Sightlines · reception
How Titus was received
1999 · Julie Taymor · Titus on Sightlines
The arc
A box-office bomb with baffled, split reviews in 1999, it's since been reclaimed as one of the boldest Shakespeare films ever made — the 'they don't make them like this' pick for maximalist Shakespeare on screen.
What’s debated
The eternal fight: visionary operatic genius or exhausting style-over-substance excess — with a side debate over whether it redeems Shakespeare's most disreputable play or proves it unstageable.
Its footprint
Its ancient-Rome-meets-Mussolini-era-fascism aesthetic (shot around Rome's EUR district and Cinecittà) is the endlessly screenshotted thing — Alan Cumming's decadent emperor look alone keeps it circulating on film Twitter and Letterboxd.
Where it stands
A true cult object — a Letterboxd deep-cut favorite that Shakespeare-on-film people press on you as a 'you have to see this,' while remaining largely unknown to everyone else.
Did you know? It was Julie Taymor's feature debut, made straight off her Tony-winning Broadway triumph with The Lion King — and its only Oscar nomination went to Milena Canonero's costumes.