Friday, February 27, 2009

Meryl Streep as Katherine; Raul Julia as Petruchio

Kiss me, Petruchio. Dir. Christopher Dixon. Perf. Meryl Streep and Raul Julia. 1981. Videocassette. Films, Inc., 1983.
This film is another one that falls into the "you-never-know-what-you'll-find-in-the-videocassette-section-of-your-library category." This film is more of a documentary than anything else, but it has a few scenes from the show itself. I'm particularly fond of the over-the-top entrance of Katherine, showing her stomping on the flowers just for the sheer meanness of it.

The documentary also has a few clips of the actors attempting to articulate the vision of love they find in The Taming of the Shrew—rather successfully, as a matter of fact.

Notes: Raul Julia played Kalibanos in Paul Mazursky's Tempest. Meryl Streep is—well, she's Meryl Streep, and she's amazing, both in her acting and in her explication of the play. This production of the play was for the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1981.


Note: A total of four clips of this production are available on this blog: The First Clip, The Second Clip, The Third Clip, and The Fourth Clip.
Links: The Film at IMDB.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are so right! I didn't think I would ever find any of it! Thank you so much for uploading it! Do you have more?

kj said...

I do not have more at a present, though the response to this clip has been so gratifying that I may need to re-request the video from my library system.

Thanks for your comment!

kj

TCohen said...

Is it possible to get the whole play or documentary? I have been searching and cannot find it.

kj said...

I'm afraid the documentary has never been re-released; consequently, it's only available in the original 1983 videocassette release. But you could try to track it down at your local library--or at a college library near you.

Thanks for the inquiry!

kj

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