shakespeare's Othello (196466) staged by
John Dexter and all the action took place on a series of enlarged stage sets.
8

This production, being based on a theatrical performance, retains most of Shakespeare's original
play and does not change the order of scenes.
Unlike Welles production, this film underlines issues of race. Olivier adopted an exotic accent of
his own invention, developed a special walk, and learned how to speak in a voice considerably
deeper than his normal one
9
to perform Othello, even exaggerating this aspect.
Despite Oliviers studious approach, his blackface portrayal troubled American critics when the film
opened there in 1966. The country was in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, when sensitivities

4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello_(1952_film)
5
Russel Jackon Skakespeare and the cinema, p. 222
6
ibidem
7
see Deborah Cartmell, Interpreting Shakespeare On Screen, MacMillan, Palgrave, 2000, pp.72-77
8
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello_(1965_film)
9
ibidem
3
about black identity were at their height, and many saw Oliviers chosen aesthetic as outdated.
Unsurprisingly, the film played for just two days. But despite it all, the production received the highest
ever number of Academy Award nominations for a Shakespeare film.
10


Shakespeares Othello deals with living matters such as multicultural love, jealousy and revenge, so
it allows directors to transpose these topics in different times and situations. So we have many films
dealing with the same problems in different settings. Its the case of All Night Long (1962) set in
London jazz scene; Catch My Soul (1974) is based on a rock opera and set in American Southwest;
Othello: Black Commando (1982) set in contemporary Africa: Othello is a black mercenary and he
falls in love with the daughter of a senator; director Tim Blake Nelson uses Shakespeares play as a
base for a teenage story of jealousy, violence and revenge. His O (2001) is set in an American High
School nowadays.
The movie substituted ancient Venice for the basketball court of an American high school, where Othello,
now Odin James, was the star player, and the schools sole African American student. Desdemona (re-
named Desi), was played by Julia Stiles, and Iago (re-named Hugo), by Josh Hartnett. The film injected
many of its own contemporary scenes and references, while retaining Shakespeares basic plot, which
had a fresh context here, given the longstanding cultural anxieties about race in the US. The ending goes
according to plan, with Odin shooting himself in the heart, and Hugo being arrested by police.
11

There are also several foreign contemporary films based on Shakespeares Othello. Indian cinema
used Othellos story in different productions: Kaliyattam (1997) set in the World of Indian tribal
dance, it deals with racial/caste elements; Omkara (2006) is another Indian production based on
Shakespeares play and set in Indian political world.
12

As told before, we have to wait until 1995 to have a black actor casted to perform Othellos role on
the big screen. It was director Oliver Parker to choose the black American actor Laurence Fishburne
to perform his Othello in his film.
Parkers Othello is a quite fine redaction of Shakespeares play. Several whole scenes and much
supporting dialogue were removed but without any substantive changes in the story.







10
http://www.arogundade.com/othello-actors-the-most-memorable-performances-of-shakespeares-othello-in-theatre-films-and-historical-
productions.html
11
ibidem
12
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello#Film
4
2. Oliver Parkers Othello
Othello (1995)
Directed by Oliver Parker
Produced by David Barron
Starring Laurence Fishburne, Irne Jacob, Kenneth Branagh
Distributed by Columbia Pictures Warner Bros
Release dates December 15, 1995
Running time 123 minutes
Country United Kingdom/United States


Othello was Oliver Parkers debut film. He chose to perform one of the most famous Shakespeares
plays, casting, for the first time in cinema history, a black actor for the leading role. He's taken on a
difficult project. With its melodramatic plot and too easily misled hero, it's become increasingly
difficult to take the play seriously as one of Shakespeare's great tragedies. The disparity between the
symphonic sonorousness of the language and a tale of jealousy that borders on farce is simply too
great.
13

Parker, in his two-hour adaptation, trims, cuts and pasts and rearranges the material introducing
visual flashbacks, fantasies and explicit love scenes to make Othello almost an erotic thriller, as
some critics has defined it.

2.1 Setting
The film was filmed in Italy in a historically correct period: in its visual components, such as set
design and costuming, it clings closely to historical accuracy.
14

As in the play, we have two principal locations in which the action develops: Venice and Cyprus.


13
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Othello-unmoored-in-new-movie-3113402.php
14
http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/oliver-parkers-othello-14648/
5
The first scene shows a gondola crosses quietly at night the Grand Canal in Venice. The world to
which we are immediately introduced is one of shimmering and beautiful reflections. It is a city
whose very architecture dictates that it gaze unceasingly upon its own reflected image.
15

Venice at that time represented the epitome of well-regulated government and Christian virtue, and
the Turks were Venice's religious, economic and imperial rivals. In Shakespeare's Venice, as in the
real Venice of the early modern period, the Turks were demonized as everything that is barbaric,
untrustworthy and dangerous.
Venice for the people of Elizabethan and Jacobean England was the epitome of refinement because
from Venice came the most important artists and the most luxurious merchandises, but it was at the
same time a symbol of immorality, because it was famous for its courtesans, its prostitutes. So it is
at the same time the top of refinement and the top of lechery.
Othello is a mirror of this refinement; he adapts himself to the culture that has adopted him. Also
Desdemona is a high-refined woman but she was born in a lecherous society so she could be
disposed to unfaithfulness.
In Cyprus is set most of the play. The choice of this location is not random: Cyprus was the western
outpost against Turks, against Muslim and it represents the border between civilization and
barbarism. Its almost a mirror for Othello.
Cyprus' cultural indeterminacy provides a disastrous pattern for Othello. As a man used to making
a quick identification with each new territory he serves, he absorbs the cultural ambivalence of
Cyprus into his own person and reproduces it for his final self-dramatizing speech.
16

In the action of Shakespeare's drama, the Turkish fleet is drowned in a sea-storm off the coast of
Cyprus, and the Venetian forces celebrate Turkish fleets defeat. In Parker's film, a stuffed effigy of
a Turk with a quarter of moon painted on his tunic is ceremonially burned during the festivities for
Venetian victory.
17



15
Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." In Shakespeare, Film, Fin de Sicle,
edited by Mark Thornton Burnett and Ramona Wray, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press, 2000, pp. 179-202.
16
Ibidem
17
Ibidem
6
An audience in the 1990s could not be expected to know of the imminent fall of Cyprus to the
Turks in 1571 in the way that Shakespeare's first audiences may have done.
18

Parker chooses to set most of the scenes in Cyprus outdoors and the image of the sea is often
recurring during the film. He presents us with some unforgettable images in which natural
elements stone, sky and sea do become a chorus in the dramatic development.
19

A few crucial scenes take place near seawater perhaps most notably when Iago has finally
convinced Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with Michael Cassio, at the end of
Act 3 Scene 3. Othello, in his rage, forces Iago to swear his allegiance while submerging him. Iago
solemnly swears, thus drowning any of Othello's doubts. The camera focuses on the wild tide and
the far, clouded horizons foreshadowing the storm will rage shortly afterwards.

2.2 The characters
2.2.1 Iago as director inside the film
Parkers chose Kenneth Branagh to perform Iago in his film.
Kenneth Branagh wasnt new in Shakespearean film adaptations: he is known for film such as
Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Love's Labour's Lost (2000) and
As You Like It (2006). He also directed and interpreted many Shakespeares plays in theatre. So he
was surely the best choice Parker could have.
His performance received very positive reviews, such as that of The New York Times, arguing
Kenneth Branagh has the rare ability to deliver Shakespearean dialogue as if it were street talk,
with an expert casualness that keeps the meaning of the language crystal clear.
20
And thanks his
colloquial performance the character's poisonous nature is fully revealed.
21

He seems to steal the show, performing a character in which charm and cruelty, wit and wickedness
are perfectly matched. He is the fulcrum of the play: it is his diabolic plan to give birth to other
characters misery.
Parkers Iago characterization is very interesting: Iago becomes almost a director inside the film. He
is always between inside and outside, often ushering the characters in and out, opening and closing
most of the scene. He seems, almost magically, to appear behind characters. When Othello, after a
nightmare, leaves Cyprus palace for the beach, Iago unexpectedly appears behind him as if he was
hiding himself, waiting for his general.

18
see Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." pp. 179-202
19
Anthony Davies, Filming Othello in Shakespeare and the Moving Image: The Plays on Film and Television, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 1995, p. 208
20
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/14/movies/film-review-fishburne-and-branagh-meet-their-fate-in-venice.html
21
ibidem
7

This role is evident in several scenes that show how Iago is the absolute master of the gaze, of
seeing, showing, hiding things at will.
22
He often offers a distorted vision to his audience, and
director Parker symbolizes this blurred vision with a very ingenious scene: when Desdemona
arrives in Cyprus she is talking with Cassio in the palace courtyard. Iago is peeling a piece of fruit
with a small knife and through its blade he watches the reflection of Cassio and Desdemona as they
whisper together.

It is obviously a distorted reflection that symbolises the blurred image of Desdemona and Cassio
that he is going to show to Othello by interposing himself as a distorting mirror through which
Othello may observe the world.
23

So Iago could be considered the film internal cinematographer, instructing the spectator where and
how to look. He says explicitly to the public Look at Othello when he is standing thoughtful by
the shore in Act 3 Scene 3 representation. It is also Iago who determines how Othello should look
both at others and at himself. For example when he wants Othello to listen the deceptive
conversation between him and Cassio to make him confess his relationship with Desdemona (Act 4
Scene 1), he places Othello behind bars and theatrically blocks Cassio's mock-disclosure
specifically to suit Othello's angle of vision. In a slightly heavy-handed metaphor for his emotional
enslavement, the shadows of the bars fall on Othello's face. As our perceptions are then aligned
with Othello's, we, too, are invited to see through the bars what Iago would have him see.
24


22
see Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." pp. 179-202.
23
Ibidem
24
Ibidem
8
Iago controls physical and mental movement of characters as well as the audience vision: he has the
power to show or obscure what he wants and how he wants. At the end of Act 2 Scene 3 Iagos
soliloquy shows again the audience his real intents and he says: So will I turn her virtue into pitch/
And out of her own goodness make the net/ That shall enmesh them all.
25
In the film Iago grasps a
hot brand and smears his hands with soot then, while he pronounces these lines, places his
blackened hand on the lens of the camera, with the effect of a black-out. The soot he spreads over the
camera lens also suggests the fact that the characters are blind to his plot.

Only in the penultimate scene the camera regains its independence from Iago: when he lies injured
the camera looks down upon him, which for the first time has lost his look of a man in control, he is
no more construing the pictures we see.
26


Parkers Iago, in my opinion, succeeds in catching the spectators complicity thanks to a
continuous intimate and knowing glance at the camera. He is always staring directly at the
camera during his monologues, showing his real nature only to the audience.


25
W. Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice in Jonathan Bate e Eric Rasmussen (edited by), The RSC Shakespeare: The
Complete Works, London, Macmillan, 2008, p. 2114, Act II Scene 3, vv. 324-326
26
see Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." pp. 179-202.
9
Spectators, in a way, cannot help but sympathising with him because he makes his motivations very
believable looking directly in the eyes his interlocutors.
Parkers interpretation of Iago follows the trend set after 1920s to depict Iago as a character that
potentially can be good, but the injustices he suffered make him dangerous for the people around
him. He is loved by his wife and his friends, so he is capable to gain sympathy, to be liked, so he is
eminently a likable character. So we cant help like him even do we know he is organizing a terrible
plot.

2.2.2 Othello and Desdemona
As told before, Parkers made a courageous choice casting a black actor, Laurence Fishburne, to
perform Othello in his film.
Fishburne's performance as a black man playing the part of a black man reduces the gap between the
player and the part played, and so renders the debates about skin colour and ethnicity more immediate and
less stylized than they could have been on the Renaissance stage, and than they have been in earlier film
adaptations with a blacked-up Jannings, Welles, Olivier or Hopkins.
27

Shakespeare, depicting Othello as a black man, did not mean a man coming from Sub-Saharan
Africa but a Northern-African man, such as the ambassador from Morocco that came to visit, in that
time, Queen Elizabeth. So he was a dark but not completely black man and he made quite an
impression with his luxurious retinue and the rich gifts he brought to the Queen.
So he represented a very refined man and so it is Othello. He speaks just like an extremely
proficient courtier of the Renaissance. But he is also a man that comes from another Country, he
represents the Otherness par excellence. Shakespeare's depiction of Othello is intended to indicate
a Muslim background, but he is noble, courageous, experienced in battle, well-born and a convert to
Christianity, and so, despite his colour and culture, the Venetian Senate considers that he is worthy
of respect. Its also true that his military value is what makes him widely accepted in Venice that is
a racist society at heart. This is evident from the words of the other characters. For example
Brabantios belief that his daughter could not love the sooty bosom / Of such a thing
28
, because it
is a love against all rules of nature.
29
In the first scene of the play, Roderigo, Iago, and Brabantio
all refer to Othello only as "the Moor."
30
And Othello is labelled with racial epithets such as old
black ram
31
, Barbary horse
32
, lascivious Moor
33
. To Brabantio his daughter has subjected

27
Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." pp. 179-202.
28
W. Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, p. 2092, Act I Scene 2,vv. 83-84
29
Ibidem, p. 2096, Act I Scene 3, v. 112
30
Ibidem, p. 2087, Act I Scene I, v. 33, 40, 59. p. 2089, vv. 122, 133, 156. p. 2090, vv. 173, 187.
31
Ibidem, p. 2088, v. 92.
32
Ibidem, p. 2089, v. 119
33
Ibidem, v. 133
10
herself to incur a general mock
34
marrying Othello and the dishonour she caused to her family
will provoke Brabantios death.
35

So Othello is a sort of outsider in Venice and he knows his social position is very uncertain and this
insecurity will feed his jealousy.
Parkers Othello is
a fascinating and useful outsider in Venice, a man whose power carries hints of an eroticism, derived from
his arresting physicality. His Venetian garb does little to moderate the effect: his colour, stature, bearing,
earrings, unfamiliar gestures and half-mocking atmosphere make him less the supreme exemplum of
Venice than an exotic misfit within it.
36

Most of the racial language is included in the film. In addition, Fishburne's costumes are very
similar to the rest of the cast. He has earrings in both ears and some tattoos on his shaved head, but
generally blends in.

However, Othello is confident, almost too confident, in many scenes when he should seem
uncomfortable.
Racial tension is developed in other ways in this film, mainly by music and camera focus. At
several integral moments there are jungle sounding drums in the background. These sounds occur
during the celebration at Cyprus as well as during Othello and Desdemona's love-making.
37

Black on white images are the most powerful tool this film uses to create racial tension.


34
Ibidem, p. 2089
35
see Laura Reitz-Wilson, "Race and Othello on Film." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1, 2004, p. 3- 10
36
Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." pp. 179-202.
37
Reitz-Wilson, Laura. "Race and Othello on Film.", p. 8
11
Often the director focuses on Othello and Desdemonas hands to highlight the interracial encounter.
Fishburne also adopts an exotic accent drawing the attention to the fact he is not speaking his native
tongue and to express his otherness.
However, Parkers representation of Othello results predominantly sensual. Fishburnes strong
visual presence helps Parker to focus on the erotic relationship between Othello and Desdemona as
the emotional hinge of the play. The overt sexuality is one of the most relevant motifs of this
production.
From the advertising poster the eroticism of the sexual union of Othello and Desdemona is
explicitly showed. Othello is depicted as a very erotic character catching peoples fascinated gazes.
Othello is the centre of Parkers visual design: the camera lingers upon him, for example,
undressing during his first night with Desdemona.
He is Desdemonas object of desire: she falls in love with him not only for his story, for the pain he
suffered but because she is strongly physically attracted by him and this is shown by her desirous
gaze on him.


Parkers Desdemona, played by the actress Irene Jacob, distances herself from the tradition: she is
not portrayed as the blond-haired embodiment of innocence, but a sensual and dark-haired woman,
an erotic match for Fishburne on the screen.
This characters depiction makes easier for Othello to imagine her with another man. Parker inserts
a dance scene between Desdemona and Cassio, a symbolical scene because she passes from Othello
to Cassio, suggesting an unfaithful nature.

12
By showing us the couple, the affair begins to seem less impossible and we see that
such a thing might actually happen.
According to Judith Buchanan:
At their first sexual encounter, she seems to back off a little nervously across the room before his
semi-naked figure. [] The impression generated both by point of view and editing is inescapably
one of reluctance on her part and insistence on his--if only in a spirit of amorous play.
Parker has thus added a further slightly troubling, if titillating, opposition--that of desire and fear--
to the array of more neutral contrasts (physical strength and physical fragility, a scarred body and
an unblemished one, black skin and white, male and female) already inherent in the sexual union
of Othello and Desdemona.
38


That is a suggestion of an aggression in Othello's sexual relations with Desdemona from their first
scene of lovemaking and explicitly in his subsequent fantasy, when he dreams Desdemona and
Cassio having sex in their bed and he watches them holding a knife in his hand.
According Buchanan a subliminal message of the film was that black men's desire of white women
is animal, ignoble and predatory.
39
So a racial prejudice connected to the way of seeing the
stereotype of a black man--passionate, irrational, brutal, jealous, barbaric, libidinous, inarticulate.
40

Its interesting to note that Parker cast the prostitute Bianca as a black woman further emphasizing
on the lust and sexual desires of the particular race.



Bianca is also, clearly, the result of an interracial union, she is dark-skinned but she has blonde hair
and green eyes.
Parker also adds sexual component to other scene, such as the handkerchief scene. In the play, Iago
simple takes it from Emilia as he walks in after Desdemona and Othello leave the room. In the film
she brings it to him in bed and when he discovers she has taken it he is aroused. He is ready to
perform but stops to give his soliloquy on how this with seal the deal. He smells it, and then throws

38
Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." pp. 179-202.
39
Ibidem
40
Ibidem
13
it up in the air. The scene changes to Cassio looking out the window as the handkerchief falls into
his hands. These differences in how the handkerchief is used illustrate the progression of Iagos
plan. From its devising to its immediate realization.



3. Most relevant differences between Parkers Othello and Shakespeares play
As told before, Parkers adaptation is essentially quite academic. He respected historical period, the
setting, the costumes and almost all the characters are depicted in Shakespeares terms. So in the
end the script is a fine redaction of Shakespeares play.
But we have some differences, changes that the director has adopted for different reasons.

3.1 Cutting and Adding Scenes
Parker wanted his film to last only 2 hours so he had to cut dialogues or entire scenes but without
any substantial loss of the story. Furthermore the speeches and dialogues retained the meter so the
film is a quite faithful adaptation.
On the other hand he added some scenes to show visually what in the play is only told or inferred.
At the begin he adds the marriage of Othello and Desdemona, and then the consummation of their
marriage, he also shows us how their love is born. When Othello talks in front of the Senate,
explaining how Desdemona loved him for the pain he had suffered, Parker put on an entire added
scene.
He also modified some scene, for example in the play at the end of Act 3 Scene 3 Othello,
convinced by now of Desdemona and Cassios betrayal, swears that his former love for Desdemona
will not stop him from bloodily avenging her betrayal. Iago kneels with him and vows to do
whatever it takes to help regain honour. Parker chooses to show the vow between Iago and Othello
as a sharing of blood.
Its a very powerful scene that ends with the two men embrace and Iago whispers: I am your own
forever.
41


41
W. Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, p. 2127, v. 528
14


Another important change Parker brings to his adaptation is the introduction of visual flashbacks
and fantasies.
As told before, when Othello speaks in front of the Senate talking about his relationship with
Desdemona, Parker projects us in the past, showing how the facts happened. He offers the audience
a complete vision of the story, confirming through the visual medium Othellos words.
At the end of Act 1 Scene 3 Brabantio, before leaving, tells Othello: She has deceived her father,
and may thee
42
beginning to instil the seed of jealousy in the Moor even before Iago. When
Othello begins to believe Desdemonas betrayal, he remembers Brabantios words and Parker uses
the flashback technique to perform this.
He also uses dreams to accentuate Othellos preoccupations, he dreams (or imagines) his wife
cheating on him with Cassio. The camera shows us Desdemona, nude, from the back; as she sits up
and turns around, she reveals Cassio who is looking up in surprise. In using these fantasy
sequences, Parker has given concrete form to Othellos worst fears. This is precisely what he is
afraid of, that Desdemona doesnt really love him and has taken Cassio as her lover. They are all
fantasies produced by his mind that is losing more and more its balance and rationality.
But the most amazing Parkers choice is, in my opinion, the addition of symbolic scenes that
foreshadow future events or make clear the real characters conduct.
In the opening scene, another black man is seen floating by on a gondola with another white
woman, covering his face with a white mask as if he pretends of being a white man. It is the
opposite operation that actors, before Parkers production, made covering their faces with make up
in order to be black men. And in a reversal way, Iago blackens his own hand with soot, a gesture
simultaneously of derision and of intimate identification with the black Other whom he professes to
hate.

42
Ibidem, p. 2099, v. 311
15


The white mask has a sorrow expression, as if Othello presumption of being a white man will
conduct him only to suffer.
Another interesting choice is the use of chess figures to represent Iagos plan.
It is a very powerful metaphor, because both Othello and Desdemona are the chess pieces Iago is
playing with. Parkers Iago can foretell Othellos fate because he controls all his figures
movements, and he plays with them at will. Parker uses this expedient twice: Iago uses chess pieces
to demonstrate his plan, the first time in anticipation to his efforts to separate Othello from his wife,
he interposes a White Knight, representing Cassio, between a Black King, that is Othello, and a
White Queen, Desdemona.



Later, when his design is almost accomplished he throws the Black King and the White Queen in a
pond, foreshadowing the final shot of the film in which Othello and Desdemonas bodies were
given a burial at sea.
16




As told before, Iago gives his distorted, blurred version of the events and this is symbolized trough
the reflection of Desdemona and Cassio on his knife. This blurred vision is also obtained with the
use of materials that do not permit to see clearly. For example different times Othello watches
Desdemona through the muslin of the bed curtain: when she is searching for her lost handkerchief
Othello sees her through the distorting muslin filter. This scene has several parallel moments
throughout the film. After his brief vigil sitting watching Desdemona sleeps before he kills her, for
example, Othello deliberately moves aside the flimsy curtain with his staff that he might see her
more clearly. His several efforts to move aside the various obstructions that cloud his view of
Desdmona are, however, futile.
The flimsy fabrics that constantly interpose themselves between him and his wife are Parker's metaphors
for a blurring of his vision that has taken place on a more fundamental emotional level. His attempts to
manoeuvre his way around such material obstructions merely serve to emphasize his inability to lift the
emotional filter that has been placed over his vision.
43

The deceptive filter of Iagos interpretative lens has distorted his own gaze and it brings Othello to
his tragic end.
Parker also offered his idea of the murdering scene: Desdemona struggles for living, she knows she
is innocent and tries to convince Othello until the end, but the Moor is overwhelmed by green-eyed

43
Judith Buchanan, "Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver Parker's Othello." pp. 179-202
17
monster that makes fun of the victims it devours
44
and he smothers her with a pillow. Desdemona,
in her last breaths, places her hands on her husband's face caressing it gently. Even in her death, her
true nature is clear: her love for this man is so devout to forgive him. This is one the most stunning
choice the film makes.
Parker's film explores most of the theme we can find in Shakespeares play, adding a particular
attention to sexual motif. He adapted the play on the big screen trying to be as much accurate as
possible. This production is more overtly cinematic than many other, the visual component prevails
and directors choices (such as replacing a bit of explanatory material with visual imagery or
breaking down some scenes into a couple of separate scenes to provide a sense of the passage of
time) help the story to flow more easily and his production to be more like a film than like a
recorded play.























44
W. Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, p. 2120, vv. 188-189
18

Filmography

Parker, O. Othello, Columbia Pictures Warner Bros, 1995

Bibliography


Primary works


Shakespeare, W. The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice in J. Bate e E.
Rasmussen (edited by), The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works,
London, Macmillan, 2008


Secondary works



Buchanan J. Virgin and Ape, Venetian and Infidel: Labellings of Otherness in Oliver
Parker's Othello in Shakespeare, Film, Fin de Sicle, (edited by) M.
Thornton Burnett and R. Wray, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:
Macmillan Press, 2000

Cartmell D. Interpreting Shakespeare On Screen, MacMillan, Palgrave,
2000

Davies A. Filming Othello in Shakespeare and the Moving Image: The
Plays on Film and Television, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1995

Jackson R. Shakespeare and the cinema in The Cambridge Companion to
Shakespeare, edited by M. De Grazia e S. Wells Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 2001

Reitz-Wilson, L. "Race and Othello on Film" in CLCWeb: Comparative
Literature and Culture 6.1, 2004

19
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! http://www.arogundade.com/ira-frederick-aldridge-first-black-actor-to-play-shakespeares-
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!
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! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello_(1952_film)

! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello_(1965_film)

! http://www.arogundade.com/othello-actors-the-most-memorable-performances-of-
shakespeares-othello-in-theatre-films-and-historical-productions.html

! http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Othello-unmoored-in-new-movie-3113402.php

! http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/oliver-parkers-othello-14648/

! http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/14/movies/film-review-fishburne-and-branagh-meet-
their-fate-in-venice.html