I'm so disillusioned

I have long had a pet theory that Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench, and Dame Maggie Smith were never young. Don't get me wrong, I understand that unless they are in some way biologically on the level of Confucius this is physically impossible; yet, no matter how old the movie is that I have hitherto seen, they are always already old. Perhaps some sort of transformation overtakes them/you when you're knighted and damed? But in the past week in doing my Shakespeare and Film homework I have found this not to be so. Last Friday there was the RSC Macbeth and this Friday Sir Laurence Olivier's Othello. I am so disillusioned.

Here's a thought on the Othellos I've watched thus far. Both the Welles and Olivier versions have these famous men acting in blackface. I guess its my youth, but this seems a little odd to me. Surely that would not fly so well today. If, say, Mel Gibson decided he wanted to do one of his crazy and intensive films of Othello where he produces, directs, and acts people would object, wouldn't they? Even Kenneth Branagh defered to playing Iago instead of "the Moor." But I do find many of Olivier's mannerisms quite interesting. This is a very different portrayal than his Hamlet. I liked Welles Othello better than his Macbeth, but I expect it may be because I had to fight so hard to stay awake during Macbeth (more indicative of the kind of week I'd had than the quality of his production). Derek Jacobi is in the Olivier Othello (I think I'm going to begin keeping a tally of which actors have cropped up in my various versions of Shakespeare movies this semester: Olivier 2, Welles 2, Jacobi 2, Branagh--and most of his cast--2, Dench 2) and does a good job, but has a horrible wig. I don't know who plays that Iago, but I thought he was most excellent.

Finally, it is still really weird for me to see Ian McKellen kissing Judi Dench (a lot), and Maggie Smith kissing Laurence Olivier. So, so wrong.