Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus and lay it to your heart.

[brynnmck]

Soooooo gloomy and rainy today. COULD NOT WAIT to get home and get into my PJs and have a cocktail. Mmmmmmmmm. *snuggles in*

Was inspired by Festivids to rewatch the 1993 Branagh/Thompson movie of Much Ado About Nothing (in fact I really wanted to watch Slings and Arrows--there is a WONDERFUL Slings and Arrows vid in that bunch--but I couldn't

Comments

[izzybeth]

except for Keanu, who is hysterically bad

luckily, he plays Don John, who is such a ridiculous caricature of a villain that i really can't hold any bad acting against Keanu. seriously.

edit: also, i am literally CRYING LAUGHING at "giant toolshed."

[brynnmck]

Personally, I don't think Keanu is entirely innocent, but you're right, it's also a very bad role. What was THAT about, Shakespeare?

[brynnmck]

And he IS a giant toolshed, OMG. I saw this movie when it first came out, before I knew the play, so I was all, "Oh, Claudio, it's so SAD" (I was also about 14, FTR), and then later I looked at it again, and it's like, DUDE. MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOME PEOPLE YOU ACTUALLY TRUST BEFORE YOU GO LEAPING TO CONCLUSIONS LEFT AND RIGHT, FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

[izzybeth]

i remember when it first came out too (i was just a couple years younger than you), and i thought "hang on, how come Beatrice is so awesome and Hero is so lame? and why is Claudio being such a douche?" and then i forgot all about my budding literary criticism and got a little obsessed with the song.

[jehane_writes]

I REALLY LOVED THE 1993 MOVIE. EVERYONE WAS FANTASTIC IN IT, EVEN KEANU.

("I went to the store. I WENT to the store. I went to the STORE.") AHAHAHAHA. FORTUNATELY, HE IS PRETTY.

I actually had a huge cracky Archuheta Romeo and Juliet plotbunny, with DCook as Mercutio. DCook was a bit scenery-chewing, though ("I see you've spent time with Mab, the hag. You know, the bitch's bad news, she drives her chariot across the faces of sleeping people, lawyers and ladies, parsons and prigs, makes them dream dreams of wish-fulfillment. You'd best stay away"). Also, Allie-as-Juliet very problematic ("It blows that that fine dude's a Montague. He should tell his old man where to go. Or, if he says the word, I'm happy to be just plain Allie.").

Maybe Cookleta R&J would work better. *ponders*

[brynnmck]

See, YES, I can totally see DCook as Mercutio, that would be AWESOME. And I am kind of fascinated by the idea of Alli as Juliet. YOU SHOULD DO THIS, DUDE. Cookleta might work but the age difference changes the dynamic quite a bit, IMO--I think it's important to R&J that they both be young, and grow up a bit together over the course of the play. YMMV, of course. :)

[jehane_writes]

You really should not encourage me, Miss Brynn. Fates worse than lousy Keanu acting might await. (I made two lousy historical Cookleta sonnets and a bunch of haiku in the past - the crappy poetry NEEDS NO FEEDING. To wit:)

Allie-C: The dude's a Montague? Say it isn't so.
He should tell his old man where to go.
Or, if he likes me, he should say it like it is -
And I'll be just plain Allie - not my dad's, but his.

David-M: Hey, there's a light on in that window! Allie's light, I think.
She's so bright and pretty like the sun, the moon's sure to blink.
There's just no contest with her - she's nothing wan and pale -

- Jay: That's it, I'll soon be run out of fandom on a RAIL.

(D-Mercutio: Where's my death scene, damnit? SCRIBE!)

[brynnmck]

HEEEE! YES. OH MY GOD YOU SHOULD DO THIS. <333333

[entropical87]

Titus Andronicus is REALLY FUCKING TRAUMATIC. I was reading the last scenes through my fingers because oh my freaking god, Shakespeare, WHY WOULD YOU WRITE THAT? Every time you think it can't possibly get worse, it finds a whole new level of WHAT WHY.

I forgive him though, because he's good for plays that make even professors who harp on about how relationships were different back then and how homosocial is not the same as homoerotic throw up their hands all, idk guys that's really fucking gay. Shakespeare: queering your text so you don't have to.

In conclusion, \SHERLOCK HOLMES/

[thisficklemob]

Because he was all of nineteen or something, and it was his version of a slasher film?

[brynnmck]

Actually, for me, the worst part of Titus is the middle--Lavinia bleeding all over the stage, and Titus cutting off his own hand for nothing. Then it sort of passes through trauma and into absurdity (with the fly-dicing scene), which I think is part of the point--there's really no response to that kind of horror except to go insane, which I think the audience kind of does along with Titus. Which makes it easier for me somehow, since it gives me a little distance. (The second production I saw actually had a thing where after Lavinia dies, Bassianus' ghost comes to lead her away, which softened her death a bit--that was interesting, and comforting, though I'm not sure it was true to the spirit of the play.)

In any case: VERY TRAUMATIC. It's such a hopeless play, with no redemption in it, and that's a very difficult thing to deal with.

throw up their hands all, idk guys that's really fucking gayHEEEEEEEE. I was thinking as I was watching last night that that movie is a very different experience now that I have slash goggles. *g

[catwalksalone]

I LOVE that film! (Oh, Keanu. *pets*) And did I ever tell you I was lucky enough to see KB and ET TWICE when they were touring with the Renaissance Theatre Company? And they were AWESOME. And then I accidentally met them outside the theatre and they were AWESOMER?

[brynnmck]

EEEEE! No, I don't think you ever told me that! THAT IS VERY JEALOUS-MAKING.

[elizardbits]

EEEEEEE best movie ever. Oh god, I think Beatrice and Benedick were maybe my first truly epic fannish OTP. Well, the Thompson/Branagh version, anyway.

Keanu is pretty much hysterically bad in everything he's ever done, though. Hee.

Dude. DUDE. SHERLOCK HOLMES was the best xmas present in the universe. And not just for the sweaty shirtless RDJ.

[brynnmck]

YES TO EVERYTHING IN THIS COMMENT. Hee.