Free Folger Friday: Chimes at Midnight (2019)

Free Folger Friday: Chimes at Midnight, one of the Talks and Screenings at the Folger, was held in the Elizabethan Theatre on Friday, September 20, 2019 at 6:00pm.

At this event, Dr. Michael Anderegg invited audiences to take a closer look at Orson Welles’ classic 1965 film, Chimes at Midnight, alongside Folger Theatre's production of 1 Henry IV.

Regarded as one of Welles’ highest achievements, Chimes zooms in on Sir John Falstaff’s relationship with Prince Hal, who wrestles with his loyalty between Falstaff and his father, King Henry IV. The script for the movie utilizes text from five of Shakespeare’s plays, primarily Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.

Michael Anderegg is professor emeritus of English at the University of North Dakota. His books include Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture (1999), Cinematic Shakespeare (2004), and Lincoln and Shakespeare (2015). He wrote an essay for the recent Criterion Blue-Ray release of Chimes at Midnight and was interviewed for the forthcoming Olive Films Blue-Ray of Macbeth.