My favorite part of this clip was the section of Richard's speech that takes place in a men's room. Richard's opening monologue is broken into two parts- the first is given to the assembled cast as a victory proclamation, while the second is just for us, his audience, as Richard starts to muse on claiming the throne. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that this iconic monologue has never before been delivered at a urinal. By emphasizing the stark contrast between public and private, we get to see how Richard uses words to achieve his ends, plays public conversations off of private meetings- in short, his easy duplicity.
Hodgdon goes into great detail about this scene, especially how it contrasts with McKellan's stage performance. "Dressed in an impeccable military greatcoat with regimental red
tabs, his deformity masked by a perfectly tailored fit, he walked
slowly forward, his limp barely perceptible, and stood at attention to
address the audience in clipped Sandhurst tones." This Richard hides what is grotesque and deformed in what is upright and regimented, enforcing his prowess as a soldier. We see a similar public entrance in the movie, but we also get to see the private side- Richard struggling to zip up his fly, maneuvering his deformed arm into place, washing up with one hand.
This scene put me in mind of Bernstein's distinction between objects and things. Before this scene, Richard's jacket and pants are just objects- costume pieces denoting his rank and position. But Richard has to deal with his clothes- and his own body- he performs a dance of maintaining his own structured appearance, and we see that it is a difficult, time-consuming task. Like the cook who cuts himself on his knife, the costume has "leapt up and asserted itself, a thing that demands to be reckoned with".
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