Has anyone else seen this? It was a BBC miniseries of four ninety minute modern day adaptations. I watched their version of Much Ado and I thought it was very, very good. Sarah Parish and Damian Lewis were excellent as Beatrice and Benedick. The other plays adapted were Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Taming of the Shrew.
ShakespeaRe-Told
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Re: ShakespeaRe-Told
For my part, I much prefer tellings of Shakespeare to re-tellings.
IMO, the finest Shakespeare films have stuck quite closely to his language, and have been filmed in unmodern settings: Polanski's Macbeth, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet and Henry V, and Olivier's Richard III.
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Re: ShakespeaRe-Told
Originally posted by ctp View PostLanguage, as well.
When I want Shakespeare, I want Shakespeare. I don't want some watered down version that insults my intelligence because some producer thinks using my brain to listen to the dialog is too hard and it needs dumbed down so I can get it.
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Re: ShakespeaRe-Told
Originally posted by Steven R View PostSo they update the language to something more modern? I'll pass.
When I want Shakespeare, I want Shakespeare. I don't want some watered down version that insults my intelligence because some producer thinks using my brain to listen to the dialog is too hard and it needs dumbed down so I can get it.
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Re: ShakespeaRe-Told
Originally posted by Steven R View PostSo they update the language to something more modern? I'll pass.
When I want Shakespeare, I want Shakespeare. I don't want some watered down version that insults my intelligence because some producer thinks using my brain to listen to the dialog is too hard and it needs dumbed down so I can get it.
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Re: ShakespeaRe-Told
Originally posted by Steven R View PostSo they update the language to something more modern? I'll pass.
When I want Shakespeare, I want Shakespeare. I don't want some watered down version that insults my intelligence because some producer thinks using my brain to listen to the dialog is too hard and it needs dumbed down so I can get it.
As storytellers, we have every right to filter these narratives through our own voice. I doubt that films like WEST SIDE STORY and FORBIDDEN PLANET and THE BAD SLEEP WELL, whatever one might think of the them, were made with modern dialogue based on assumptions about the audience's intelligence.
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Re: ShakespeaRe-Told
Originally posted by coffeywriter View PostI take it if you saw O! or 10 Things I Hate About You or She's the Man -- you hated them? LOL
What I have a problem with is a scene-by-scene alteration of the dialog because some of the language is dense. I really object to the idea of seeing Hamlet's soliloquy get changed from this:
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them:
Dang, life is tough. Maybe I should kill myself.
Is it better to be a bitch and live or go out like a boss?
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Re: ShakespeaRe-Told
Originally posted by TheKeenGuy View PostNo one's gonna rewrite HAMLET better than Shakespeare, but it's just plain incorrect to suggest that "dumbing down" is the only reason one would tell a Shakespeare story with modern dialogue.
As storytellers, we have every right to filter these narratives through our own voice. I doubt that films like WEST SIDE STORY and FORBIDDEN PLANET and THE BAD SLEEP WELL, whatever one might think of the them, were made with modern dialogue based on assumptions about the audience's intelligence.
Elizabethan and Jacobean English aren't that hard to follow. What it doesn't allow is for the audience to multitask. It requires the audience to pay attention. I can't pick out the underlying context of what Iago is doing and try to figure out why when I'm also playing Angry Birds on my iPhone and tweeting about how hard this play is to follow. Heaven forfend that we ask the audience to really pay attention, maybe throw on the subtitles or closed captioning and use a little brainpower.
And that's before we even get into the changing of art to suit our tastes. It is just as offensive to me to even consider editing Shakespeare in the modern vernacular as it would be to paint sunglasses and a haltertop on the Mona Lisa because like that anymore and then sell that print "for modern art lovers." Maybe I'm inspired by the Mona Lisa and want to paint a portrait of a woman and that's fine, but I draw the line at replacing the background with Vasquez Rocks because we've seen those rocks in countless movies and tv shows and can somehow better relate.
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