SQUUEEEEEE!!!

[timepiececlock]

Watched Acts 4 & 5 of Hamlet over late morning & lunch.

I love this movie.

This will be on my list as soon as the DVD is released.



I loved the scene over Ophelia's grave. I love the pretty eyes of the guy who plays Fortinbras whose name I can never remember. I loved the acting of the man who played Laertes. I loved Robin Williams as the smarmy & overexcited courtier. I loved this whole thing. What a pretty film.

Also, I really like this play. So, so much better than King Lear.


Also, a quix. Gacked from...er.... someone.


Lucius Malfoy


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Comments

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

Also, I really like this play. So, so much better than King Lear.

Hurray!

I thought I was the only one!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I don't think you are. I saw KL performed live last weekend (or was it the week before?). I've read both books now. Definitely think Hamlet is better. For one, I didn't like hardly anyone in KL. I'm much more sympathetic to the characters in Hamlet, because there's fewer "evil" characters and more that fall into grey area.

[girlwithjournal.livejournal.com]

It's all about Macbeth, people.

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

There is a an argument for Macbeth, but I'm sticking with Hamlet. Can we all agree on Othello not being very good though?

[girlwithjournal.livejournal.com]

Eh, although it would never be my first choice, I like Othello. Highly dislike Romeo and Juliet, though - it belongs to the "all the problems would be taken care of if all the characters weren't idiots" school of drama. Drives me crazy.

Re:

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

Romeo and Juliet? I hate the w\y the best character dies in act 3..nd your right. The chracters are idiots!

Othello always seemed like a really bad episode of a soap opera for me.

[girlwithjournal.livejournal.com]

Mercutio all the way, baby!

And yeah, Othello kind of is like a bad soap opera, but it's a fun bad soap opera. I like Iago's mind games.

Re:

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

Ah but Iago is sort of my problem with it. Hes just EVIL with no real motivation (I find it diffcult to buy that he does all that out of Jealously. Unless he was Gore Vidal but I digress). He seems to be a villian just for the sheer hell of it!

[girlwithjournal.livejournal.com]

I remember when I studied Othello in class, there was a lot of dithering over Iago's "motivation" - I agree with you that it's pretty thin, but again, I think that's half the fun. Unrepentant evil just for the sake of evil? In a fictional world, that can be a real kick. Which is probably part of the reason I tend to enjoy Angelus more than Angel...

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[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

I tend to enjoy Angelus more than Angel...

Nothing to do with the infamous leather pants?

Well, what can I say, I guess I hold Shakespeare to a higher standard than I hold Mutant Enemy (No offense guys..).

[girlwithjournal.livejournal.com]

Nothing to do with the infamous leather pants?

LOL. Not really, actually. There must be something wrong with me.

I guess I hold Shakespeare to a higher standard than I hold Mutant Enemy (No offense guys..).

Yes, but ME gets far more of my ire...

Re:

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

Well thats fair enough!

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

And isn't Cordelia the most annoying character ever?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

yeah, she was very blah. I still can figure out her reason for being so obstinant to Lear's request in the first place. I suggested that maybe she answered taht way because she was being snotty and she was mad at her father for asking her in such a compliment-fishing manner about her love. I would have been annoyed if my dad asked me that way too.

But my teacher assures me that wasn't the case, and the version I saw acted out supported my teacher.

Basically, she was a non-character who was silly.

Also, I spent the entire last act of the play wondering "Where the hell is the King of France?" His armies were invading and his wife and father in law were taken prisoner... and yet he was no where to be found. Not even one scene after he marries Cordelia.

Re:

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

Well I was alway read Cordelia as being to honest for her own good, and yes Obstinate. She could have just lied to shut the old guy up (although his initail plan is still so insane it would end badly). Lear had almost certainly decieded which daughter was getting what anyway, so all she has to do is indulge Him! But no shes all "unable to heave my heart" and no "glib and oilly tongue". Foolish mortal!

The King of France was held up by the fact he had a french army (i.e. Useless)! Seriously though, I am not sure how audeince s back in Shakespeares day would have reacted to a play showing the french invading on screen and as the good guys! I think thats why he kept them off stage.

Just another reason why the play is actually really silly! The orignal legend works, becaue, well in legends people do silly things (after all they are just to illustrate a point!). But the play...give Me Hamlet any day!

[leslina.livejournal.com]

Kenneth Branaugh is fantastic, Emma Thompson was an idiot for leaving him. Although I enjoy his Shakespearan commedies better (Much Ado About Nothing etc), he does well with the tragedies (Hamlet, Othello). Though I highly recommend Henry V. I must have seen it well over a dozen times.

Oh, about King Lear, hehe, if you don't mind Japanese films, there is a great take on that story. It's called Ran by the famed and late director Akira Kurosawa. One of my fave top ten films bar none. I definitely enjoyed this rendition of the Shakespearan play so much more than the actual play its self.

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

hm... I've heard of the movie "Ran" before. I didn't realize it was taken after Shakespeare though. I'll keep an eye out for it.

As far as japanese films, I really want to see Ringu. I just don't know how though.

[leslina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ran is a classic and not only does it have elements of KL but of McBeth as well and I think a hodge podge of other Shakespeare plays, but KL and McBeth are the most prelevant. It totally kicks ass. You should be able to find it at most local video rental places.

Ringu is pretty creepy. Last years The Ring was totally ripped from it. If you can't find it at your local video store's foreign film section, try China Town (loads of boot leg copies) or www.getvcd.com or www.yesasia.com

Ringu

[leslina.livejournal.com]

gomen...Ringu is only available in R2 DVD so I recommend either amazon.uk, play or any of those places if you got a region free player, otherwise... China Town and boot leg copies ^_~

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Last years The Ring was totally ripped from it.

I don't think it was "ripped" so much as a deliberate remake. Everything I read about The Ring said that outright that they were making an american version of the film. Someone probably had to pay for it.

[leslina.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was "ripped" so much as a deliberate remake.

What I meant, only not so diplomatically ^,^''.

The American version wasn't so bad actually. Though most people I know had mixed reactions too it. I enjoyed it for the most part. It was just as creepy as the Japanese original and similar in production in many ways (pace etc).

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen either. Most of what I've read has said that the japanese version was scarier at the end, but that the American version was a welldone remake of if.