Chimes At Midnight (1966)

Film: Chimes At Midnight

Director: Orson Welles

Country: Spain / USA

Released: May 1966

Runtime: 119 minutes

Genre: Historical Drama

Studio: Alpine Productions

Influenced: Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, David Cronenberg, Kathryn Bigelow, Peter Jackson

Based on the four Shakespearean history plays commonly known as the Henriad – Richard II (ineffectual Richard proves himself ill-suited to the throne and gets knifed to death, while his rival Henry Bolingbroke is a natural and becomes Henry IV), Henry IV, Part I (Henry IV fights off rebels, while his son Hal fights off hangovers with Falstaff), Henry IV, Part II (Hal rejects his boozing buddy and steps back into royal life) and Henry V (Agincourt and all that) – Chimes At Midnight was a long labour of love for Orson Welles, starting out as a Broadway stage adaptation called Five Kings in 1939 and revived on stage in Ireland in 1960 as Chimes At Midnight. Neither play was successful, but Welles considered portraying Falstaff to be his life's ambition and turned the project into a film by hoodwinking Spanish producer Emiliano Piedra into giving him funding to make a film version of Treasure Island. Welles had no intention of making that film, but somehow used the money to make Chimes At Midnight instead.

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me”

Welles plays a melancholy, intellectual Falstaff in the film instead of a bawdy, Rabelaisian version, which suits the role very well and makes it arguably the greatest of all Shakespeare movies. There are some strong contenders for that title – notably Kurosawa's Ran (King Lear) and Throne Of Blood (Macbeth), as well as Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Laurence Olivier's Hamlet and Kenneth Branagh's Henry V – but nothing comes close to Chimes At Midnight for me in terms of capturing the spirit of Shakespeare on screen. What's refreshing is the lack of reverence Welles shows in his highly abridged and altered version of Shakespeare's plays. He even laces in elements of the Merry Wives of Windsor to help conjure up the romantic myth at the heart of the film, Merrie Old England, which is somehow very convincing portrayed despite being the work of an American director filming in a Spanish setting.

A key factor that gives the movie emotional power and depth is the personal angle, with the core relationship between Prince Hal and Falstaff having echoes for Welles in his own relationship with his alcoholic father. "I know thee not, old man", is the chilling phrase uttered by Hal to Falstaff. "How ill white hairs become a fool and jester". Welles as Falstaff responds with an odd sense of emotional pride to this cruel barb, as if to express the sense of a father knowing he has helped to create a man who has the wisdom to eventually reject him, and that his work is done. 

In terms of cinematography, Welles created a unique visual style for the film, heavily influenced by his love of German Expressionism. Deep focus, long takes and subjective camerawork all give the movie a distinctive style and an intimate feel. One of the film's greatest achievements is the battle scene, which recreates the Battle of Shrewsbury in a realistic and intense way, which took place in 1403 and was one of the most significant battles of the Hundred Years' War. Welles approached the battle scene with a meticulous attention to detail despite his limited budget, creating a realistic depiction of medieval warfare achieved through clever camera work, careful choreography, sound effects (swords clashing, soldiers shouting, etc) and editing. The scene is shot from a variety of angles, using a combination of long shots, close-ups and medium shots to create a sense of chaos and confusion.

Chimes At Midnight was Welles' final completed feature film and it was a cruel twist of fate that one of his all-time masterpieces was denied its true audience because of an argument over rights. In the US, where it was marketed as Falstaff, it was panned by almost all critics except Pauline Kael (ironic given their testy relationship), whereas in the UK it received a lukewarm reception. Sound issues also plagued the film for a long time until it was restored by Janus Films in 2016. On one level, the film is a story about friendship, betrayal and the passage of time. On another level, it is a meditation on the nature of power and the cost of ambition, and Welles' performance as Falstaff adds to the nuance and complexity, and is rightly considered to be one of the greatest Shakespearean performances of all time.