A successful Shakespeare adaptation done by the British during the War. The colors and shooting style show how realistic life has become in the 1940’s in terms of how its portrayed on screen. People look less flat there is more detail in their movement almost bringing you closer to the reality of the world beyond the screen.
I generally hate Shakespeare adaptations though so this film was still difficult for me to watch. There is very interesting use of the camera. The angles are very well crafted and Olivier seems to be utilizing a technique used by many directors of the time of starting on a close up of an object and then dollying back and slightly off-axis to reveal the characters and the room.
The use of the Z axis and movement backwards is becoming ingrained in film language as it wasn’t before. The camera is moving through the use of a crane to achieve this more three dimensional movement. We're no longer just dollying left to right or up and down the length of a room to follow actors. The camera is now performing storytelling by starting on objects that don't move and moving us as the viewer to see the room, or another object or finally a person as they relate to the object. The director is really giving you the pieces of story information one at a time through this camera technique.