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How to appreciate Shakespeare
...right now, at this very moment, one can see more great Shakespeare, one can find more transformative Shakespearean experiences, from what is already on film even in the form of tape or DVD on a television screen than the average person, even the average critic, will see on stage in a life time.
That is from Ron Rosenbaum's generally quite good The Shakespeare Wars. His list:
1. Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight [TC: also Welles's best movie]
2. Peter Brook, King Lear
3. Richard III, with Laurence Olivier
4. Hamlet, with Richard Burton
To this list I would add Welles's Othello and -- more controversially -- Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Haitian voodoo scenes and all; Rosembaum is more positive than negative about that one, but it doesn't make his list.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 29, 2006 at 05:33 AM in Books, Film, The Arts | Permalink
Comments
I feel vindicated that neither Rosenbaum's list nor Tyler's additions include Kenneth Branagh.
Posted by: jp at Dec 29, 2006 10:40:43 AM
I'm a little surprised to see "Richard III" on the list--Olivier's performance in that film is definitive, but his "Henry V" is a better film.
Posted by: mschrist at Dec 29, 2006 12:10:02 PM
McKellen's Richard III knocks the socks off Olivier.
Posted by: william at Dec 29, 2006 4:47:44 PM
What about Kurosawa's take on Shakespeare? Throne of Blood and Ran, for instance, are great!
Posted by: Hamish at Dec 29, 2006 5:18:19 PM
I want to endorse 'Chimes At Midnight.' The battle scene is the best illusion I have ever seen.
Yet inspection shows Welles probably spent about $2.76 making it - excluding his editing time.
Art is subjective. Others might see nothing in the battle. Welles had either saw Eisenstein's work or channeled it.
Posted by: K at Dec 29, 2006 9:19:11 PM
Why not Zefirelli's Romeo & Juliet? It is one of the few renditions that makes Shakespeare sound like language & not stilted lines.
Posted by: DaSarge at Dec 29, 2006 11:02:31 PM
Audio editions of Anthony Quayle as Falstaff, Alec Guiness as MacBeth, Burton as Coriolanus are mighty fine, too. I much prefer the audio to the video. Why is that?
Posted by: Surabaya Johnny at Dec 30, 2006 12:19:51 AM
the "looking for richard" documentary.
"夜宴/ye yan" (the banquet) - a chinese adaptation of hamlet.
Posted by: quitacet at Dec 30, 2006 11:46:22 AM
The most diverting and luminous Shakespeare I know is the Time-BBC Taming of the Shrew directed by Jonathan Miller starring John Cleese. Brilliant and unforgettable.
Posted by: dilys at Jan 1, 2007 6:41:22 AM
What is amazing is how few good films of Shakespeare's plays there are. One of the best being Joseph Mankiewicz's 1953 version of Julius Caesar. With a cast that defies belief:
'Marlon Brando as Marc Antony, James Mason as Brutus, John Gielgud as Cassius, Louis Calhern as Julius Caesar, Greer Garson as Calpurnia, Deborah Kerr as Portia, George Macready as Marullus, Michael Pate as Flavius, Richard Hale as Soothsayer....'
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Posted by: david at Sep 10, 2007 2:08:00 PM
...right now, at this very moment, one can see more great Shakespeare, one can find more transformative Shakespearean experiences, from what is already on film even in the form of tape or DVD on a television screen than the average person, even the average critic, will see on stage in a life time.
that'sa all right.
Posted by: med08 at Mar 22, 2008 8:28:04 PM
. Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight [TC: also Welles's best movie
that's really wonderfullv
med
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