Titus: The Illustrated Screenplay, Adapted from the Play by William Shakespeare

by Julie Taymor, Jonathan Bate (Introduction), William Shakespeare

Featuring more than 80 photos (most in full color), the director's own production notes, and the complete shooting script-here is the stunning pictorial record of the extraordinary movie written, directed, and coproduced by Julie Taymor, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. This mesmerizing retelling of Shakespeare's comic tragedy Titus Andronicus is as visually stunning as it is theatrically charged. Filmed in Italy, with elaborate sets and the grand scale of real historical monuments from the Roman Empire and the Mussolini era, Julie Taymor's Titus is a work already being hailed as a cinematic masterpiece. The movie stars Academy Award ® -winning actors Anthony Hopkins as the honorable but flawed Titus and Jessica Lange as Goth queen Tamora, as well as Alan Cumming, Colm Feore, James Frain, Laura Fraser, Harry Lennix, Angus Macfadyen, Matthew Rhys and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The creative production team includes five-time Academy Award ® -nominated production designer Dante Ferretti ( Kundun ); two-time Oscar ® -winning costume designer Milena Canonero ( A Clockwork Orange ); two-time Academy Award ® -nominated composer Elliot Goldenthal ( Interview with the Vampire ); director of photography Luciano Tovoli ( Reversal of Fortune ); and Oscar ® -winning editor Francoise Bonnot ( Missing ).

Genres: Theatre

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2000

About the author

Julie Taymor is an American director of Broadway theatre and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, an Emmy Award, and an Academy Award nomination for her work, noted for its visual flair and colorful costuming choices. She resides in New York City with her partner Elliot Goldenthal, whom she has been with for over 20 years. She is widely known as the first female to win the Tony Award for director of a musical.

Reviews

[Sezin Koehler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only disappointment is that Taymor did not reveal more of the thinking about her reasons for making the filmic choices as she adapted this play for the screen. This is otherwise an important document about what I believe is the best Shakespeare film made in English.