now that I am way behind everyone else
Things I do not want to do:
So instead I will return to the 30 Increasingly Non-Consecutive Days of Shakespeare meme. I know most people decided "adaptation" means "doesn't use Shakespeare's words," but I figure that if you completely rearrange two whole plays and stick in significant bits of other ones in a considerably different context, it counts as an adaptation in the way the question probably intended (all Shakespeare films are adaptations in one way or another!)
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
A couple of people listed this as their answer for Day 19 because it uses Shakespeare's text, but I am putting it here on the grounds that it uses a conflated text, and while it uses Shakespeare's words, it shifts the focus of the original. Of course, I am talking about Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight a Falstaff-centric remix of the Henry IVs (with a bit of Henry V, one speech from Richard II, and a little bit of The Merry Wives of Windsor which I have managed to spot before, but always forget where it is). This is not just my favorite Shakespeare movie but my favorite anything movie.
One of the tricky things about productions of the Henry IVs is that there is so much going on in them that they're easy to unbalance: occasionally you will see critics who talk about the plays' scope as unprecedented, and that no other early modern playwright mixes clowns and kings or whatever, and this just goes to show they don't read other Elizabethan history plays, and I think I talked about this the day I wrote about the Henry IVs earlier. *checks* I totally did, and people mostly just made fun of my phrasing. ANYWAY. Welles deals with it by recutting the plays so the emphasis is on the relationships between Falstaff, Hal, and Henry IV; I've read that Welles and the other principal actors approached this as a love triangle, and it's a tremendously well-done one -- and, I mean, hell, when two sides of the triangle are Orson Welles and John Gielgud, it really can't have it otherwise. And the film gives you a feel for the scope and the energy of the complete plays even where it's cut -- I think I knew I would love the movie when it got to the tremendously energetic scene between Hotspur (Norman Rodway) and Kate (Marina Vlady), all trumpets and running around, and occasional nekkid Hotspur ass. And the visuals throughout have a certain beautiful starkness to them; the shot of armed riders galloping past a forest of gibbets is one of the things that comes to my mind whenever I think of what the Henry IVs are about, and the battle of Shrewsbury is effectively nightmarish (those of you who have seen Branagh's Henry V will note the influence Chimes had on his version of Agincourt). The film was shot in Spain, in winter, on a shoestring budget, but the aesthetic suits the plays beautifully. Sometimes you can see the actors' breath when they talk.
The thing I love most about Chimes, though, is how nuanced and how poignant the relationships are -- Welles is a hilarious but also very intelligent Falstaff, who knows he's eventually going to be ditched by Keith Baxter's wonderfully conflicted Hal (probably my favorite Hal of all time; he's more successful than any other I've seen at making me believe he genuinely loves Falstaff and that there's something painful about cutting him off), who craves the approval of Gielgud's chilly yet quietly tormented Henry IV. The banishment scene at the end is utterly amazing: Falstaff on his knees, crushed, but also proud that Hal has grown up to be a take-no-shit king; Hal looking perfectly composed as he cuts off his old friend, but his voice shakes. It is so perfectly them that it hurts.
This is a little bit unhinged, but I started it ages ago and didn't want to abandon the meme, so whatever. Possibly I should watch Chimes at Midnight again; it's been way too long.
Day #1: Your favorite play
Day #2: Your favorite character
>Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line
- Grade papers
- Wash dishes or clean my fridge
- Post about What That Anniversary Means To Me
- Post about how totally depressed I've been lately
So instead I will return to the 30 Increasingly Non-Consecutive Days of Shakespeare meme. I know most people decided "adaptation" means "doesn't use Shakespeare's words," but I figure that if you completely rearrange two whole plays and stick in significant bits of other ones in a considerably different context, it counts as an adaptation in the way the question probably intended (all Shakespeare films are adaptations in one way or another!)
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
A couple of people listed this as their answer for Day 19 because it uses Shakespeare's text, but I am putting it here on the grounds that it uses a conflated text, and while it uses Shakespeare's words, it shifts the focus of the original. Of course, I am talking about Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight a Falstaff-centric remix of the Henry IVs (with a bit of Henry V, one speech from Richard II, and a little bit of The Merry Wives of Windsor which I have managed to spot before, but always forget where it is). This is not just my favorite Shakespeare movie but my favorite anything movie.
One of the tricky things about productions of the Henry IVs is that there is so much going on in them that they're easy to unbalance: occasionally you will see critics who talk about the plays' scope as unprecedented, and that no other early modern playwright mixes clowns and kings or whatever, and this just goes to show they don't read other Elizabethan history plays, and I think I talked about this the day I wrote about the Henry IVs earlier. *checks* I totally did, and people mostly just made fun of my phrasing. ANYWAY. Welles deals with it by recutting the plays so the emphasis is on the relationships between Falstaff, Hal, and Henry IV; I've read that Welles and the other principal actors approached this as a love triangle, and it's a tremendously well-done one -- and, I mean, hell, when two sides of the triangle are Orson Welles and John Gielgud, it really can't have it otherwise. And the film gives you a feel for the scope and the energy of the complete plays even where it's cut -- I think I knew I would love the movie when it got to the tremendously energetic scene between Hotspur (Norman Rodway) and Kate (Marina Vlady), all trumpets and running around, and occasional nekkid Hotspur ass. And the visuals throughout have a certain beautiful starkness to them; the shot of armed riders galloping past a forest of gibbets is one of the things that comes to my mind whenever I think of what the Henry IVs are about, and the battle of Shrewsbury is effectively nightmarish (those of you who have seen Branagh's Henry V will note the influence Chimes had on his version of Agincourt). The film was shot in Spain, in winter, on a shoestring budget, but the aesthetic suits the plays beautifully. Sometimes you can see the actors' breath when they talk.
The thing I love most about Chimes, though, is how nuanced and how poignant the relationships are -- Welles is a hilarious but also very intelligent Falstaff, who knows he's eventually going to be ditched by Keith Baxter's wonderfully conflicted Hal (probably my favorite Hal of all time; he's more successful than any other I've seen at making me believe he genuinely loves Falstaff and that there's something painful about cutting him off), who craves the approval of Gielgud's chilly yet quietly tormented Henry IV. The banishment scene at the end is utterly amazing: Falstaff on his knees, crushed, but also proud that Hal has grown up to be a take-no-shit king; Hal looking perfectly composed as he cuts off his old friend, but his voice shakes. It is so perfectly them that it hurts.
This is a little bit unhinged, but I started it ages ago and didn't want to abandon the meme, so whatever. Possibly I should watch Chimes at Midnight again; it's been way too long.
Day #1: Your favorite play
Day #2: Your favorite character
>Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line