Thursday, August 14, 2008

Shakespeare at the Olympics

Love’s Labour’s Lost. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh and Alessandro Nivola. 2000. DVD. Miramax, 2000.

Ethel Merman meets Dawn Fraser in this Shakespearean tribute to the Olympics.

Actually, I suppose it's a long way to go, but sweatervestboy's post, coupled with Olympic Fever, reminded me of this scene from Branagh's film adaptation of Love’s Labour’s Lost. The progression from Olympics to Synchronized Swimming to Branagh to Love’s Labour’s Lost to Shakespeare is a long one, but the fact that they're singing Irving Berlin's "No Strings (I'm Fancy Free)" connects us back to Shakespeare because . . . um . . . Shakespeare uses the word "romancy" in his sonnets? Or because Oberon describes the "Imperial votaress" as "fancy-free" in Act II, scene i of A Midsummer Night's Dream? Well, I'm sure there's a reason somewhere. Just enjoy it.



Links: Sweatervestboy's blog.

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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
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