juliana,
your post lead me out into the net unsupervised and I found a marvelous post about Hamlet and the Bad Quarto. Linked here if anyone cares:
And I wonder, what possible catastrophe came crashing down from heaven and brought this dashing stranger to tears?
Drusilla ,'Conversations with Dead People'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
le nubian - Apr 08, 2009 2:51:52 am PDT #8743 of 28420
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
Sue - Apr 08, 2009 3:40:59 am PDT #8744 of 28420
hip deep in pie
It's also a stunning argument for editing Shakespeare down for performance.
OMG! And for Branagh not directing himself, as much as I loved Henry V, I hated his Hamlet.
Barb - Apr 08, 2009 4:25:58 am PDT #8745 of 28420
“Not dead yet!”
Nate is a HUGE fan of the Percy Jackson series. He's waiting with bated breath for book 5, which is going to be out in early May.
Branagh's Hamlet is the entirety of the Second Quarto, with a few lines from the Folio, therefore clocking in at 4+ hours. It's also a stunning argument for editing Shakespeare down for performance.
Word. His directorial ambitions got the better of him, I'm afraid.
Kathy A - Apr 08, 2009 4:35:14 am PDT #8746 of 28420
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
My mom and I sat through Branagh's Hamlet in the theater (complete with an intermission, thank God!), and afterwards, we were very "meh" about the whole thing. It does drag, and he really should have had someone else play Hamlet.
Jacobi is great as Claudius, though, and I liked the guy who played Horatio.
I recently saw Branagh's Much Ado about Nothing, and he did a great job both directing and starring in that film, so I don't know where he fell down with Hamlet.
Calli - Apr 08, 2009 4:39:20 am PDT #8747 of 28420
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
Branagh's Hamlet is the entirety of the Second Quarto, with a few lines from the Folio, therefore clocking in at 4+ hours. It's also a stunning argument for editing Shakespeare down for performance.
Oh, lordy. That one shot just before the intermission where the camera pulls back on Hamlet all isolated yet noble in Elsinore. I sat there thinking, "Keep backing up, camera person. You'll fit Branagh's ego in the frame eventually."
Kathy A - Apr 08, 2009 4:43:03 am PDT #8748 of 28420
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
"Keep backing up, camera person. You'll fit Branagh's ego in the frame eventually."
::snicker::
Barb - Apr 08, 2009 4:45:03 am PDT #8749 of 28420
“Not dead yet!”
I think with Hamlet, he was on the cusp of no longer being the young arrogant lion who'd taken the theatre and film worlds by storm. It was kind of a defining moment before he became old guard. At least, that was always my interpretation of it.
Sue - Apr 08, 2009 4:46:00 am PDT #8750 of 28420
hip deep in pie
I sat there thinking, "Keep backing up, camera person. You'll fit Branagh's ego in the frame eventually."
I left at intermission. Only the 3rd movie I've ever walked out on. My thoughts were similar, but more along the lines of "If he just wanked for the camera, it would have taken up a lot less of my time."
Barb - Apr 08, 2009 4:48:31 am PDT #8751 of 28420
“Not dead yet!”
"If he just wanked for the camera, it would have taken up a lot less of my time."
Or this.
Fred Pete - Apr 08, 2009 4:57:49 am PDT #8752 of 28420
Ann, that's a ferret.
Oh, dear. And here I am with the Branagh Hamlet waiting on the TiVo.
I'd also recommend a decent background in English history before tackling English Lit, especially English novels.