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When Lear finally falls out of the frame leaving a screen of apocalyptic white, Brook correlates �death� with being out-of-frame: this depiction of mankind�s �nothingness� is a deliberately ambiguous note to conclude on. Like the Fool, the audience can choose to recognise our alleged absurdity and so possibly be liberated from the illusionary or reject such a point-of-view. In an observation that could be just as much about his own King Lear, Brook observed that: [Beckett] does not say �no� with satisfaction; he forges his merciless �no� out of a longing for �yes� and so his despair is a negative from which the contour of its opposite can be drawn . Brook creates his own �no� within the opening line of his film. It embodies both mans� nothingness and the need to recognise this. But his film�s conscious deconstruction of itself encourages the audience to engage and struggle with the �truth� of his interpretation rather than blithely except it . As with Beckett�s work, an audience can draw �the contour of [King Lear�s] opposite�. When Lear�s eyes travel up the frame just before death, Brook posed the question: �does he see Cordelia�s spirit or is this a final madness� . Poignantly, he concluded that �we can never know�, and this open-endedness supports the conclusion that Brook was more interested in provoking thought among his audiences than simply imposing his own ideological perspective upon them.

	Bibliography: Beckett, Samuel. The Complete Dramatic Works London: Faber & Faber, 1986 Boose, Lynda and Burt, Richard ed. Shakespeare: The Movie Routledge: London, 1997 Howard, Tony. �When Peter Met Orson: The 1953 CBS King Lear� 121-134 Brook, Peter. The Empty Space Penguin: London, 1968 Brook, Peter. Evoking (& Forgetting!) Shakespeare Nick Hern Books: London, 2002 Cookson, Laura and Longluen, Bryan, ed. Longman Critical Essays: King Lear Longman Books: London, 1992 Cheetham, Paul. �The Theology of King Lear� 55-64 Saunders, John. �Two different ways of looking at the end of King Lear� 120-132 Davies, Anthony and Wells, Stanley ed. Shakespeare and the Moving Image CUP: London, 1994 Davies, Anthony. �Shakespeare on Film and TV: A Retrospect� 1-17 Holland, Peter. �Two-Dimensional Shakespeare: King Lear on Film� 50-68 Rothwell, Kenneth S. �Representing King Lear on Screen� 211-231 Donaldson, Peter. Shakespearean Film / Shakespearean Directors Unwin: CUP, 1996 Greenblatt, Stephen ed. The Norton Shakespeare W.W.Norton & Company: London, 1997 Jackson, Russell ed. Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film CUP: Cambridge 2000 Jackson, Russell. �From play-script to screenplay� 15-34 Gunter, J. Lawrence. �Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear on film� 117-134 Sokolyansky, Mark. �Grigori Kozontsev�s Hamlet and King Lear� 199-211 Jorgens, Jack. Shakespeare on Film Indiana University Press: London, 1977 Kott, Jan. Shakespeare our Contemporary Methuen: London, 1965 Manvell, Robert. Shakespeare and the Film OUP: London, 1968 Morris, Helen. Blackwell Notes on English Literature: King Lear Basil Blackwell: Oxford, 1965 Muir, Kenneth. Shakespeare�s King Lear: A Critical Study Penguin: London, 1986 Nelmes, Jill ed. An Introduction to Film Studies Routledge: London, 1996 Peters, Simon. Notes on Artaud & The Theatre of Cruelty. Methuen: London, 1985 Rutter, Carol C. Enter the Body Routledge: London, 2001 Wells, Stanley. Shakespeare: A Dramatic Life Sinclair-Stevenson: London, 1994 Wells, Stanley. King Lear: Interactive Resource CD-ROM Cromwell Productions Ltd: London, 2000 Willet, John and Manheim, Ralph ed. Brecht: Collected Works: Volume 2 London: Methuen , 1979. Filmography: Breathless. Dir. Jean Luc Godard. Perf. Jean Seberg, Jean Paul Belmondo. Studio Canal, 1959. DVD. King Lear. Dir. Peter Brook. Perf. Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, Susan Engel, Anelise Gabold, Alan Webb. Filmways, London, 1969. Videocassette.

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