Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Bollywood Macbeth

Maqbool. Dir. Vishal Bharadwaj. Perf. Irfan Khan and Tabu. 2003. DVD. Music Today, 2004.

Vast, immeasurable amounts of work have prevented me from posting as often as I'd like (though, perhaps, still too often for your tastes) this month. I thought I'd try to get out of the habit of not positing by concentrating for a while on Macbeth. Although I'm not sure how long I can keep it up—indeed, I am in I am in grading stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er—I can but try. I dare do all that may become a blogger; who dares do more is none.

With that, we have a short clip from the Bollywood version of the play: Maqbool.



Note: For more, click here.

Links: The Film at IMDB.
Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Shakespeare in Asia—on Shakespeare's Birthday!

Shakespeare Performance in Asia. MIT Shakespeare Electronic Archive. 23 April 2009 {URL}.
Today is Shakespeare's birthday—and the day he died—and St. George's Day—and I didn't think that I could pass it up, even though I haven't been able to post for a month due to crazybusyoverwhelmingitis.

Fortunately, I recently learned of a marvelous resource that is worth telling you about: The Shakespeare Performance in Asia website. Shakespeare in Asian has been an interest of mine for a decade or so; my favorite film on the subject is A Dream in Hanoi (for which, q.v.). The website lists it—and many, many more Shakespeare-in-Asia-related materials.

In any case, Happy Birthday, Shakespeare! Age still cannot wither you, nor custom stale your infinite variety!

Cheers!
Links: Shakespeare Performance in Asia
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.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

—The Tempest