I liked them better, however, than all the other movie versions of Shakespeare plays I have seen
I haven't seen that version of Merchant. I'll have to see if I can put it on my Netflix queue.
I think most movie versions of Shakespeare are unwatchable.
Anything that was made before, say, 1988 surely falls into that category. And a few made after that date. I still haven't forgiven Laurence Olivier for what he did to Hamlet, who is not a man who couldn't make up his mind, or Mel Gibson for his version -- Hamlet was not in love with his mother, dammit.
I do, however, like the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet. Esp. compared to Baz Luhrman's travesty (how the same director could film both that mess and the wonderful Strictly Ballroom still confounds me).
Two that we haven't mentioned so far that I liked, though, were the Twelfth Night with Helena Bonham Carter and Nigel Hawthorne (and Ben Kingsley's Feste, who was fantastic), and the fairly recent allstar version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is the first time I've ever seen the billing start with Bottom (Kevin Kline) [g]. It was quite watchable, and, along with the McKellen Richard III possesses the actor I think would make a lovely Ivan -- Dominic West.
And so I drag this back around to the Infamous Casting Thread. My only real gripe with trying to cast Bujold is that there's no place for Branagh -- or maybe now that he's getting older he could play Aral [g]. He's certainly got the body type and the attitude... And gods know he's played enough military heroes.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-03-27 01:39 am (UTC)I haven't seen that version of Merchant. I'll have to see if I can put it on my Netflix queue.
I think most movie versions of Shakespeare are unwatchable.
Anything that was made before, say, 1988 surely falls into that category. And a few made after that date. I still haven't forgiven Laurence Olivier for what he did to Hamlet, who is not a man who couldn't make up his mind, or Mel Gibson for his version -- Hamlet was not in love with his mother, dammit.
I do, however, like the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet. Esp. compared to Baz Luhrman's travesty (how the same director could film both that mess and the wonderful Strictly Ballroom still confounds me).
Two that we haven't mentioned so far that I liked, though, were the Twelfth Night with Helena Bonham Carter and Nigel Hawthorne (and Ben Kingsley's Feste, who was fantastic), and the fairly recent allstar version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is the first time I've ever seen the billing start with Bottom (Kevin Kline) [g]. It was quite watchable, and, along with the McKellen Richard III possesses the actor I think would make a lovely Ivan -- Dominic West.
And so I drag this back around to the Infamous Casting Thread. My only real gripe with trying to cast Bujold is that there's no place for Branagh -- or maybe now that he's getting older he could play Aral [g]. He's certainly got the body type and the attitude... And gods know he's played enough military heroes.