LEAVING CERTIFICATE ENGLISH
Richard Loncraine’s dynamic and fast-paced adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III is set in England in the 1930s. The film is a chilling thriller in which Richard’s dream of totalitarian rule gradually begins to come true as he crushes those in his way. Ian McKellen, who also wrote the screenplay, stars as the evil Richard. He is undoubtedly the main attraction, playing the wannabe King as a spiv-like villain, whose amorality and evil deeds are offset by his verbal wit and humour.
The film is strikingly visual with a hollowed-out Battersea Power Station providing the battleground for the apocalyptic finale. With an excellent supporting cast including Annette Bening, Nigel Hawthorne and Robert Downey Jr, it easily demonstrates that film adaptations of Shakespeare can achieve a cinematic excellence.

The film is a prescribed Comparative Text for Leaving Cert. 2003.

UK 1996
Action/Drama
100 mins
Director: Richard Loncraine

Also showing at:
Cork UnReel Festival. (7th – 14th October)
For more information contact Helen Barry on (021) 4271711

The 7th Junior Galway Film Fleadh (14th – 17th November)
For more information contact Sadie Mackey on (091) 771726

Garter Lane Theatre, Waterford January 14th
For further information contact Caroline Senior on (051) 855038