30 Days of Shakespeare - Day 19
Aug. 5th, 2010 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bardic_ladyDay #19: Your Favorite Movie Version of a Play
If you haven't already guessed this, you haven't been paying attention. Yes, Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. (Followed by Branagh's Henry V and Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost, which I know no one likes, but I like it. It's frothy and decadent and silly and I love the way he set it and yes, I think he cast it fairly badly, but there's still a lot to love. Like Nathan Lane! Who doesn't love Nathan Lane? Anyway... Yes. I like the way Branagh directs a Shakespeare on film. I even liked his full four hour Hamlet.)
So yes. Returning to the actual favourite movie. It's gorgeous. The setting is stunning. Ken and Emma are delicious as Beatrice and Benedick and it makes me so ANGRY that he left her for freakin' Helena Bonham Carter what kind of an idiot does that?! Kate Beckinsale is adorable and shy and precious as Hero. Robert Sean Leonard... Can I just say that I loved him before he was House's boyfriend? I fell for him SO HARD in this movie. (Yes, I know now that Claudio is kind of a big old jerkface, but RSL is so lovely, especially in the young awkward lovers bits) Brian Blessed is brilliant and blustery. Derek Jacobi's boyfriend whose name escapes me at the moment (Richard Clifford) is perfectly sneery as Conrad. Michael Keaton is utterly fantastically ridiculous as Dogberry (This was my first experience with Michael Keaton and it warped me completely. I can't watch him as Batman without going "Dogberry as Batman? What?") Denzel Washington is so regal and lovely, even if he too is a bit of an ass. Richard Briers is so beautifully dignified and then totally undignified as Leonato. And I even almost don't care that Keanu is Keanu. Oh! And Emma's mum is wildly wonderful as Ursula and tiny adorable Imelda Staunton as Margaret! Who knew she would grow up to be Dolores Umbridge? Seriously, this movie is on my list of things that everyone ever should see. Also Patrick Doyle's score is fantastic, it has these soaring peaks of joy and then the dark somber trauma that just... I love Patrick Doyle scores. I'm delighted he got tangled up with Ken and Emma's pictures. (Though Gosford Park is actually my all time favourite Doyle score.) Hey nonny nonny!
Day #1: Your favorite play
Day #2: Your favorite character
Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line
If you haven't already guessed this, you haven't been paying attention. Yes, Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. (Followed by Branagh's Henry V and Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost, which I know no one likes, but I like it. It's frothy and decadent and silly and I love the way he set it and yes, I think he cast it fairly badly, but there's still a lot to love. Like Nathan Lane! Who doesn't love Nathan Lane? Anyway... Yes. I like the way Branagh directs a Shakespeare on film. I even liked his full four hour Hamlet.)
So yes. Returning to the actual favourite movie. It's gorgeous. The setting is stunning. Ken and Emma are delicious as Beatrice and Benedick and it makes me so ANGRY that he left her for freakin' Helena Bonham Carter what kind of an idiot does that?! Kate Beckinsale is adorable and shy and precious as Hero. Robert Sean Leonard... Can I just say that I loved him before he was House's boyfriend? I fell for him SO HARD in this movie. (Yes, I know now that Claudio is kind of a big old jerkface, but RSL is so lovely, especially in the young awkward lovers bits) Brian Blessed is brilliant and blustery. Derek Jacobi's boyfriend whose name escapes me at the moment (Richard Clifford) is perfectly sneery as Conrad. Michael Keaton is utterly fantastically ridiculous as Dogberry (This was my first experience with Michael Keaton and it warped me completely. I can't watch him as Batman without going "Dogberry as Batman? What?") Denzel Washington is so regal and lovely, even if he too is a bit of an ass. Richard Briers is so beautifully dignified and then totally undignified as Leonato. And I even almost don't care that Keanu is Keanu. Oh! And Emma's mum is wildly wonderful as Ursula and tiny adorable Imelda Staunton as Margaret! Who knew she would grow up to be Dolores Umbridge? Seriously, this movie is on my list of things that everyone ever should see. Also Patrick Doyle's score is fantastic, it has these soaring peaks of joy and then the dark somber trauma that just... I love Patrick Doyle scores. I'm delighted he got tangled up with Ken and Emma's pictures. (Though Gosford Park is actually my all time favourite Doyle score.) Hey nonny nonny!
Day #1: Your favorite play
Day #2: Your favorite character
Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line
