ShakespeaRe-Told

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  • ShakespeaRe-Told

    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.

  • #2
    Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

    The thread may not be about the Royal Company but I'm a little surprised by the apparent lack of interest.

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    • #3
      Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

      I've meant to see it. I've got my own revisionist Shakespeare script in my quiver, so I certainly have a taste for it.

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      • #4
        Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

        Language updated as well?

        Or just setting and costumes?
        "I talked to a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."


        http://wagstaffnet.blogspot.com/

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        • #5
          Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

          Language, as well.

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          • #6
            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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            • #7
              Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

              where can i see this?

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              • #8
                Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                Originally posted by ctp View Post
                Language, as well.
                So 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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                • #9
                  Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                  Originally posted by Steven R View Post
                  So 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.
                  +1

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                  • #10
                    Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                    Originally posted by Steven R View Post
                    So 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.
                    I take it if you saw O! or 10 Things I Hate About You or She's the Man -- you hated them? LOL

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                    • #11
                      Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                      Originally posted by Bananos View Post
                      where can i see this?
                      Youtube
                      The best way out is always through. - Robert Frost

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                      • #12
                        Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                        Originally posted by Steven R View Post
                        So 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.
                        No 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.

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                        • #13
                          Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                          Originally posted by coffeywriter View Post
                          I take it if you saw O! or 10 Things I Hate About You or She's the Man -- you hated them? LOL
                          I don't mind remakes that want to tell roughly the same story. One of my favorite movies of all time is Strange Brew which retells Hamlet, but with a couple of idiot Canadians in the place of Horatio.

                          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:
                          to this:

                          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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                          • #14
                            Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                            Originally posted by TheKeenGuy View Post
                            No 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.
                            But retelling those stories through our own filter isn't the argument. It's simply rewriting the language because of an assumption that the language is too hard for modern people to get, so we'll help them out by rewriting the thing.

                            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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                            • #15
                              Re: ShakespeaRe-Told

                              I dont know...I don't have a problem with translating Willie Shakes's words into modern day vernacular. It makes the concepts behind his writing accessible to people that otherwise might not be exposed to them, especially younger generations.

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