The first is the wedding banquet, at which Desdemona performs a bridal dance, and Othello, bewitched, replies by standing on the table and dancing some steps of his own, slow and sensual, with more than a dash of flamenco. Then they dance together, in a sort of quadrille, and others join in. If your knowledge of Othello doesn’t stretch to this scene, don’t be too ashamed: it’s not in the play.This is an Othello for the non-purist. The adapter-director, a boyish Englishman in baggy shorts called Oliver Parker, is a Shakespearian actor who knows the play well enough to be prepared to change it.

More than 60 per cent of the text has been dumped; a few bits have even been added. If the film fails, it won’t be for lack of nerve.Desdemona is played by Irene Jacob, luminous star of The Double Life of Veronique and Three Colours: Red. Iago is Kenneth Branagh, an apparently obvious choice with a twist – he has never played a villain in a major production The combination of the three is risky. Have you heard the one about the Anglo-Irishman, the American and the Swiss-Frenchwoman, playing two Venetians and a noble Moor?The differences between them run deeper than nationality Fishburne exudes sexuality, charisma and remoteness. Branagh, currently the world’s leading screen Shakespearian, oozes know-how, but also warmth – he’ll talk to anyone, even a journalist.

Jacob brings beauty and grace; she smiles a lot, and members of the crew smile back as they dab at her make-up and tweak her hair extensions. All fine actors, all aged between 29 and 35, they represent three varieties of stardom: the screen-filler, the supreme character actor, and the art-house princess.Earlier two men in suits were roaming the lower reaches of the castle, looking incongruous They turned out to be the production’s insurers. If they have done their job, their biggest individual premiums will be for Fishburne’s body, Branagh’s brain, and Jacob’s face.How the three of them play off each other, the location day-tripper has no way of telling. But a few things can be said with confidence about the finished film As well as historic, it will be handsome and topical The look is interesting. It is in period – 1570, just before the Battle of Lepanto – and therefore has Costume Drama written all over it. But it’s not like any other costume drama that comes to mind.