From Stage to Screen: The Lion in Winter

by Andrew Jupin, Senior Programmer

There are few things riskier in the world of filmmaking than adapting a stage play to the screen. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dreaded sitting for something I know in advance is based on a play. Often it feels like what you’re watching is so much better served on the stage, and you start to wonder what the point of adapting it was in the first place.

Side Note: I’m referring specifically to plays. Musicals are a different animal and are slightly easier to engage a movie audience with than a play—although that’s not always foolproof either; I’m looking at you, Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera.

We’ve seen directors try and fail—and sometimes fail hard—to adapt a play into a film. If you’ve sat through films like Ethan Hawke’s Chelsea Walls, Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy, Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, or Roman Polanski’s Carnage, then you know what I’m talking about.

There are two ways to successfully adapt a play into a film as far as I’ve seen. Filmmakers either make the movie into something so large in scope, so cinematic, that the spectacle of the thing overshadows the fact that the source material is a play—Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, for example. Or they go the more common route and stuff the film with so many fantastic performances from great actors that it doesn’t matter if the film feels like someone just propped a camera up inside a Broadway theater and started filming—it still makes for compelling viewing. This has been done successfully over the years with, just to name a few, films like Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, James Foley’s Glengarry Glen Ross, Denzel Washington’s Fences, and, playing in Retro Revival on March 15th, Anthony Harvey’s The Lion in Winter.

Harvey’s phenomenal 1968 adaptation of The Lion in Winter, scripted by James Goldman from his own play, features some of the best acting you’ll ever see. Stellar performances surround you with Peter O’Toole as Henry II, Anthony Hopkins (in his feature film debut) as Richard, and a fire-breathing Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine—a kind of performance never seen from her before or after this.

Set over Christmas 1183, the film revolves around the biggest decision King Henry has to make: which of his three sons inherits the throne after he’s gone. Aside from Hopkins’ Richard, there are also Geoffrey (John Castle) and John (Nigel Terry) to consider. Henry’s estranged and imprisoned wife, Hepburn’s Eleanor, wishes the crown to be given to their oldest living son, Richard, while Henry favors their youngest, John, a son he feels he could more easily manipulate. Throwing a wrench into it all is King Phillip II of France (Timothy Dalton in his film debut) who has given his half-sister Alais (Jane Merrow) to whoever is the future heir—Alais also currently happens to be Henry’s mistress, complicating matters further.

What plays out is two hours of exceptional acting in scene after scene of Game of Thrones-esque conspiratorial royal family drama, filled with twists, revelations, double crosses, and screaming matches that would be right at home in a John Cassavetes film.

Mandatory viewing on the big screen, The Lion in Winter went on to earn seven Academy Award nominations including Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture; the film ultimately walked away with wins for John Barry’s amazing score, James Goldman’s adapted screenplay, and Katharine Hepburn for her stunning performance as Eleanor (she tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl, the only time that’s happened for actresses in Academy history).

Oh, and if you’re curious if there has ever been a play adapted for the screen that features loads of incredible performances and whose production is on a scale that makes it feel like the filmmakers took the play “out of the theater” so to speak, I believe there is only one clear example: Mike Nichol’s Angels in America—quite possibly the best stage-to-screen adaptation of all time. But even Angels in America doesn’t have this Katherine Hepburn performance.

The Lion in Winter screens on Wednesday, March 15 at 2:00 and 7:30. Tickets are on sale HERE.