Chimes at midnight [DVD video]

The crowning achievement of Orson Welles's extraordinary film career that was the culmination of the filmmaker's lifelong obsession with Shakespeare's ultimate rapscallion, Sir John Falstaff. Usually a comic supporting figure, Falstaff; the loyal, often soused friend of King Henry IV's wayward son Prince Hal, here becomes the focus: a robustly funny and ultimately tragic screen antihero played by Welles with looming, lumbering grace.

General Note:

Title from container.

Photography, Edmund Richard ; music, Alberto Lavagnino.

Adapted from four plays by William Shakespeare: Henry IV, Henry V, Richard II, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Originally released as a motion picture under title: Campanadas a medianoche = Chimes at midnight = Falstaff in 1965. English language version released by Peppercorn Wormser, Inc. in 1967.

Widescreen (1.66:1).

Special features: Audio commentary featuring film scholar James Naremore, author of "The magic world of Orson Wells"; New interview with actor Keith Baxter; New interview with director Orson Welle's daughter Beatrice Welles, who appeared in the film at age seven; New interview with film historian Joseph McBride, author of "What ever happended to Orson Welles?"; Interview with Welles while at work editing the film, from a 1965 episode of "The Merv Griffin Show"; Trailer.

Performers:

Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, Sir John Gielgud, Marina Vlady, Walter Chiari, Fernando Rey.

Contents:

disc 1. Feature film -- disc 2. Supplements.

Technical Details:

DVD, NTSC, region 1, widescreen.

Personal Subject:

Falstaff, John, Sir (Fictitious character)-Drama.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Film adaptations.

Geographic Term:

Great Britain -- History -- Henry IV, 1399-1413 -- Drama.

Great Britain -- History -- Henry V, 1413-1422 -- Drama.