GERMANY: Vanessa Redgrave Gerard Butler and Ralph Fiennes walk the red carpet at world premiere of "Coriolanus" at Berlin film festival

Record ID: 219936

  • Title: GERMANY: Vanessa Redgrave Gerard Butler and Ralph Fiennes walk the red carpet at world premiere of "Coriolanus" at Berlin film festival
  • Date: 15th February 2011
  • Summary: CAMERA MONITOR SHOWING BUTLER (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'CORIOLANUS' ACTOR GERARD BUTLER, SAYING: "Well after saying all this about Shakespeare, I think one of the great moments is me fighting Ralph Fiennes. It is a very homo-erotic fight, but it is a very unusual fight. But to honest the movie just gets stronger and stronger and stronger, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph, the performances are really exceptional." WIDE OF RED CARPET WITH BUTLER GIVING INTERVIEW
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany, Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA3XL5VJ7TE990G41IJH7R2CS5E
  • Story Text: The Berlin film festival turned British on Monday night with Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave and Gerard Butler walking the red carpet for the world permiere of the Shakespeare film "Coriolanus". The modern-shaped screen-adaption is Fiennes' debut as a director and runs in competition at the Berlinale.
    "To be here after, I think it is four years now since we started, to be here tonight is fantastic", Fiennes told Reuters at the red carpet.
    Hollywood star Butler said, he appreciated the chance to play alongside Fiennes and being directed by him.
    "I have done some big fun, whether it was an action movie or a romantic comedy. It is nice to do that, but than it is nice to do these festival films, things that have some intelligence, you know, some kudos to them. So I worked with a great cast, it is a Shakespeare movie, I am so proud of the work," Butler said and added: "I think one of the great moments is me fighting Ralph Fiennes. It is a very homo-erotic fight, but it is a very unusual fight."
    Fiennes, who also produced the film himself, provides a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's 17th century tale of a renegade Roman general. "Coriolanus" is a hard-hitting tragedy about the legendary 5th century BC Roman general but set in the 21st century and its tense inner city battle scenes were filmed in Belgrade.
    The general, a heroic military leader played by Fiennes, falls out with Rome after a misguided switch into politics. The film also stars Vanessa Redgrave as his pushy mother and Gerald Butler as his nemesis.
    Wearing modern combat gear and uniforms, the general is ultimately banished from Rome and switches allegiances to support his erstwhile enemy Tullus Aufidius, played by Butler, to extract revenge on Rome.
    The film is set against the backdrop of a country caught up in an economic crisis and long war with the masses -- clad in 21st century clothes -- enraged by food shortages and inequality, timeless ingredients for tension.
    Coriolanus is one of the 16 films competing for the Berlinale's top Golden and Silver Bear awards. The festival, one of the world's most important, runs to February 20.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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