Month: May 2008

It’s lunch.  So I popped in the last of my newly borrowed movies – Olivier’s Hamlet.
Here’s the thing, and whether it says something about Olivier or about Hamlet, I don’t know – but I opened up *randomly* – in this case, the scene just after “Give me some light” where Polonius tells Hamlet to go see his mother.
And you know what? It’s absolutely f^&*()ing brilliant. 
I have not seen this movie since senior year in high school (over 20 years ago) when Mr. Corey made us watch it.  My memories of it then are boring voiceovers, no Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and a relationship with Mom that made Mr. Corey pause the movie and remember to mention the whole Oedipal theory to us.
Maybe it is not saying something about Hamlet or Olivier at all, but about my own changed perspective.  I’m sure that 20 years ago I was thinking “When is this movie over?”  Five minutes ago, after 10 seconds of this exact same movie, I was thinking “I want to hear every single word, catch every single facial expression, contemplate every single directorial choice.”  The way Hamlet just stops in mid conversation, points off into space and does the whole “Do you see yon cloud in the shape of a weasel” bit, the patronizing look on his face is wonderful, like “You stupid old man, how can you not possibly see that I see right through you?”  I wouldn’t have been surprised if Hamlet at that moment said, “Do a little dance for me, Polonius” just to watch the old man bust a move.
I was optimistic about the Welles movies because I’d never seen one, whereas I was dubious about Olivier because I had 20 year old memories of it being dull and boring.  Funny how things change.

Ok, well, the same source that got me a peek at Chimes At Midnight also got me a chance to see Welles’ Othello and Macbeth.  Hence my earlier post on your best 5 minutes – I don’t have nearly the time to sit down and patiently watch all of these things.  It would take me days, and even then, I’d feel like I was rushing and not doing them justice.  So instead, at least for now, I skipped around a bit 🙂
For Othello, I can see much clearer what Alan meant about “the language of film.”  This one seems to be all about the statement of the filmmaker, moreso than any of the actors.  Opening with the funeral procession of Othello and Desdemona filmed in stark black and white contrast (I don’t just mean that the film is in black and white, I mean you’ll be hard pressed to find any shades of gray anywhere), the scene cuts to a criminal being dragged through the streets in chains.   The term “baited with the rabble’s curse” immediately came to mind as we watch Iago thrown into a cage.  Then, the movie starts.
I skipped a bit in the beginning – the quality of the film is poor.  Dark, poor sounds, and lots of skips and splices.  I guess I like Welles’ as Othello, physically.  I mean, he’s a guy in blackface wearing some sort of a turban.   What else can you say?  He’s not really putting on any kind of an accent or anything.  He looks like a Shakespearean actor doing his lines.
Desdemona’s death scene was weird for me, like something out of a Frankenstein movie.  Shots of her asleep (pretending to be, rather) in her chamber are interposed with shots of Othello approaching from far down the hall, giving this very empty feeling like they’re the only two people in the entire castle.  I certainly wouldn’t want to sleep there.  Interestingly, when Othello enters Desdemona shuts her eyes, pretending to be asleep.  I realize I skipped right to this part, but is she already afraid of him?  That was unexpected.  The scene overall I was disappointed with.  Like I said, it was like two people speaking their parts.  Desdemona did well at first when she stood up for herself, demanding that Cassio be brought forth to answer for the charges.  But when it came time to actually kill her, she didn’t put up any real fight at all.  Nor did Othello look like he was particularly physical, it was more like “And now’s the time in my soliloquoy when I put my hand over your mouth and you stop moving.”  I kept thinking of how much I’d rather be watching Stage Beauty.
His Macbeth, on the other hand, I think I quite liked.  It was a little jarring at first, as the armies look vaguely like something out of a Genghis Khan epic.  Macbeth is wearing a crown that makes him look like he’s the Statue of Liberty.  But the best part is that everyone is actually trying to speak in a Scottish accent!  You’d think that would suck, but to tell you the truth I got into it.  This was like night and day versus his Othello.  This was an entirely different Welles. Not only was he *acting* now, rather than just delivering lines, but he was acting like an entirely different creature.   I believed I was watching Macbeth, not Welles doing Macbeth.
Naturally I fastforwarded to my favorite part, the whole “lay on, Macduff” bit.  I was very pleased, because the scene played out not for the lines, but for the acting.  Macbeth looks at Macduff like a friend, warning him when he says simply “I bear a charmed life which must not yield to one of woman born.”  It’s like he’s saying “Dude, back away, you can’t win.”  He doesn’t scream it, he says it like a simple truth.  Macduff, however, never breaks form.  His blood is up, he wants Macbeth dead.  He only breaks free of their fight long enough to mention the whole “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped!” thing.
Want to hear the best part?  On the line “I’ll not fight with thee”, Macbeth actually *runs*.  I’m sure I’ve seen other Macbeths run before, but somehow I believed this one more.  He waltzed into that fight knowing that he’d win, and now, knowing that he’ll lose, he runs.  Of course he does.  So when Macduff chases him down and calls him a coward, the expression on Welles’ face is a thing of beauty.  It’s that “Oh hell no” moment where Macbeth finds himself again.  He’s no coward.  Death is not exactly something to look forward to, but oh hell no, he is no coward, he will not be dragged through the streets.  So it is with an almost smirk, a look that says “I know exactly what I’m doing” that he delivers a very simple, very quiet “Lay on, Macduff.”  It is with a great deal of resignation, is what it is.  Honestly it makes me wonder just how hard he was really fighting back.  When I’ve seen Macbeths charge full force back into the battle I tend to believe “Ok, he still thinks he can win.”  Here it was pretty clear to me that he knew he couldn’t.
Here’s my two sentence summary:  I will go back and watch the entire Macbeth now.  I will not bother with the Othello.

Ok, here’s the game.  You’ve been handed the DVD of a Shakespeare movie you’ve never seen.  You’re also about to get on a plane to a foreign country and won’t be able to watch it for months because of regional issues.  So before you go, you pop it in and bring up your favorite scene, because you want to watch the best 5 minutes of the play. What play, and what scene?  You like beginnings, endings, or something in the middle?  You like a tragedy or a comedy?

http://www.executedtoday.com/2008/05/29/1593-john-penry-wales-puritan-shakespeare-christopher-marlowe/ There’s a name I’d never heard before : John Penry.  Executed in 1593, the “greatest protestant martyr of his land” is interesting to us for this little cross-reference:

The day after Penry’s execution, star English playwright Christopher Marlowe was killed in a fray whose timing some find a bit suspicious. Some enthusiasts think Marlowe faked his death and went on to write Shakespeare under a pen name. And if he did that, his confederates would have needed a body to pass off as Marlowe’s … the body, perhaps, of a man of Marlowe’s age and class who’d just been hanged a couple of miles up the road.

Indeed! 🙂

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23775385-23109,00.html I remember blogging ages ago about the Friends of Shakespeare’s Church trying to raise money to save Shakespeare’s burial place.  Apparently they’ve got enough now to proceed, although it sounds like they still need more.  And no, they’re not moving his bones.