The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #88: The Tragedy of Hamlet (2002)
88. Peter Brook’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, 2002. There are too many Hamlets, and I’ve had my surfeit. This blog’s at a trickle. There’s too much Shakespeare, and I don’t care anymore. When will someone make a glorious Troilus and Cressida? Peter Brook—famous for bare-bones staging—is perhaps not the most auspicious director to drag me… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #87: All is True (2018)
87. Kenneth Branagh’s All is True, 2018. I have a fraught relationship with Kenneth Branagh’s cinematic Shakespeare work. As an actor, he perhaps has no equal, certainly among his own generation. As a director, his indiscriminate courting of Hollywood has led to so many embarrassments. He has made more Shakespeare films than Olivier, yet as… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #86: The Merchant of Venice (1973)
86. John Sichel’s The Merchant of Venice, 1973. This isn’t the first made-for-television version of The Merchant of Venice I have reviewed, dear readers. I found it for free in its entirety on Youtube. I gave this televised antique a chance because this was, I think, Olivier’s only recorded go at Shylock. That this was… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #85: Henry IV (2018)
85. Phyllidia Lloyd’s Henry IV (Part 2 of The Donmar Warehouse’s All-Female Shakespeare Trilogy), 2018 Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 are difficult plays to like, at least for me. Let me remind you of the plot. Henry finds the crown heavy to wear after deposing Richard II (whose play is the only Shakespeare I loathe).… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #84: Julius Caesar (2018)
84. Phyllidia Lloyd’s Julius Caesar (Part 1 of The Donmar Warehouse’s All-Female Shakespeare Trilogy), 2018 Last time I discussed Phyllidia Lloyd’s Tempest, and I am glad I watched these out of sequence. This all-woman cast of Caesar isn’t a bad Caesar—but I do think that Caesar is not an especially strong play. Brutus is such a wet blanket,… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #83: The Tempest (2019)
83. Phyllidia Lloyd’s The Tempest (Part 3 of The Donmar Warehouse’s All-Female Shakespeare Trilogy), 2019 I have a fondness for prison theater. When Beckett directed a trilogy of his plays at San Quentin in 1985, he found actors who embodied his existential tragicomedies with an ease few professional actors could muster. Those productions were much… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #82: Hamlet (1964)
82. Grigori Mikhaylovich Kozintsev and Iosef Shapiro’s Hamlet I am not sure why I enjoyed this Russian Hamlet so much. Jaded churl that I’ve become. I have had a surfeit of Hamlet (this is my eighth for this blog), and I don’t see that Kozintsev and Shapiro’s’s gorgeous, yet understated presentation is breathtakingly original. I have no… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #81: The Merchant of Venice (1972)
81. Cedric Messina’s The Merchant of Venice So Maggie Smith portrayed Portia in a 1972 BBC production ofThe Merchant of Venice, and since this wasn’t part of the BBC’s dreadful complete Shakespeare project (which looks as if Roger Corman directed it), I thought it safe to venture my eyes and ears on it. This Merchant was… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #80: Filming ‘Othello’
80. Orson Welles’s Filming ‘Othello’ I’ve neglected this blog for nearly a year, dear readers. I had suffered a surfeit of Shakespeare, something I didn’t think was possible. Fucking Hamlet again, I would think. Why? I mean, why? So far, I have reviewed seven films of Hamlet. Some of them are great, but I may… Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #79: 10 Things I Hate About You [The Taming of the Shrew] (1999)
79. Gil Younger’s 10 Things I Hate About You [The Taming of the Shrew] (1999) Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare’s only story fixated on teenagers in love, but Karen McCullah and Kristen Smith adapted The Taming of the Shrew to do so. Shrew is one of Shakespeare’s most outrageous plays. (It’s the comedy equivalent of… Continue reading
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The Drunken Odyssey is a forum to discuss all aspects of the writing process, in a variety of genres, in order to foster a greater community among writers.
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