---
title: 'King Lear (1987)'
type: 'film'
director: 'Jean-Luc Godard'
released: '1987-01-01'
runtime_minutes: 90
genres:
  - 'Drama'
countries:
  - 'France'
  - 'United States'
canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/movies/king-lear-1987'
review_count: 0
imdb: 'https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093349/'
publisher: 'CinePixo'
---

# King Lear (1987)

1987 · 90 min · Drama · France, United States


## Synopsis

King Lear is a 1987 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard and produced by Cannon Films, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play in the avant-garde style of French New Wave cinema. The script was originally assigned to Norman Mailer but Mailer's text was not used. The working script was written by Godard, assisted by Peter Sellars and Tom Luddy. It is not a typical cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's eponymous tragedy, although some lines from the play are used in the film. Only three characters – Lear, Cordelia and Edgar – are common to both, and only Act I, scene 1, is given a conventional cinematic treatment in that two or three people actually engage in relatively meaningful dialogue.

## Credits

- **Producer:** [Menahem Golan](https://cinepixo.com/people/menahem-golan), [Yoram Globus](https://cinepixo.com/people/yoram-globus)
- **Screenplay:** [Norman Mailer](https://cinepixo.com/people/norman-mailer), [Jean-Luc Godard](https://cinepixo.com/people/jean-luc-godard)
- **Director:** [Jean-Luc Godard](https://cinepixo.com/people/jean-luc-godard)
- **Editor:** [Jean-Luc Godard](https://cinepixo.com/people/jean-luc-godard)
- **Director of Photography:** [Sophie Maintigneux](https://cinepixo.com/people/sophie-maintigneux)

## Cast

- [Julie Delpy](https://cinepixo.com/people/julie-delpy) as Virginia
- [Woody Allen](https://cinepixo.com/people/woody-allen) as Mr. Alien
- [Tom Luddy](https://cinepixo.com/people/tom-luddy) as himself
- [Kate Mailer](https://cinepixo.com/people/kate-mailer) as Cordelia
- [Burgess Meredith](https://cinepixo.com/people/burgess-meredith) as Don Learo
- [Peter Sellars](https://cinepixo.com/people/peter-sellars) as William Shakespeare Jr. the Fifth
- [Menahem Golan](https://cinepixo.com/people/menahem-golan) as himself
- [Norman Mailer](https://cinepixo.com/people/norman-mailer) as Lear
- [Molly Ringwald](https://cinepixo.com/people/molly-ringwald) as Cordelia
- [Freddy Buache](https://cinepixo.com/people/freddy-buache) as Grigori Kozintsev
- [Michèle Pétin](https://cinepixo.com/people/michele-petin) as Journalist
- [Suzanne Lanza](https://cinepixo.com/people/suzanne-lanza) as a goblin
- [Leos Carax](https://cinepixo.com/people/leos-carax) as Edgar
- [Jean-Luc Godard](https://cinepixo.com/people/jean-luc-godard) as himself/Professor Pluggy

## Criticism on CinePixo

No reviews published yet.

Source: https://cinepixo.com/movies/king-lear-1987
Film facts: Wikidata (Q2707428); synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reviews, themes and notes are the work of this site's members.