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I get Shakespearse tragedies and Dramas..... Taming of the Shrew, Henry V, Macbeth, Richard III, King Lear, Mechant of Venice, Titus Arititus . They address the human condtion to the core.... But his comedies...They strike me as silly.. And unfunny.... I read Skakespeare not in school but for reading.. Despite being educated in Jamaica a few decases past, I was taught Achebe not Shakespeare..... I simply could not get into As You like it ect... The Taming of the Shrew is called a comedy..sorry its is a drama....
'As You Like It' remains faithful to Shakespeare
published: Saturday | August 18, 2007
Bryce Dallas Howard and David Oyelowo star in 'As You Like It', premiering Tuesday night at 8 on HBO.
Kenneth Branagh always has had a yen for Shakespeare, but that's not why he decided to set the Bard's comedy As You Like It in 19th-century Japan.
The actor and director says that notion for his new film, which premieres Tuesday on HBO, originally came to him during a 1990 trip.
"I sat on a rock garden at a temple in Kyoto for two hours and was surprised at the extraordinary meditative calm that descended on me and the other visitors," Branagh recalls. "It seems to me that one of the central themes in this play is the idea of the transformative effect that nature can have upon us. By relocating the Forest of Arden to Japan, it would be possible to get audiences to experience the story in a new, different and exotic way.
"I felt the sublime landscape and fascinating culture could be an inspiring setting for this quintessential romantic comedy. With sumo, martial arts and cherry blossoms, I hope that the drama and the joy can combine to produce a wonderfully enjoyable film."
While Branagh has shuffled some scenes and brought on-screen what are offstage events in the play, the main thrust of his As You Like It remains faithful to Shakespeare's original text.
Although her father, Duke Senior, has been banished by his usurping brother, Frederick (Brian Blessed, playing both brothers), Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard) is permitted to remain in Frederick's court for the sake of her devoted cousin, Celia (Romola Garai). At a wrestling match, Rosalind meets and falls for the handsome Orlando (David Oyelowo), but before the pair can spend any time together, the paranoid Frederick banishes Rosalind on pain of death.
Witty challenges
At the suggestion of loyal Celia, the two women disguise themselves, Rosalind as a boy, Ganymede, and Celia as 'his' sister, Aliena, then flee into the Forest of Arden. There, the incognito Rosalind runs into the smitten Orlando, who doesn't recognise his lady love. In a series of witty challenges, 'Ganymede' tests Orlando's love before allowing herself to marry him.
Since Rosalind is arguably the longest female part in all of Shakespeare, some might say that Branagh's biggest creative gamble was not in moving the film's setting to Japan, but in selecting American actress Bryce Dallas Howard for this challenging role.
While Howard may be best known to audiences for her work in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, she also is a classically trained stage actress who had played Rosalind in New York two years before Branagh started production. She was delighted to get a 'do over' with this part.
"I was cast the day before rehearsals, and there was only two weeks of rehearsals," she explains. "All the other actors had been doing the play in rep for quite a while, so I felt kind of lost. Therewere some moments where I got it, but for the most part, I kind of felt that I had missed the mark on it, honestly. It was wonderful to do it again and have more time with it.
"Doing this (movie) and seeing it now, it feels complete. I'm usually pretty tough on myself, but I feel really grateful that I had time to prepare and was guided by some amazing people. I hate doing a part and feeling like I haven't gotten it."
Changes in her own life had given Howard a confidence and a clarity she felt she had missed in that earlier New York stage performance, she says.
"When I did it originally, I had just turned 22, and when I did this (film), I had just turned 24 and I had recently gotten engaged," she says. "I think there was more of a maturity, an ease about being in love and feeling secure in life. I think that's what Rosalind has. She's a proper grown-up when the film starts. After she is banished, left alone except for Celia, she has to reinvent herself as a boy, Ganymede. That allows her to be childish and immature and play games. That's how she falls in love."
And while those games she plays with Orlando hinge on his not recognising that 'Ganymede' is really Rosalind, audiences will just have to suspend their disbelief on that score, Howard adds.
"The disguise part is definitely a challenge," she concedes. "The film i realism. It's playful, and it stretches reality. We talked about putting on a lot of make-up and lowering the voice so that it becomes convincing that Rosalind is a boy, but we decided to just imply that she looks like a boy and then just play."
Still, the actress has all the tomboyish mannerisms down pat and seems perfectly at ease in Rosalind's disguise. That's something that won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows Howard, she says.
Joyous experience
"This is a running joke with my friends," Howard says, laughing. "In college I was always cast as a boy or a lesbian. That's all I got to play. I'm heterosexual, but I think I am a little more masculine than feminine.
"I'm thefirstborn, and I kind of took on the position of acting almost like a son in my family, because my brother came last in a huge family. Honestly, I'm a lot like my dad (Oscar-winning director Ron Howard). His birthday is the day before mine, and we have almost exactly the same astrological chart. So I definitely am drawn to these characters who have a balance between their masculine and feminine sides."
Working with such acting heavyweights as Kevin Kline (Jaques), Alfred Molina (Touchstone), Richard Briers (Old Adam) and Janet McTeer (Audrey), Howard says she is grateful to her director for making this film such a joyous experience.
"To tackle something like this at a relatively young age is really intimidating," she says. "These texts are, what, about 400 years old, and many, many great actors have played them. When it's being adapted into a film, you really don't want to ruin it, because especially in this day and age, this may be a kid's only exposure to Shakespeare. That's a horrible thought, but it's true.
"You want to make sure that you are in really great hands and that someone can guide you in a performance that you know will have some kind of weight to it, and I felt very safe with Ken in that regard. He's also very calm and hilarious and sets a wonderful tone on the set."
- John Crook, Zap2it
'As You Like It' remains faithful to Shakespeare
published: Saturday | August 18, 2007
Bryce Dallas Howard and David Oyelowo star in 'As You Like It', premiering Tuesday night at 8 on HBO.
Kenneth Branagh always has had a yen for Shakespeare, but that's not why he decided to set the Bard's comedy As You Like It in 19th-century Japan.
The actor and director says that notion for his new film, which premieres Tuesday on HBO, originally came to him during a 1990 trip.
"I sat on a rock garden at a temple in Kyoto for two hours and was surprised at the extraordinary meditative calm that descended on me and the other visitors," Branagh recalls. "It seems to me that one of the central themes in this play is the idea of the transformative effect that nature can have upon us. By relocating the Forest of Arden to Japan, it would be possible to get audiences to experience the story in a new, different and exotic way.
"I felt the sublime landscape and fascinating culture could be an inspiring setting for this quintessential romantic comedy. With sumo, martial arts and cherry blossoms, I hope that the drama and the joy can combine to produce a wonderfully enjoyable film."
While Branagh has shuffled some scenes and brought on-screen what are offstage events in the play, the main thrust of his As You Like It remains faithful to Shakespeare's original text.
Although her father, Duke Senior, has been banished by his usurping brother, Frederick (Brian Blessed, playing both brothers), Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard) is permitted to remain in Frederick's court for the sake of her devoted cousin, Celia (Romola Garai). At a wrestling match, Rosalind meets and falls for the handsome Orlando (David Oyelowo), but before the pair can spend any time together, the paranoid Frederick banishes Rosalind on pain of death.
Witty challenges
At the suggestion of loyal Celia, the two women disguise themselves, Rosalind as a boy, Ganymede, and Celia as 'his' sister, Aliena, then flee into the Forest of Arden. There, the incognito Rosalind runs into the smitten Orlando, who doesn't recognise his lady love. In a series of witty challenges, 'Ganymede' tests Orlando's love before allowing herself to marry him.
Since Rosalind is arguably the longest female part in all of Shakespeare, some might say that Branagh's biggest creative gamble was not in moving the film's setting to Japan, but in selecting American actress Bryce Dallas Howard for this challenging role.
While Howard may be best known to audiences for her work in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, she also is a classically trained stage actress who had played Rosalind in New York two years before Branagh started production. She was delighted to get a 'do over' with this part.
"I was cast the day before rehearsals, and there was only two weeks of rehearsals," she explains. "All the other actors had been doing the play in rep for quite a while, so I felt kind of lost. Therewere some moments where I got it, but for the most part, I kind of felt that I had missed the mark on it, honestly. It was wonderful to do it again and have more time with it.
"Doing this (movie) and seeing it now, it feels complete. I'm usually pretty tough on myself, but I feel really grateful that I had time to prepare and was guided by some amazing people. I hate doing a part and feeling like I haven't gotten it."
Changes in her own life had given Howard a confidence and a clarity she felt she had missed in that earlier New York stage performance, she says.
"When I did it originally, I had just turned 22, and when I did this (film), I had just turned 24 and I had recently gotten engaged," she says. "I think there was more of a maturity, an ease about being in love and feeling secure in life. I think that's what Rosalind has. She's a proper grown-up when the film starts. After she is banished, left alone except for Celia, she has to reinvent herself as a boy, Ganymede. That allows her to be childish and immature and play games. That's how she falls in love."
And while those games she plays with Orlando hinge on his not recognising that 'Ganymede' is really Rosalind, audiences will just have to suspend their disbelief on that score, Howard adds.
"The disguise part is definitely a challenge," she concedes. "The film i realism. It's playful, and it stretches reality. We talked about putting on a lot of make-up and lowering the voice so that it becomes convincing that Rosalind is a boy, but we decided to just imply that she looks like a boy and then just play."
Still, the actress has all the tomboyish mannerisms down pat and seems perfectly at ease in Rosalind's disguise. That's something that won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows Howard, she says.
Joyous experience
"This is a running joke with my friends," Howard says, laughing. "In college I was always cast as a boy or a lesbian. That's all I got to play. I'm heterosexual, but I think I am a little more masculine than feminine.
"I'm thefirstborn, and I kind of took on the position of acting almost like a son in my family, because my brother came last in a huge family. Honestly, I'm a lot like my dad (Oscar-winning director Ron Howard). His birthday is the day before mine, and we have almost exactly the same astrological chart. So I definitely am drawn to these characters who have a balance between their masculine and feminine sides."
Working with such acting heavyweights as Kevin Kline (Jaques), Alfred Molina (Touchstone), Richard Briers (Old Adam) and Janet McTeer (Audrey), Howard says she is grateful to her director for making this film such a joyous experience.
"To tackle something like this at a relatively young age is really intimidating," she says. "These texts are, what, about 400 years old, and many, many great actors have played them. When it's being adapted into a film, you really don't want to ruin it, because especially in this day and age, this may be a kid's only exposure to Shakespeare. That's a horrible thought, but it's true.
"You want to make sure that you are in really great hands and that someone can guide you in a performance that you know will have some kind of weight to it, and I felt very safe with Ken in that regard. He's also very calm and hilarious and sets a wonderful tone on the set."
- John Crook, Zap2it