Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Taymor's Tempest as a Trophy: The Great Tempest Giveaway

The Tempest. Dir. Julie Taymor. Perf. Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Ben Whishaw, Reeve Carney, Felicity Jones, and Tom Conti. 2010. DVD. Miramax, 2011.

Thanks to the kindness of Disney Studios In-Home Entertainment, I have five copies of Julie Taymor's Tempest to give away. The last time I had a giveaway, readers were encouraged to compose haiku. This time, I'm just asking for you to provide your favorite quote from the play; I'll then draw five names randomly from those who submit and send Tempests to the winners. When I've determined the winners, I'll post their names and invite them to e-mail their addresses directly to me to claim their prizes.

Here, then, are the details of the competition:
  1. To be eligible for the drawing, you must submit a comment to this post containing your favorite line from The Tempest. If someone else has already submitted your favorite line, you may still submit it, though it would be more interesting if you gave us your second-favorite line.

  2. Comments must be posted before 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Friday, January 13, 2012 in order to be eligible for the competition.

  3. Shipping addresses must be within the United States. I apologize to readers from other countries, but I have to operate within a budget. Thank you for your understanding.

  4. One submission per person, please!

  5. Prizes left unclaimed after ten days will be distributed to others.

  6. My decision is final.

  7. Each winner must provide his or her own teapot in which to keep his or her copy of The Tempest (if desired).

  8. I reserve the right to add to this list of rules.
I'm eager to see what your favorite lines are! I'll put all the names in a hat—either a literal or an electronic one—over the weekend, determine the winners, and announce the outcome on Monday, January 16, 2012.

Note: The winners have been announced!

Links: The Film at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

    

8 comments:

Christopher said...

Ariel.
Your charm so strongly works 'em
That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.
Prospero.
Dost thou think so, spirit?
Ariel.
Mine would, sir, were I human.


This has become one of my most favorite passages from The Tempest. One of the raising question in The Tempest could arguably be what dose it mean to be human? Up to this point Prospero has been leading the islanders along in his plan. They are being punished for their evil deeds and wrongs by rough magic. It is here that Ariel comes in and reports to Prospero of the cast away's situation...your affections \Would become tender. This is one of the greatest moments for this movie, for it is here that we see Prospero change in the same way that he is striving to change others. He embraces nobility and virtue, he chooses to forgive instead instead of inflicting the full measure of justice.

This is the great turning point of the play. I love Prospero's character here, there is no rage nor anger only humbled enlightenment from a spirit he loves. It adds a great deal of power and catharsis. In the words and the way they are said we get to see Prospero completely change, he becomes the great ruler, one in no need of magic, one who has power over action, and rules by virtue.

CRS said...

I'll probably be disqualified for being so cliche, but I really do love this speech:

These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

B.K. said...

"Be not afeared, the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not:
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears: and sometimes voices,
That if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again, and then in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again."

Sapience said...

Prospero: My library was a dukedom large enough. (I.ii.109-110)

Becky Myers said...

A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Hehehe, you tell 'em, Shakespeare.

JuliaGiolzetti said...

Miranda: Alack, what trouble was I then to you!
Prospero: Oh, a cherubim!
Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile,
Infused with a fortitude from heaven.

Steve Hills said...

And mine shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet with my nobler reason 'gaitist my fury
Do I take part: the rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel:
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.

kj said...

The contest is now closed. Thanks to each one of you for participating!

Winners will be announced on Monday.

Take care!

kj

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