Coriolanus

 

Shakespeare Coriolanus motion picture. Ralph Fiennes directed this film in 2011. Stars Ralph Fiennes (Caius Martius Coriolanus), Gerard Butler (Tullus Aufidius), Vanessa Redgrave (Volumnia), Brian Cox (Menenius), Jessica Chastain (Virgilia), John Kani (General Cominius), James Nesbitt (Sicinius), Paul Jesson (Brutus), Lubna Azabal (Tamora), Ashraf Barhom (Cassius), Slavko Štimac (Volsce lieutenant), Dragan Mićanović (Titus), Radoslav Milenković (Volsce politician), Harry Fenn (Young Martius), and Jon Snow (TV Anchorman). Screenplay by John Logan; music by Ilan Eshkeri; cinematography by Barry Ackroyd; editing by Nicolas Gaster; produced by Ralph Fiennes, John Logan, Gabrielle Tana, Julia Taylor-Stanley, and Colin Vaines. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 surround sound. Grade: A+

Eric Minton, the astute and knowledgeable creator of the fantastically helpful shakespeareances.com,  says that John Logan's screenplay trims about half of Shakespeare's text, but makes "sure the verse that remained was treated with wholesome respect." He goes on in an extensive review to conclude this is "an A+ Shakespearean film." Minton's review is so impressive that I accept his A+ as our grade also.

This was released as a motion picture film with different artwork for various products in various markets. The B&W cover above is for the DVD/Blu-ray combo package sold in the US and Canada. The more colorful cover art is for Europe.  At this writing (March 2018), Amazon has different ASINs for several countries, so our Amazon button below only works in the US. (We understand Amazon is taking steps now to adopt a single ASIN for all its national language stores around the world.) If you shop around, you may be surprised to see how inexpensive this film is to buy.

This YT clip will give a good idea about Fiennes's update style: