The story-within-a-story treatise might feel undercooked but Welles still does a lot within its short runtime, particularly creating the film’s dreamy, intoxicating atmosphere, accompanied by the ethereal music of Erik Satie.
Superbly-edited and exuding a sense of ‘new wave’ energy, Welles’ previously incomplete film before his death is now complete (or not?) in this strange, kaleidoscopic but rather uncompelling work.
Arguably Orson Welles’ finest hour as a director and actor, this resurrected masterpiece remains to be one of cinema’s most extraordinary adaptations of Shakespeare.
This essayistic documentary (of sorts) is a brilliantly-edited labyrinth of facts, half-truths and lies if you can get into Welles’ sleigh-of-hand.
Eternality Tan 