Merchant of Venice

TUE May 18 8:00 pm Konvikt / film hall / free admission

William Shakespeare's MERCHANT OF VENICE
United Kingdom, Luxembourg, USA, Italy 2004

screenplay and director Michael Radford
director of photography Benoit Delhomme
editor Lucia Zucchetti
music Jocelyn Pook
cast Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, Lynn Collins, Zuleikha Robinson,
Kris Marshall, Charlie Cox, Heather Goldenhersh, Mackenzie Crook


A greedy Jewish moneylender named Shylock is worse than his bad reputation. He never passes up an opportunity to relish the misfortunes of the Christian nobility, who are led to his door out of need. One day a respected merchant named Antonio asks the moneylender for a loan. He intends to help his young insolvent friend Bassanio win the hand of his beloved Portia. When Antonio cannot repay the loan on time, Shylock has a free hand to exact payment with interest for years of humiliation. Considering his contempt for the world, the price Antonio has to pay is to be truly painful.... The timeless story deals not only with chance and destiny in ruling people's lives, but also with anti-Semitism. Radford, taking advantage of a topflight cast and emphasizing the visual beauty of the image, presents an exciting traditional adaptation.


Michael Radford's fresh, lucid and unpretentious screen revival of The Merchant of Venice is raised above the commonplace by a brilliant performance from Al Pacino as Shylock. The role offers opportunities for the wildest grandstanding, and with Pacino so often given to croaky shouting and preening, you might be fearing the worst. But his is a cool, considered Shylock, retaining an icy good humour while the Christians hold their noses and solicit loans from him, who finally forces the issue of how they pay for credit: a flourish of socio-professional suicide that Pacino endows with ferocious calm. And in case we were thinking of patronising the American interloper, Pacino gives an object lesson on speaking the verse, matching and often outclassing our native Brits who sometimes breathily over-emphasise and over-interpret the lines.