Death is your art. You make it with your hands day after day. That final gasp, that look of peace. And part of you is desperate to know: What's it like? Where does it lead you? And now you see, that's the secret. Not the punch you didn't throw or the kicks you didn't land. She really wanted it. Every Slayer has a death wish. Even you.

Spike ,'Conversations with Dead People'


We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good  

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."


deborah grabien - Jun 16, 2004 9:03:44 pm PDT #3376 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

I can't see an Hamlet without thinking Stoppard, and the film version of R&G is so much better than any film version of Hamlet I've seen, it makes me sad.

omigawd YES. I love the film version of R&GRDead with a deep, deep love.

Hell, that may be the ultimate film version of Hamlet, to date.

Connie, the sets on Branagh's Hamlet were, indeed, visually stunning. But I started feeling - shit, I can't describe it properly. Rather the way I felt the last time I made it through the first half of a full-cycle performance of Wagner's Ring? Mentally editing the thing for clarity, I mean.


Connie Neil - Jun 16, 2004 9:03:52 pm PDT #3377 of 10002
brillig

Derek Jacobi as Claudius. Growf.


deborah grabien - Jun 16, 2004 9:05:04 pm PDT #3378 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

Derek Jacobi as Claudius.

"Lost your stutter, too, I see." - Livia, on her death bed.

Best. PBS. Series. Ever. We own it - the whole thing. It seriously, seriously blisses me.


P.M. Marc - Jun 16, 2004 9:05:48 pm PDT #3379 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

I used to watch Henry V, the One True Branagh version, about once a fortnight.

This was nine years ago, when I was in an odd headspace that required a lot of soothing repeat viewing. I'd read along as I watched.

Also on repeat that year: The Young Ones: Oil, Boring, and Flood; Sleep With Me; Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle; and Orlando.

Oh, and I was *reading* R&GaD all the time, but watching it only a few times a year.


P.M. Marc - Jun 16, 2004 9:07:13 pm PDT #3380 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

Derek Jacobi as Claudius. Growf.

See, I just giggled and giggled and giggled at his Big Death Scene, because it was SO the repeat of the Big Death Scene from Dead Again.

Which I should add to the above list of movies on repeat, if I switch the year from '95 to '93.


Connie Neil - Jun 16, 2004 9:08:05 pm PDT #3381 of 10002
brillig

Mentally editing the thing for clarity, I mean.

I'd read the play, but nothing was making sense. I kept being amazed during Branagh's Hamlet that all the subplots really were interconnected with each other. Yes, expendable if really necessary, but the added dimension to the main story left me, well, amazed. And I felt sorry for Hamlet.

Ophelia's graveside, where the Queen says she wanted Ophelia as Hamlet's bride, when at the beginning Polonius is telling Ophelia that she should stop dreaming of Hamlet, because they would never be able to be together ... gosh.


deborah grabien - Jun 16, 2004 9:08:34 pm PDT #3382 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

because it was SO the repeat of the Big Death Scene from Dead Again.

Backwards! Claudius predates!

But Dead Again was a perfect little injoke on Jacobi's part, right down to the stammer.


Connie Neil - Jun 16, 2004 9:10:03 pm PDT #3383 of 10002
brillig

Big Death Scenes--it's a fair cop. Sigh.

I've read and re-read "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God," but I've yet to see the mini-series. It's probably at teh library, but I'd want to sit down by myself to watch it, so I can mutter to myself without having to explain things to Hubby.


P.M. Marc - Jun 16, 2004 9:10:05 pm PDT #3384 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

Backwards! Claudius predates!

I haven't had TIME to watch the DVDs!

Is Claudius skewered? Because it's the skewering that makes me giggle. If so, that's a three-fer!


Connie Neil - Jun 16, 2004 9:11:13 pm PDT #3385 of 10002
brillig

Claudius gets dosed with poisoned mushrooms. No skewering.