DVD Review: Hamlet (2015)

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A dazed and unhinged Hamlet, Maxine Peake is nevertheless able to unleash paragraphs of dialogue with ferocious, lightning quick speed. From growls to laughter, she uses the various notes of her voice almost musically.

And as the first actress to tackle the role of Shakespeare's vengeful Danish prince since Frances La Tour took it on in 1979, Peake simply dazzles in Manchester's 2015 Royal Exchange Theatre production directed for the stage by Sarah Frankcom, which has at last made its way to DVD courtesy of Film Movement's sister label Omnibus Entertainment.

Yet considering the fact that they didn't alter the text or characterizations much to suit the casting, Hamlet's daring gender blind casting might throw you at first. However, once you settle into Frankcom's bold, minimalist, and (fittingly for its Danish setting) near Dogme '95 like staging which wouldn't have been out of place in one of Lars von Trier's late '90s era movies, it becomes not only thrilling to see women deliver some of Shakespeare's most quotable lines but also makes you reevaluate some of the work's core characters and relationships.

As the anchor of the play, Peake's performance is sure to make Shakespeare scholars recall Sarah Bernhardt's argument that Hamlet should only be played by women. Yet the decision to cast a woman in the role of Polonius makes the now mother/father and daughter tragedy of Ophelia all the more more upsetting.

A worthwhile endeavor for fellow theater buffs that translates impressively well to DVD with Margaret Williams directing it for the screen, Hamlet features a strong supporting cast, inventive staging, and fortunately only a couple of minor hiccups few and far between that don't quite live up to potential we've seen displayed in other Bard variations.

Making us feel like we're a part of the action, Hamlet sets itself apart early on during the opening scene where palace guards in neon vests hunt for any sign of Hamlet's father's ghost. Reminding us of the same feeling later on in the production when multiple characters simply stand around and watch Hamlet and Ophelia go mad without doing a thing, in the hands of Frankcom, bearing witness becomes a recurring, emphasized theme, thus giving the 1603 play greater urgency in today's violent world.

Ensuring that everything from Peake's David Bowie meets Billy Idol clothing and hairstyle to the wailing, dissonant jazz that plays between scenes during set-ups serves to punctuate the material even more, in this angry punk rock production of Hamlet, Frankcom and company take Polonius' advice of “to thine own self be true” to heart.


Text ©2018, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy or screener link of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique. Cookies Notice: This site incorporates tools (including advertiser partners and widgets) that use cookies and may collect some personal information in order to display ads tailored to you etc. Please be advised that neither Film Intuition nor its site owner has any access to this data beyond general site statistics (geographical region etc.) as your privacy is our main concern.

Blu-ray Review: Shakespeare Wallah (1965)

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Although initially intended to serve as a metaphor for the disappearance of western (or more specifically) British culture from India in the mid twentieth century, 1965's understated Merchant Ivory offering Shakespeare Wallah has become even more thematically significant today on a global scale, considering the rate at which the arts are vanishing more than fifty years later in the twenty-first.

Of course, that's not to say that the work itself is overly heavy. Created at the intersection of fact and fiction, this lush yet free flowing collision of art and life was born when the diaries of traveling theatre troupe head Geoffrey Kendal provided James Ivory with the authentic perspective that he and co-writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala needed to get Ivory's idea for an story about Shakespearean actors in India off and running.

The second Merchant Ivory production after The Householder, Shakespeare Wallah was also the second of nine works to star their Householder lead, popular Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor. In an against-type role as one third of the film's love triangle Kapoor's local Indian man Sanju finds himself caught between the guileless and naturally gifted, Indian born British stage actress Lizzie Buckingham (played by Kapoor's real life sister-in-law Felicity Kendal) and Madhur Jaffrey's glamorous, vain, and self-involved rising Bollywood star, Manjula.

A crowd favorite, for her turn Jaffrey garnered a well-deserved Best Actress award from the Berlin Film Festival. And further foreshadowing Merchant Ivory's future strength in attracting marvelous talent, as the daughter of director James Ivory's offscreen turned onscreen source Geoffrey Kendal (who stars in the picture alongside his wife, daughters, and son-in-law), Felicity Kendal does a marvelous job serving as the production's Shakespearean muse.

While unfortunately her parents were unhappy with the metaphorical direction the film took because it was in stark contrast to their experiences traveling through India in the late 1940s, teenage actress Felicity Kendal was better able to differentiate between the offscreen reality of their memories and the onscreen drama of the film, given her largely secondhand knowledge of the events that had occurred nearly twenty years earlier.

Keeping things light and playful as much with a look as she does with the film's subtle – at times perfunctory – dialogue, which builds in waves for the moments it reaches a dramatic fever pitch, Kendal gives a performance that's doubly impressive when you consider both her status as a newcomer as well as someone juggling such complex family loyalty dynamics on both sides of the lens.

Given a budget low enough to necessitate that the film be shot in black-and-white, Wallah wound up benefiting from what most would consider a financial misfortune. Not only did the lack of funds inspire additional creativity but it also ensured that the behind-the-scenes movie magic used to generate some of the film’s most sumptuous sequences (such as the bright yellow smoke bombs needed to produce scenic romantic mist) would stay marvelously hidden from view.

Paying off beautifully, in this exquisite 2k digital restoration of Wallah made from the George Eastman Museum archive’s 35mm composite fine grain master, our senses are dazzled from start to finish. And while I’m obviously glad that the yellow smoke was kept out of sight, as a movie geek nearly blind from years of subtitle/closed captioning overload, I do wish some of the yellow color had stuck around to be used in place Wallah's small white font. All too frequently the words vanish into the white background similar to the way that theater audiences vanished from the Buckingham's performances in favor of Bollywood movies throughout the course of the film.

Nonetheless, from its instantly charming opening credit sequence to Satyajit Ray's affecting score, the film – which amazingly failed to find an American distributor in its initial release – went on to set the stage for the dozens of Merchant Ivory productions that would follow. And devotees of their movies are sure to appreciate the fact this new high definition restoration has arrived on disc just after James Ivory took home his first screenwriting Oscar for Call Me By Your Name after a lifetime of marvelous work.

Offering arthouse fans much in which to delight, the Cohen Film Collection Blu-ray includes two informative essays as well as a handful of special features salvaged from the title's earlier Criterion Collection release, which gives you the opportunity to hear the filmmakers breakdown their work in every stage.

Unlike other Shakespearean referential titles (including the lovely '98 Oscar winning Best Picture Shakespeare in Love as well as any number of terrific adaptations), Shakespeare Wallah does much more than romantically celebrate the Bard. Thanks to the film's stellar cast and crew as well as its use of art and cultural metaphor in building its own narrative through-line steeped in authenticity, Merchant Ivory's Wallah has grown that much more topical with each passing year.


Text ©2018, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy or screener link of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

DVD Review: Playing Shakespeare (1982)

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Okay, all "to be or not to be" aside-- can you imagine how intimidating it would've been to have taken an acting class alongside individuals such as Ben Kingsley (I mean Gandhi himself!), Ian McKellen and Judi Dench?

So with this in mind, thank goodness that Playing Shakespeare-- the 1982 legendary in-depth, nine episode master class led by John Barton on behalf of the Royal Shakespeare Company has now been made available for Bard buffs to enjoy in the privacy of their own home.

Recently it was served up as a four disc, slim-packaged exquisite collection from Acorn Media and Athena that also comes complete with a twenty page viewer's guide which offers more avenues for learning, history, points to ponder and highlights of the episodes as a sort of CliffsNotes version to the originally lauded companion text released in tandem with the London Weekend Television production. Furthermore, it's a wonderful way to appreciate the renowned and still so relevant production that was dubbed "required watching" for actors by The New York Times.

Still, of interest for more than just Shakespearean inclined actors-- whether you have a thing for iambic pentameter or are just simply interested in the tremendous creative output of Shakespeare's versatile plays (both tragic and comic alike)-- it's intellectual nourishment of the highest order. And likewise it makes an ideal companion work to more modern interpretations from my favorite Shakespeare professor, Mr. Kenneth Branagh to Al Pacino's fun documentary Looking for Richard.

Admittedly, on the surface it's safe to say it's even more pretentious than an entire season of the knowledgeable, brainy, but nonetheless amusingly SNL mocked stylings of James Lipton on our very own Actor's Studio (based on the Stanislavski system, a.k.a. "method acting" in its New York City setting). And it's additionally hindered by the fact that some of Barton's episodes and discussions feel a bit repetitive. Nonetheless it's a great deconstruction of the various choices one makes when taking on a role in a Shakespeare production and a thorough analysis of the texts at the same time.

Having seen a majority of the series in a random order sporadically during the last fifteen years via not just television (I'm guessing PBS, Bravo or BBC America perhaps) but academia-- in everything from high school acting classes to collegiate literary studies on Shakespeare and master's level humanities coursework-- it was thrilling to finally take it all in the correct order when I could simply view it as a work instead of painstakingly taking notes for use in a required paper or for a scene study.

Breaking down the works with Barton's ongoing thesis that Shakespeare planted clues (or cues) throughout the text that are meant to help the actor and offer a guide for the the Bard's true intention on how a work should be played-- throughout the series Barton and the cast of twenty-one acclaimed and award winning actors play intellectual detectives.

Additionally, they weigh some of the inconsistencies in his use of short lines followed by long speeches, controversies surrounding the characters (for example Shylock in Merchant of Venice) and try to avoid overplaying the scenes as well as using iambic pentameter in too mannered of a style. By discussing the challenges of tackling the centuries old works as modern method trained and/or naturalistic actors, it makes one realize just how daunting it would be to take on the texts we know so well that-- as Barton acknowledges in the opening of the set-- over one thousand books and articles are written about the playwright and poet every single year.

Although it's far easier to say whether or not something is good or bad (acting-wise), it's a different obstacle altogether to dissect why we make those judgments as this highly talented group dissects their reasoning regarding how to choose the approach to deliver a particular line (or even simply one word) from an infinite number of options. And while Barton is the one running the show, it's especially great to see the way that the actors (or more specifically Ian McKellen routinely ask him to define or clarify words and phrases) in order to test their own theories and opinions as they go back and forth.

Despite Barton's earnest wish that he wouldn't do too much directing during the series nor have the members of the Royal Shakespeare Company do more talking than acting, both of these well-intentioned promises are broken early on as the one weakness the collection has is the fact that it comes off as "much ado about nothing," or quips aside, far too much conversation about what they think and not enough actual scene work that allows them to transfer these thoughts into action. However, when the characters-- even in modern dress-- deliver a line like the wondrous McKellan in a multitude of ways to illustrate how something can endlessly be interpreted, that's when the series shows us the glory of the best Shakespeare company in the world.

While all of the cast-mates have their moments, for me, the major "must see" segment was witnessing two extremely different takes on Shylock by David Suchet and Patrick Stewart as despite the fact that Barton had directed both men in their interpretations, neither actor had seen the other one perform it.

First discussing the alleged anti-semitism of the play which becomes a matter of personal significance for the Jewish Suchet who recalls getting horrific letters from Americans questioning his decision to act in such a work-- he and Stewart agree that you can't judge the play in terms of the twentieth century holocaust and it's interesting to see the way the two men address the Jewish religion in their respective characterizations.

While to Stewart, Shylock is "an alien" and "an outsider" who happens to be Jewish, to Suchet, Shylock is an outsider "because he is Jewish" and his passion comes through at once in their scenes together as they trade off. And although Stewart is a talented actor, to me it's apparent right off the bat that his approach to making the character so overly broad (to the point that at one moment he slips strangely into what sounds like a Scottish accent) is a grievous error for the work. Essentially his take makes Shylock a spectacle whereas Suchet moves us to such an extent-- although he works hard against playing scenes like "hath not a Jew eyes" for sheer sympathy-- that I realized I would never look at the man most famous for his portrayal of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot the same way ever again.

Simply put, I wanted to start a Suchet fan club and wondered why on Earth he hadn't broken free to the same level of stardom as McKellan and Kingsley (both of whom look so amazingly young you'll do a double take in episode one).

A wonderfully valuable treasure for fans of Shakespeare and filled with great debate on his most famous texts, discussion regarding the significance of the word "time" (which should be said with two syllables) in the work of the Bard, it's safe to say this collection will be a must-own for those who've ever done more than just passively read along with his work in elementary school.

Shakespeare:
In Print



Shakespeare:
On Film

Legend of the Black Scorpion

Alternate Title:
The Banquet
Director:
Xiaogang Feng

“Something is rotten in the state of…” China? Over the years, the timeless plays of William Shakespeare have been transferred to the screen in countless adaptations both classical and radical from Akira Kurosawa’s versions of Macbeth (Throne of Blood) and King Lear (Ran) to Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’s Oscar winning interpretation of Romeo and Juliet (West Side Story). The overwhelming influence of the Bard’s comedies and tragedies on not only cinema but popular culture in general is incalculable as his lines echo in the mouths of Quentin Tarantino characters, themes dance throughout our big budget period epics and there have been so many incarnations of legendary villains and heroes such as Lady Macbeth, Iago, and Hamlet that it could cause a graduate student meltdown.

And perhaps even more remarkably every once in awhile a filmmaker is bold enough to admit right from the start that they’re interpreting not just any Shakespeare play but his greatest tragedy Hamlet and bolder still is when the filmmaker’s last name isn’t Branagh. In 1996, Kenneth Branagh, my favorite Shakespearean professor, released what would become to academics the ultimate version of Hamlet in his dazzling masterwork clocking in at 242 riveting minutes that never cease to amaze audiences so much that some film critics have even named it one of the greatest achievements in filmmaking of the entire 1990’s. Needless to say, following in Branagh’s footsteps where Hamlet is concerned took considerable moxie and it was a move best made by a filmmaker willing to take a large departure from the text to offer audiences something remarkably different.

With this in mind, I transport you dear readers to China where master martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix, Kill Bill) teamed up with director Xiaogang Feng for their very own adaptation of the Danish prince’s quest for revenge, named the Legend of the Black Scorpion. While admittedly it takes awhile to gain our interest as it annoyingly begins to go into exposition twice orally instead of illustrating things visually, we become quickly aware of the Shakespearean similarities only moments into this visually spectacular award winning film festival favorite, which features the largest set ever constructed in China (IMDb) and was chosen as the official Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards.

Obviously inspired by Hamlet, although some critics such as Derek Elley of Variety also drew comparisons to Macbeth, Feng’s film is set during the tumultuous crumbling of the Tang Dynasty in 907 AD as we’re introduced to the film’s version of Hamlet, named Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu) in an embarrassingly earnest and awkward opening ballad that’s both as reminiscent and effective of Woody Allen’s usage of a Greek chorus in Mighty Aphrodite. Lovesick and desperately heartbroken, Wu Luan has retreated to study the arts including his love for singing and dancing while still upset that his teacher and emperor father had married his classmate and sweetheart Wan (Memoirs of a Geisha star Ziyi Zhang). When he learns that his father has been killed, all hands seem to point to his power hungry, lustful Uncle Li (You Ge) who soon enough confirms that suspicion by ordering a band of soldiers to execute Wu Luan and planning to first bed and then wed Empress Wan (Ziyi Zhang) to rule by his side. After he predictably escapes the deadly attack, Wu Luan returns to the palace where he’s torn between his affection for his sensuous stepmother who’s even younger than he is, his devoted betrothed the Ophelia like Qing Nu (Xun Zhou) and of course, exact lethal revenge on his murderous uncle, the Emperor Li.

Erroneously advertised as an action picture especially given the martial arts friendly name change from The Banquet as well as Woo-ping’s involvement which finds his jaw-dropping talent given very little opportunity to shine, this gorgeously photographed tragedy shot by award winning cinematographer Li Zhang never manages to draw us in on a level that goes beyond sheer aesthetic appreciation. Partially due to the otherwise excellent Ziyi Zhang who’s far too young for the role that was originally slated for Gong Li or Maggie Cheung (IMDb), even with the part rewritten expressly with this age change in mind, but it’s greatest tragedy isn’t in the film’s scope or in tackling source material from the daunting Shakespeare but in slowing it all to a scorpion’s pace where at roughly half the length of Branagh’s Hamlet, it still feels a good 30 minutes too long. While the Bard’s brainiacs are sure to check it out regardless, honestly it’s time well spent for artists who will undoubtedly find themselves inspired less by the forced, clunky conversation that no doubt suffers in translation and more by the film’s visual poetry in terms of the production design and costuming (both courtesy of Oscar winner Timmy Yip) that’s worthy of Shakespeare himself.