I've taught Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing in my Shakespeare and Film class nearly every year. But I somehow failed to realize that the screenplay was availble.
Monday, January 30, 2023
Book Note: Much Ado About Nothing: Kenneth Branagh's Screenplay
I've taught Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing in my Shakespeare and Film class nearly every year. But I somehow failed to realize that the screenplay was availble.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
A Return to Prospero's Books—with LaserDisc Technology!
I haven't written about Peter Greenaway's remarkable film Prospero's Books since 2008 (you can find the links to those posts at the end of this post). In all those years, I've been waiting patiently for an official DVD—or even (be still, my beating heart) a Blu-ray—to come out. But to no avail. And I know that all the DVDs for sale out there are dubs of the VHS (and probably illegal).
Links: The Film at IMDB. Previous Posts on Bardfilm about Prospero's Books: "The Granddaddy of Modern Tempests," "The Odd, Layered Opening of Prospero's Books," "The Odd, Layered Closing of Prospero's Books."
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
King James the First in Doctor Who
As I noted recently, I haven't been watching Doctor Who that much. But I feel the need to be culturally literate, so I've slogged on to see what it's like to have a female doctor.
Friday, January 20, 2023
The Joel Coen Macbeth
These are a few scattered thoughts on the Joel Coen Macbeth with Denzel Washington, together with a bemoaning of subscription streaming service Shakespeare.
The film's portrayal of the Wëird Sisters (or, really, Sister) is also very interesting. Conflated into one (but sometimes presented as three), the Wëird Sister—played astonishingly well by Kathryn Hunter) goes through all sorts of contortions and transformations that ally her with the crows encircling the battlefields. I want to avoid using bootlegged clips of the film (see my point above), but a quick search of the internet will enable you to find some.
Links: The Film at IMDB.
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
A Rare Typo in an Arden Edition
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Kenneth Muir. Arden Shakespeare. Second Series. London: Routledge, 1972.
Shakespeare, William. The Parallel King Lear: 1608-1623. Prepared by Michael Warren. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
In re-reading King Lear once more, I was working through Lear's speech on the heath when he has encountered Edgar, who is disguised as Poor Tom. And something struck me as odd . . . unusual . . . unfamiliar.
Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Two Quotes from Macbeth in an Episode of Doctor Who
Well, that didn't take long! I was just complaining (mildly, to be fair) that an Agincourt reference in a Doctor Who episode didn't bring in any Shakespeare. Just a few episodes later, the Doctor quotes from Macbeth in an episode about sleep (and the lack thereof).
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast. (II.ii.34–37)
Links: The Episode at IMDB.
Monday, December 5, 2022
A Henry V–Adjacent Moment in Doctor Who
I'll admit that I haven't kept up with my Doctor Who. I lost interest somewhere in Series Seven. And I haven't really recovered it. But I've had some episodes on in the background while doing other things, and that enabled me to notice a brief reference to the Battle of Agincourt.
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Shakespeare in Hee Haw
You may be asking why I, a Shakespeare and film blogger of some repute (no, I didn't say what kind of repute) and a Shakespeare scholar who is highly respected (quiet down there, you in the back, or I'll send you out in the hall) am watching a show from the 1970s that is full of corny jokes (literarily corny some of the time—they were often delivered in a corn field) and country bumpkin stereotypes.
Links: The Episode at IMDB.
Monday, November 14, 2022
Art Note: John Everett Millais's Ophelia
There is a willow grows askant the brookThat shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream.Therewith fantastic garlands did she make.. . . . . .[Then she] fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up,Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds . . . .. . . . . .. . . But long it could not beTill that her garments, heavy with their drinkPull’d the poor wretch from her melodious layTo muddy death. (IV.vii.165ff, passim)
That might not be a change from Millais’ painting, but it is a decision that an artist in film made based on the vision of an artist in paint. And it matters! It matters because Millais’ painting is a snapshot—the same way Gertrude’s speech is a snapshot. Notice that (despite my paraphrase) Gertrude doesn’t say “She died.” She says “But long it could not be . . .” She’s holding Ophelia in an indeterminate position. She’s still alive, and she won’t be alive long, and it won’t be long until she’s not alive . . . but she’s not actually declared dead in Gertrude’s speech. Gertrude just says “long it could not be till . . . death.”
Millais is doing the same. We don’t know which way the brook flows because it doesn’t matter in Millais. He wants us to have the suspense of the alternatives. Ophelia becomes a Schrödinger’s cat of sorts. In Schrödinger’s thought experiment, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive. It has to do with the uncertainty principle and quantum physics—and you can find someone better qualified to explain it to you. But in terms of art, we have Ophelia simultaneously dead and alive in this painting.
In the same way, we don’t know whether Ophelia is singing. She could be singing—or we could imaging her mouth being open to take her very last breath.
In the Olivier film, Ophelia floats past the camera (feetfirst, from right to left, in black and white). Then the camera pans to catch up with her, and we just see some garlands floating downstream and under the water. Olivier can’t stop the film—he has to go on to tell the rest of the story. Millais has the . . . shall we call it a luxury? Millais has the luxury to show us one slice of Ophelia’s life without reaching the conclusion—however inevitable that conclusion will be.
Links: The Painting at Tate Britain.
Thursday, September 8, 2022
One More Calvin & Hobbes & Shakespeare
Remember when Robin Williams gave us some Shakespeare-esque language in Mork and Mindy (for which, q.v.)? Here, Bill Waterson does the same.
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Calvin, Hobbes, and Lear
I've often complained that Bill Watterson doesn't work enough Shakespeare in to his Calvin and Hobbes comic.
He does cover the "To be or not to be" soliloquy" (for which, q.v.), but not much else.
But what do you think of this one? It seems like a pretty clear allusion to King Lear—including the "Off, off, you lendings! come unbutton here" of Act III, scene iv.
Let's tune in to see what happens (click on the image below to enlarge it).
Friday, August 12, 2022
A Little Touch of Harry in 30 Rock
The last time I wrote about 30 Rock, it was for the Macbeth (for which, q.v.). At that point, I didn't know much about the show at all. But I've been recently making my way through the entire brilliant, clever, compelling series.
Links: The Episode at IMDB.
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Book Note: Midsummer Knight
When we last saw our ursine hero at the end of The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard (for which, q.v.) he was drifting down the Thames—out of danger, but also out of the eponymous Boy's life.
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
—The Tempest