news, views and reviews of Shakespeare on film (and in the Pacific Northwest)
Posted in Adaptations, Branagh, Branagh, It Ain't Shakespeare, but... on Mar 14th, 2008
Kenneth Branagh’s remake (complete overhaul, more like) of the 1974 classic Sleuth was released on Tuesday. It stars Michael Caine and Jude Law as competitors for the love of a woman who are trying to one-up each other in a dangerous battle of wits. The script is by Harold Pinter, who writes about masculine vanity [...]
Posted in Bardfilm, King Lear, McKellen, Nunn, the Bard on stage on Jan 22nd, 2008
Praise God and pass the remote! According to this article by Brian Scott-Lipton, posted on Theatermania.com, RSCs recent production of King Lear, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Sir Ian (and Romola Garai as Cordelia), is to be broadcast on PBS this fall and the Beeb in December. A DVD is also to be released, [...]
Posted in As You Like It, Branagh, Directors on Jan 10th, 2008
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, David Oyelowo, Kevin Kline, Alfred Molina, Adrian Lester
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.”
The varied career of Kenneth Branagh is a combination of the latter two qualities, I think. He achieved greatness early, taking on the title role of Henry V [...]
Posted in Branagh, Directors, It Ain't Shakespeare, but... on Nov 23rd, 2007
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
starring Michael Caine and Jude Law
War of Wits
Sleuth kicks something vicious. Those familiar with the deliciously over-the-top 1972 version, which pitted legendary Laurence Olivier against a lean-and-hungry Michael Caine, may rightly wonder, why bother? They already got this one right. The play by Anthony Shaffer was a clever bit of gamesmanship—a sort [...]
Welcome news for Shakespeare-on-film fans: According to the Telegraph.co.uk, “Sir Laurence Olivier’s stirring adaptation of Henry V, credited with lifting morale during the Second World War and considered a masterpiece of British cinema, is returning to the screen in full, Technicolor glory…”
The film has been re-released nationwide in England, but we’ve heard no news yet [...]
Shakespeare's Othello meets Spenser's Faerie Queene in this new and provocative mystery-thriller set in Milwaukee.
This is the story of James Ireton, a gifted young Shakespeare scholar haunted by a tragic past and recurring nightmares of a Knight, a Lady and a vicious Dragon. James thinks they’re just dreams, but when two people close to him fall victim in a seemingly motive-less series of brutal murders, James discovers there may be a very real Dragon preying in the shadows of his life. Worse, if he doesn’t find a bit of St. George in himself, the woman he loves may prove the Dragon’s ultimate victim.
