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CIFF: StringCaesar

By Steven Pate in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 10, 2012 9:15PM

2012_10_10_stringcaesar.jpg This is part of Chicagoist's coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival.

We believed ourselves predisposed to get the most out of StringCaesar, an unusual depiction of the life of young Julius Caesar as told in three working prisons: Poolsmoor in Cape Town, South Africa; Cardiff Prison in Wales; and Brotherhood Lodge Penitentiary in Alberta, Canada. (One of the non-principal onscreen roles is played by prisoners themselves.) From poring over The Gallic War in second-year Latin many, many moons ago to relishing CiarĂ¡n Hinds’ embodiment of the dictator in the recent HBO series, we have always had an appetite for depictions of the Roman leader.

Despite the audacity of its real-life prison setting, Paul Schoolman’s ambitious production goes too many directions at once, leaving the end result spread too thin to make its mark. Even after our ears adjusted to the pace of the florid dialogue—the lines delivered by the likes of heavyweight Derek Jacobi and Royal Shakespeare Company alum and Borg Queen of Star Trek fame Alice Krige belie the film’s claim to have “nothing” to do with the Bard’s take—there wasn't enough continuity among characters and location for us to feel at home. The “string” part of “StringCaesar” refers to string theory’s implication of multiple universes, each with its own laws of physics, but all those strings make the narrative thread too hard to hold.

There are undoubtedly some interesting moments, as the real-life criminals in these notorious prisons interact with the professional actors and with the text, and both Jacobi's Sulla and John Kani's Marius in particular have their powerful moments. The feature serves better as a document to a bold theatrical experience than as a film in its own right, however.

StringCaesar screens on Friday, Oct. 19 at 8:45 p.m. with director Paul Schoolman scheduled to attend ($14/$11 discount); Sunday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. with director Paul Schoolman and producer Alice Krige scheduled to attend ($14/$11 discount); and Monday, Oct. 22 at 2 p.m. with director Paul Schoolman scheduled to attend ($5).