Reselling the Drama

Interview: Michael Radford

by Cindy Fuchs

Though his Merchant of Venice is set in 16th-century Venice, Michael Radford resisted what he calls "the traditional image of people in baggy tights, reciting a dead text," trying to remain true to the history of the place — the anti-Semitism, the poor hygiene, and the canals as the primary mode of transportation for the affluent.

He also underlined the characters' complexities ("They're violent, cruel, obnoxious, and at times, incredibly sympathetic"), focused through the "deep love" between Antonio (Jeremy Irons) and Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes). Radford laughs. "Jeremy always ticks me off and says, "No, no, it's just a deep friendship,' but if you don't have that relationship, then the whole of Portia's battle with Antonio for Bassanio doesn't exist." Radford takes Antonio's abject loneliness, especially on hearing that his friend wants to marry Portia, a step farther: "You can see him sort of despising of the Jewish minority as [a result of] belonging to a minority in his own right."

Such nuances of reading are possible not only because, as Radford insists, Shakespeare's intentions are unknowable, but because images can connote in ways different from language. "The camera is there to help you, you don't have to explain everything," he notes. "The trick is to keep what's necessary to advance the plot and to be very firm with the rest of it. The moment the plot starts to creak, you've got to get on with it."

To this end, he had his actors underplay, including Al Pacino as Shylock. The play is all about possessing and acting, he says, achieving power by owning and deceiving. When Portia plays a male lawyer, Radford observes, "She suddenly understands what it is. She becomes more of a man than the men. In that last scene, she takes them apart." Her husband, too, has much to learn: Though Bassanio ostensibly chooses love over wealth (symbolized by the lead casket), he is, says Radford, "marrying Portia for her money. One of my favorite lines is when he tells Portia that he owes 3,000 ducats. Well, 3,000 ducats is $750,000, and she says, "Is that all?' My goodness me, this girl is rich!"