another Tempest fan. I think because when I first saw it somehow everything in it was so magical. Outdoor, perfect new england summer night. drunk sailors swinging on tree branches ( on e broke durring the preformance I saw - and it was just beautifly incorperarted into the play) The plot - not important . I am interested in Caliban and Ariel. Also Prospero.

I quite liked the one set in the 30's with Ian McKellan.

Well, I am, once again, the freak - nine times out of ten, Sir Ian makes me want to smack him, and smack him hard. With the exception of an astonishing Macbeth - and he got that one totally right - I have never once seen him act anything that didn't essentially play, to me, like "oh look. It's Sir Bloody All About Me Ian again." Basically, he's so damned self-referential in his acting that almost everything he's in, I get the sense of Sir Ian deigning to entertain the steaming masses by Emoting. Pass-a-dena.

Also, I really truly dislike modernising the Elizabethan dramas. Couldn't stand the Miami Romeo and Juliet, except to think that it was a pity that Leguizamo wasn't being given period Shakespeare to do, because he was brilliant.

In re The Tempest, I am also in the "all about the language" school. And since my online nickname was Sycorax for awhile, I have an investment in the play.

My favourite Lear was the one Olivier filmed for the BBC in the seventies. It's completely heartbreaking, full of grief and disillusionment and basically? About an old man's dreams being shattered, by his own silliness. Which, of course, makes me happy as hell: streamline the themes.

There are a lot of things about Shakespeare I don't know. But at least I know the title's not Henry V: This Time it's Personal, or something, I suppose. But now I feel ignorant. And, sadly, most places I go, having read some makes me impressive. Sigh. With Plei on the "Parker" love.

I thought the Trevor Nunn version of 12th Night made a good stab, and I liked some of the characters, but in the end it didn't quite pull together for me.

There was also a PBS version a few years ago with Helen Hunt as Viola, and it was okay, except that every now and then she scrunch up her face in the middle of a speech exactly like Jamie Stemple, and it took me right out of the play.

Also, I really truly dislike modernising the Elizabethan dramas.

Bzzzt! I love that shit.

Oh, you know another cool Shakespeare movie? Titus. A little overstylized in parts, but awesome nonetheless.

And we mustn't forget Ten Things I Hate About You.

Bzzzt! I love that shit.

And I will stand at your back with my crossbow and defend your right to watch it. The minute you tell me I have to love it because it's all modern and metaphorical and stuff, though? Bad Things. (edit: bearing in mind that my level of weirdassery extends to not being able to stomach West Side Story. I probably should have been struck by lightning long ago for that one.)

Making a version of the film that takes from the play - Ran is another movie that never leaves my top ten list - works fine for me.

Deciding that all that boring old history looks better dressed in a modern metaphor? No thanks. Not usually. I haven't seen any updated versions using the original language that brought anything new to any of the plays.

I keep meaning to watch Looking for Richard, because, well, I'm a Sir Ian fangirl.

Er, Ian McKellen isn't in that. He's in a straight filming of the play, just called Richard III, but the Richard in Looking for Richard is Al Pacino.

Oops--you're right. So I'll watch Sir Ian's Richard first, and then Looking for Richard.

My favourite Lear was the one Olivier filmed for the BBC in the seventies. It's completely heartbreaking, full of grief and disillusionment and basically? About an old man's dreams being shattered, by his own silliness. Which, of course, makes me happy as hell: streamline the themes.

IIRC, the confrontation between Goneril and Lear in that one had to be shot multiple times, because Dorothy Tutin kept breaking down in tears in the face of Olivier's Lear.

Oh, let's not forget the worst Hamlet ever, where Mel Gibson is AT THE FUCKING FUNERAL. Umm, hello, miss the point much? Yes, I know that the teenyboppers wanted to see you staring moodily at Daddy's grave, but it kind of screws up the whole story if Hamlet is there to take the freaking throne.

IIRC, the confrontation between Goneril and Lear in that one had to be shot multiple times, because Dorothy Tutin kept breaking down in tears in the face of Olivier's Lear.

Yep. It's completely devastating, that version. I have it on tape, and I can watch it maybe once every five years - too powerful to digest easily. And - another reason I loved it - unlike Olivier's Hamlet and Henry? I forgot I was looking at World's Greatest Actor Ever. All I saw was Lear.

Heh. Vortex, yep - but that version did have two things going for it: a superb soundtrack and (I know, I know) one of my favourite renditions of Ophelia ever.

I wish the main characters in that damned play weren't so confused. It makes it hard to get a read on them.