King Lear

Jean-Luc Godard’s first English-language narrative feature is a radical anti-adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece that finds the visionary filmmaker continuing to reinvent the syntax of cinema. In a post-Chernobyl world where culture has been lost, William Shakespeare Jr. V (played by theater director Peter Sellars) attempts to reconstruct his ancestor’s play, abetted by a cast that includes Molly Ringwald, Burgess Meredith, and Godard himself as a crazed avant savant. Through a dense layering of sounds, images, and ideas about everything from language to the economics of filmmaking to the very meaning of art in a ruined world, Godard fashions a puckish and profound metacinematic riddle to be endlessly analyzed, argued over, and savored.

United States, France
1987
90 minutes
Color
1.37:1
Spine #1249

Special Features

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 2K digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
Audio recording of the 1987 Cannes Film Festival press conference, featuring director Jean-Luc Godard
New interviews with Richard Brody, author of Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard; actor Molly Ringwald; and actor and coscreenwriter Peter Sellars
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by Brody

New cover by Eric Skillman

Coming soon, available Feb 11, 2025

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

DVD 1 Disc $23.96 SRP: $29.95

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 2K digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
Audio recording of the 1987 Cannes Film Festival press conference, featuring director Jean-Luc Godard
New interviews with Richard Brody, author of Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard; actor Molly Ringwald; and actor and coscreenwriter Peter Sellars
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by Brody

New cover by Eric Skillman