Jonathan Miller

Synopsis: Jonathan Miller talks about his life and work. The video is divided into 48 segments (or stories) of about 4 minutes each. In Section 27 "The Good Doctor Has to Be Different’: Directing Shakespeare’ ( 3:53) Miller speaks of his first directing Shakespeare for the Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare Company. He was influenced in his design for Julius Caesar by the works of the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico. He was criticised by the satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’ and others for ‘being different for the sake of it’; Miller maintains seeing things differently is the essence of good direction.
In section 34 (5:00) ‘The Merchant of Venice’ Miller tells what it was like directing Olivier as Shylock and why he [Miller] chose to set the play in the 1890s. Miller feels it was the first time Olivier has been given good, imaginative direction and responded to it warmly and amicably and never pulled rank.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Multimedia
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 2008
Subjects: Drama
Keywords: Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Stage directing; Olivier, Laurence (1907-1989)
Related items: Merchant of Venice, The (1973)