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King Lear

1970 · 137 min

A stark, wintry black-and-white descent into madness and cruelty, cold and theatrical, demanding patience and rewarding it with bleak grandeur.

Directed by
Peter Brook
Genres
Drama
Starring
Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, Susan Engel
Overview
King Lear is a proud man who solicits praise from his three daughters in return for inheritance of the kingdom. Daughters Goneril and Regan profess their affection vehemently. Cordelia, who does not respect the process her father has chosen, does not humor him. Lear's perceived rejection from Cordelia leads to her banishment, thus splitting the kingdom between the other two. This hasty decision becomes his fatal error.

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Rent or buy in the UK
  • Amazon Video
  • YouTube
More options Data from JustWatch
Directed by
Peter Brook
Genres
Drama
Starring
Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, Susan Engel
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • bleakstrength 3 of 3
  • darkstrength 3 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • family
  • betrayal
  • power
  • madness
  • aging
Places
  • countryside
  • single country house
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore mild
  • Language mild
  • Violence strong
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror4
Humour1
Realism6
Romance1
Tension7
Darkness9
Complexity8
Emotional weight9

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Where to watch in the UK

Rent or buy
  • Amazon Video
  • YouTube

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Peter Brook
Written by
Peter Brook
Starring
Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, Susan Engel, Anne-Lise Gabold, Alan Webb, Ian Hogg, Robert Langdon Lloyd, Tom Fleming
Cinematography
Henning Kristiansen
Runtime
137 min
Country
Denmark, United Kingdom
Languages
English

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