Chimes at Midnight

Tuesday, October 30 - Thursday, November 1, 2018

“The crowning achievement of Orson Welles’s extraordinary cinematic career, Chimes at Midnight was the culmination of the filmmaker’s lifelong obsession with Shakespeare’s ultimate rapscallion, Sir John Falstaff. Usually a comic supporting figure, Falstaff—the loyal, often soused friend of King Henry IV’s wayward son Prince Hal—here becomes the focus: a robustly funny and ultimately tragic screen antihero played by Welles with looming, lumbering grace. Integrating elements from both Henry IV plays as well as Richard II, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, Welles created a gritty and unorthodox Shakespeare film as a lament, he said, “for the death of Merrie England.” Poetic, philosophical, and visceral—with a kinetic centerpiece battle sequence that rivals anything in the director’s body of work—Chimes at Midnight is as monumental as the figure at its heart.” – Criterion Collection

Screening as part of our retrospective series “Directed by Orson Welles,” from Oct 26 through Nov 1.

• Country Spain/Switzerland
• Year 1965
• Running Time 115 minutes
• Distributor Janus
• Director Orson Welles
• Writer William Shakespeare (plays), Raphael Holinshed (book), Orson Welles (screenplay)
• Editor Fritz Muller, Elena Jaumandreu, Peter Parasheles
• Cinematographer Edmond Richard
• Cast Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John Gielgud

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.