The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #18: The Worst Production I’ve Ever Seen (An Interlude)
#18. The Worst Production I’ve Ever Seen (An Interlude) Well, dear readers, your rogue has been delinquent these last few weeks, while he was in the throes of preparation for Litlando, which was I daresay a smash. Part of the problem with my next post is that I reached a pique of condemnatory rhetoric last Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #17: Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000)
#17: Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000) Oh fuck. Fuck. I mean: shit. Don’t see this movie. Don’t see this movie unless you are totally high. Okay, let’s consider what Branagh tried to do with Love’s Labour’s Lost. This adaptation presented the Shakespeare comedy as a Hollywood musical from the late 1930s, in which Shakespeare’s language is interrupted Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #16: As You Like It (2006)
#16. As You Like It (2006) Some enthusiastic newbies to Shakespeare crave an authentically Shakespearean experience, something satisfyingly old-looking, true to history, and they will primly turn their nose up at productions that have the gall to change the setting of a play. This is a truly silly position. Oh, there isn’t anything terribly wrong Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #15: Othello (1995)
#15. Othello (1995) If we can agree, dear readers, that Olivier’s Richard III (1955) is both perfect and, in its own way, a bit old-fashioned, Oliver Parker’s Othello (1995) manages to treat the tragedy realistically, with some degree of historical accuracy and dramatic poignancy, so that the story seems timeless, which is a feeble word we use to describe Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #14: Richard III (1955)
#14. Richard III (1955) I’ve decided to deviate from my survey of Kenneth Branagh films lest this guide get too tedious, especially since his miserable Love’s Labour Lost is lurking for me like some malicious ghost. (The very prospect scared me away for a month.) Instead, I pivot to that first British actor and director Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #13: A Midwinter’s Tale
#13: A Midwinter’s Tale (1996) If Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet is a luxury train under the blithe control of an engineer who’s uninterested in whether his cargo stays on board while shooting through an icy landscape, then the engineer of A Midwinter’s Tale cares not only about his passengers, but their baggage as well. Oh, in England Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #12: Hamlet (1996)
#12: Hamlet (1996) With his Hamlet (1996), the gulf between Kenneth Branagh’s acting and that of his Hollywood peers widens. In the early going of Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Denzel Washington doesn’t quite know what to do. In the early going of Hamlet, Jack Lemmon (like Washington, one of the finest actors Hollywood has Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #11: Henry V (1989)
#11: Henry V (1989) Two weeks ago, I mocked Kenneth Branagh’s weak casting and directing, because I had to. I mean, Robert Sean Leonard. By now, if you’re reading this, you’re obviously asking yourselves, how will this rogue rank Branagh’s Shakespeare films? Like this, from best to worst: Henry V (1989) Othello (1995, directed by Oliver Parker) Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #10: Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
#10: Much Ado About Nothing (1993) Kenneth Branagh is an astoundingly good Shakespearean actor. And with his first Shakespeare film, Henry V (1989), he seemed equally adept as a director. His Much Ado About Nothing would prove otherwise. His casting is a bit deranged, and his directing style with a grab bag of Hollywood stars Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare On Film #9: Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
#9: Much Ado About Nothing (2012) Joss Whedon’s remarkable follow up to The Avengers was, a bit surprisingly, Much Ado About Nothing. If a superhero movie demands that characterization needs to be squeezed in with an eye-dropper between pyrotechnical explosions and sublime, seizure-inducing battles between IMPOSSIBLE BEINGS, Whedon squeezes in characterization about as well as anyone. Continue reading
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