King Lear (1988) on Netflix
After the Chernobyl catastrophe, William Shakespeare Junior the Fifth sets out to recover lost culture through his ancestor's plays. In a hotel he overhears Don Learo speak lines from them.
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- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb5.5/101,774 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes55%
Trailer
Plot summary
Electricity, houses and cars return after the Chernobyl explosion, but culture does not. William Shakespeare Junior the Fifth, a descendant of the playwright, is engaged to recover what was lost, beginning with his ancestor's works. In a deserted hotel restaurant overlooking Lake Geneva he overhears Cordelia and Don Learo. Learo speaks lines from one of the lost plays, then recalls Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. He reproaches Cordelia for not declaring her love and tells her she will lose her inheritance, accuses William of making a play for his girl, and leads her away. In a wood, William meets Edgar, who carries an elephant gun and a fishing net, and Virginia.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about King Lear (1988)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Norman Mailer was originally to play the lead character Don Learo in Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear, but left Switzerland after just one day of shooting, when Godard insisted he play a character who had a carnal relationship with his own daughter.
- Godard accepted a contract to make short commercials for Closed, a jeans brand by Marithé and François Girbaud; they were shot in March 1987 alongside King Lear, and the same actors and models appear in the film as the goblins.
- Viviane Forrester, whose writing is quoted in King Lear, sued Godard and the French distributor Bodega Films over the 2002 re-release; both were fined €5,000 and the film was withdrawn after two years.
- Much of the score is Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16, Op. 135, which Godard slowed down and electronically manipulated so that only part of the second movement is easily identifiable; it mostly plays as a low background dirge.
