Getting Lear : How To Show And Not Tell

“Death” is our only dirty word. And King Lear is about death and the approach of death, and about power and the loss of power, and about love. In our consumer society we are encouraged to forget that we will ever die, and old age can be postponed by the right face cream. And when it finally does come, we’re encouraged to look forward to a long and lovely sunset. – Orson Welles

I've included this clip of Orson's 1953 televised version of KING LEAR because it was one of the versions that Stu wanted me to watch before shooting our doc. It was an ordeal to get through it, but you've got to admire the chutzpah of a thirty-something year old Welles trying to pull off Lear. And because it was "made for television," this KING LEAR clocks in at 73 minutes.

Now, as Fred and I edit Getting Lear, I'm toying with the idea of using some of the 1953 clips (like this one - only shorter) in the doc -- to give the audience more information about how Lear has been filmed before -- in contrast to how we are intrepreting the text.

Who I am kidding? I just want to split screen my stuff next to Orson Welles (and come out on top!)

I know I won't run into any legal issues on the festival circuit, but outside of that I'm not sure of the ownership issues with the 1953 film, however I do believe, at one point, this version was in the public domain. I could be wrong.

One more quote to chew on:

An Ecstatic Truth is possible in documentaries and of course in my feature films - I've always striven for that. It is something deeply inherent, where you recognize yourself as a human being again, where you find images that have been dormant inside of you for so many years and all of a sudden it becomes visible and understandable for you -- you read the world differently, your perceptions change. – Werner Herzog


I know it might be hard to connect the Welles quote with the Herzog, but where these two thoughts converge is where Getting Lear lives – I pray.

Over and over again, I make the journey back to the footage with the new hope of discovering something I missed.

I guess I’m looking for the ecstatic truth, but I’m more than happy to settle for something interesting.

This week I’m shooting some SUPER SECRET scenes that will serve as connector-pieces – no actors involved. And as always, when I want it done right, I enlist Imran and Fred as my crew.

Also helping out this week will be John Vasquez.

And that concludes my shout-outs for today.

-Chris