tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88433787258017901132024-02-07T06:49:08.651-05:00Noelle's NookA place for reviews and commentary on movies, tv-shows, and etceteras.
"take upon's the mystery of things"
King LearElleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-86336361738448511912014-11-22T12:05:00.002-05:002014-11-22T12:09:40.515-05:00The Witch of Edmonton (RSC)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A devil dog connects the disparate threads of the atmospheric <i>Witch of Edmonton. </i>The collaborative work by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford followed Henry Goodcole's 1621 exposé <i>The wonderful discovery of Elizabeth Sawyer, a Witch, late of Edmonton</i>.<br />
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The titular witch (Eileen Atkins) is a Shylock-like figure. Abused and berated by her neighbors, Mother Sawyer decides that if she is treated like a witch, she will act like one. Who should be listening but the devil, a black "dog" (Jay Simpson) named Tom. Meanwhile, the young Frank Thorney (Ian Bonar) secretly marries the pregnant Winnifride (Shvorne Marks), but his father insists Frank wed the virtuous daughter of a wealthy farmer. The third plot line follows the ridiculous Cuddy Banks (Dafydd Llyr Thomas, resembling Jack Black, here), who asks the witch about a love spell before encountering the devil himself.<br />
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Moody lighting, a reedy forest, detailed costumes, and beautiful if brief musical accents bring the rural Jacobean setting to life. One of the most memorable musical interludes is a funny and eerie dance that the devil commandeers. The devil is a marvelous creature. Simpson looks like a traditional demon, nearly naked, covered in paint, and decked with horns and a tail. His animalistic movements and light voice create a seductive, otherworldly figure.<br />
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The solid cast is unable to prevent the show from slowing to a crawl during its drawn-out conclusion, and there is one awkwardly prolonged death-scene. Still, the tense <i>Witch of Edmonton</i> makes for a night of spooky and suspenseful theatre.<br />
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Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-3543169455861748192014-10-18T17:59:00.003-04:002014-10-18T17:59:17.599-04:00Love's Labour's Lost (RSC)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Christopher Luscombe's charming production of William Shakespeare's <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> is set in the Edwardian era on a Victorian manor. The King of Navarre and his three friends vow to give up sleep, food, and women and instead dedicate themselves to studying. However, the king inconveniently forgot about the arrival of the Princess of France and her female entourage. Needless to say, the men's studies don't go as planned.<br />
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The play itself has gradually been gaining popularity. It premiered in front of Queen Elizabeth I, which partially explains the erudite language. The wordplay is intense, and its many obscure references are often lost on audiences. <i>Labour's </i>plot is delightfully silly. It is the play's rhetoric that elevates it. The dialogue is crammed with puns, rhymes, and poetry.<br />
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The witty and pragmatic Berowne, its protagonist, is perhaps the closest character we have to a young Shakespeare. He is played by the always-wonderful Edward Bennett. King Navarre and his friends (Sam Alexander, William Belchambers, and Tunji Kasim) are likewise endearing.<br />
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Of the women, Michelle Terry fares best as Berowne's clever love-interest. Unfortunately, the women don't have nearly as much fun as the men. Their sparkling costumes are stunning, but the focus on a Downton-Abbey-esque reserve makes their scenes rather dull.<br />
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The supporting cast is quite strong. One plot follows the love-struck Spaniard Don Armado (John Hodgkinson), and another detours into conversations between two ridiculously pretentious scholars. David Horovitch is especially funny as Holofernes, whose nonsensical discourse is particularly difficult to grasp. Peter McGovern brings wit and a sweet singing voice to the role of Moth, a page who humors Don Armado and his love-sickness.<br />
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The subplots converge in a performance of the 'Nine Worthies' for the lords and ladies. This play-within-a-play is a heart-warming musical inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan. The ensemble impressively handles the production's numerous musical and dance numbers.<br />
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Nigel Hess's score underlines the entire play. His music, performed by a backstage band, is alternately distracting, corny, and moving. Also essential are Simon Higlett's complex and gorgeous sets. One of the most memorable scenes takes place at night on a roof, illuminated from below.<br />
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The 'Nine Worthies' devolves into chaos caused by personal rivalries, and the comedy concludes on an uncharacteristically melancholy note. The 1914 setting lends great resonance to the ending. Here, <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> is a diversion full of pre-war innocence.<br />
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The director has decided to pair it with the post-war play <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, or, in this case, <i>Love's Labour's Won</i>. The first half of this two-parter is a delightful piece that will likely improve as it continues to run. While <i>Much Ado</i> is the better-known play, <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> has its own glittering charm.Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-29729297769374527572014-10-07T15:11:00.001-04:002014-10-09T04:59:21.339-04:00The Roaring Girl (RSC)<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small;">
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Jo Davies's adaptation of <i>The Roaring Girl</i> just finished its run at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Written by the Thomases Middleton and Dekker in 1611, <i>The Roaring Girl</i> features a remarkable, real-life figure. Mad Moll is a cross-dressing, cigar-smoking woman who assaults the sexist and assists the virtuous. The rest of the play is an uneven romantic farce, sometimes funny, often obscure.<br />
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This version has elements of three time periods: it is written in the Early Modern period, set in in the Victorian era, and infused with modern rock music. Still, instead of conveying sexism's timelessness, this decision diminishes Mad Moll's radical character.<br />
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Part of the setting's purpose is to show that the Victorian age was not as prudish as we think. One viewer pointed out that at the end of the play, it is not Mad Moll who is isolated, but the old white men. Still, this takes away from the titular Girl, who is far more transgressive than the play attempts to be. Lisa Dillon is fine as Moll "Cutpurse," but her slim, androgynous looks are not truly groundbreaking in the way Moll is supposed to be. Her queerness is rather chic, while Moll is spoken of as an ever-present source of wonder and danger.<br />
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The main plot is so silly that a disclaimer is included within the text. A young man pretends to pine for Moll so his true love will look good in comparison. His overbearing father sets out to sabotage Moll. Several scoundrels attempt to seduce two married women--or more precisely, their purses. David Rintoul stands out as the intolerant Sir Wengrave as does Harvey Virdi as Mistress Openwork, who turns the tables on her seducer. (Other names include Gallipot, Goshawk, Dapper, Tiltyard, Trapdoor, and Neatfoot.)<br />
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A concluding speech boldly pronounces the importance of individuality and tolerance in the face of societal judgment. The message hits home.<br />
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The performances are energetic, and Moll is a brilliant individual. Still, one gets the sense that The Roaring Girl is a fascinating play to study, but one that is confusing and even dull to watch.</div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-38559786654196933412014-08-20T21:18:00.000-04:002014-08-20T21:19:01.501-04:00Solidarity in a Time of Crisis<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Recently,
we’ve had national discussions about: </span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">gun control, healthcare, poverty. The list goes on. These
conversations inevitably get sidetracked and fade from the media, though the
issues continue to burn in our minds. The economy continues to limp along.
<a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/attack-on-american-labor-standards/">Legislators strike down labor laws</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. We are increasingly entwined in the lives and
struggles of those across the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This barrage of ills,
combined with a bombardment of local and international horrors, fosters apathy.
Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Pakistan, Russia, and West Africa have been in the news
recently because of overwhelming illness and violence, and we all know the
media only shows a fraction of suffering and injustice in the world. Contradictory
reports convey situations as muddled, murky, and convoluted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But what do we actually know
about Ferguson? A white policeman shot an unarmed young black man six times.
The police responded by leaving the body in the sun and preparing for protests
with military equipment. They shot rubber bullets at crowds and teargassed
people into their homes. They arrested, threatened, and assaulted civilians,
including journalists . They pointed sniper rifles at innocent protestors. The
governor declared a curfew on the town. The police refused to release information
about the alleged perpetrator until they simultaneously released a video of the
victim supposedly robbing a store.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The paragraph is in past
tense, but it’s not over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Have there been riots
and looting? Yes. Has there been violence? Yes. Have there been shootings? Yes.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Let’s look at the Civil
Rights Movement during its most famous years. It was peaceful. It was simple.
It was quickly accepted by citizens across the country. Right? Wrong. It was
divided and dangerous. It was organized and strategic. It was considered a
distraction from more important evils. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Right now, conservatives
are criticizing protestors by pointing out the evils of ISIS, as though
fighting against systematic racism and violence supports a vicious,
self-declared caliphate. Back in the ‘60s, civil rights activists were
condemned for causing trouble when the Soviet Union was oppressing its
civilians and threatening world annihilation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The language then and
now is very similar. “Don’t they have anything better to do? Why can’t they
control themselves and let the system work itself out? They only care about
blacks. What about the rest of the world? There are two, equally valid sides to
every issue. Why are they instigating violence?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Even though the vast
majority of protestors have been peaceful (some are actively preventing
looting), the police blame their own brutal reaction on the handful of violent
civilians. “Why can’t they just be peaceful and remember Martin Luther King,
Jr.’s message?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Here’s why: the only
reason why so many (but not nearly all) civil rights activists in the 1960s
were nonviolent was the highly concerted effort to train protestors to react to
abuse with nonviolent resistance. They provided this training because they knew
the natural human reaction to threats is fight or flight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The police in Ferguson
have devolved into “us versus them” mentality, which is why they don’t even
have the judgment to make themselves look good on camera. Empathy and
compromise become less likely. Some of them are having the time of their lives,
finding thrill in fighting “the enemy” every night. Some are scared, because
large groups of angry people, especially when they have just cause, are scary.
White Southerners who beat peaceful activists in the sixties often described
themselves as being driven by fear to “defend” their community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Ferguson police are
taking out the media in a variety of ways. In many Southern attacks on
activists, reporters were the first to be taken out. Cameras were smashed,
journalists were beaten. It makes sense to remove the means of recording a
serious crime. Thankfully, civilians now have ways to record and quickly disseminate
information. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Racism today is
perceived as being more subtle than it was in the past. Segregation and voter disenfranchisement
still exist, but the solutions are less clear-cut. People dismiss this epidemic
of police violence due to it being directed at “criminals.” The
prison-industrial complex is so ingrained in American culture, many hardly think
twice about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This is how
discrimination happens. This is how inequality exists. This is how atrocities
occur. They become normal and, thus, invisible. Those who experience it every
day are told to shut up and stop exaggerating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But the world was
watching when white Southerners beat black activists fifty years ago, and the
world is watching now. And they are outraged. Recordings of police brutality
have been popping up for years. A few simple laws could significantly reduce
police violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In 1961, the nation’s
youth poured into Mississippi and Alabama to protest segregated bus stations.
That sense of solidarity happened then, and it can happen now. In spite of
widespread prejudice and racism today, past activists DID make a difference. This
new world includes the internet, a tool for coordinating, fundraising, and
gathering information, as we have seen across the planet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We can learn from past
and present movements. Gazans, also trapped in their homes, instructed Ferguson
residents on how to handle tear gas. The most successful civil rights groups were
and are tactical. Working together can be as challenging as facing down
oppressors. Something Occupy Wall Street severely lacked was <i>focus</i>, an essential element in affecting
change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Diane Nash, a leader of
the 1960s Movement, pointed out that metal is most malleable when hot and least
manipulable when cool.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And right now, it is
hot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-46606781031428425492014-07-13T21:21:00.000-04:002014-07-13T21:21:37.886-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Ten Relationships<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">The final Shakespeare Challenge: finding ten relationships, good or bad, harmonious or dysfunctional.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [1] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Othello and Desdemona</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><img height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/adfc6858b6b661afcf98cd65659a1439/tumblr_inline_n6vv4tlRRX1qj3mmv.gif" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="358" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Against all societal convention, Othello and Desdemona fall desperately in love and marry. They treat each other as equals—at first. Desdemona makes Othello happier than he could have imagined, and Desdemona deeply admires the experienced Othello. One gets the impression that they would have had a long and happy marriage if everything didn’t go AS BADLY AS IT POSSIBLY COULD.</span></div>
<blockquote style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-color: rgb(255, 250, 224); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; line-height: 14px; margin: 10px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; width: 450px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>OTHELLO: </strong>Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">But I do love thee! And when I love thee not</span><br />
<div class="original-line">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Chaos is come again.</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [2] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Benedick and Beatrice</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Beatrice and Benedick have a long “friendship,” which consists of exchanging barbed insults. They talk about how much they despise one another until, thanks to interfering friends, the two fall in love. Their relationship is one of equals, as they have met their match.</span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">BENEDICK: </strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [3] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Cassius and Brutus</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Cassius manipulates Brutus into killing their friend and leader, using his strong moral sense against him. But Cassius relies on Brutus. They conspire together and go through great danger together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>BRUTUS</b>: When I spoke that, I was ill-temper’d too.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>CASSIUS</b>: Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>BRUTUS</b>: And my heart too.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;"><b>CASSIUS</b>: </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">O Brutus!</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [4] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Hotspur and Lady Percy</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Hotspur and his wife have a, shall we say, fiery relationship. The macho and sexist Hotspur has an equally headstrong wife, Lady Percy, or Kate. But underneath their many arguments lies a true affection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>LADY PERCY:</strong> In faith, I’ll break thy little finger, Harry,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [5] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Bottom and the Rude Mechanicals</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">The enthusiastic, arrogant, and bombastic Bottom is one of Shakespeare’s funniest creations. He and a group of laborers are part-time actors. In spite of his immense stupidity, his confidence inspires the other actors’ admiration. They flee from Bottom when fairies turn him into an ass (get it?), but they reunite to perform in front of the court. Their shenanigans and tragic play are absolutely hilarious, and there is something endearing about their dedication to one another and to the play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>QUINCE</strong>: If we offend, it is with our good will. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">That you should think, we come not to offend, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">But with good will. To show our simple skill, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">That is the true beginning of our end.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [6] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Mistress Ford and Mistress Page</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">These two badass ladies run rings around the men in their lives. One husband is super jealous, the other is laid back. One man tries to seduce them both to get their money. They find all this to be hilarious. They’ve known each other since childhood, and when together, they are as mischievous as clever schoolgirls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Above: their secret handshake in a production I saw at the London Globe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>FORD:</strong> I think, if your husbands were dead,</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">you two would marry.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [7] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Rosalind and Celia</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Rosalind and Celia are very close cousins. When Rosalind is banished, Celia defies her father and goes with Rosalind into the forest. Rosalind dresses as a boy and Celia as a peasant girl. They share secrets about love until their relationship gives way to heterosexual romance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>CELIA:</strong> we still have slept together,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Rose at an instant, learn’d, play’d, eat together,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">And wheresoever we went, like Juno’s swans,</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Still we went coupled and inseparable.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [8] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Macbeth and Lady Macbeth</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Macbeth admires his wife’s steely resolve. Though Lady Macbeth berates and pressures her husband, one gets the impression that this relationship is fairly equal. They consult and advise one another. They have gone through hardships together. Once the killing starts, though, the two become increasingly estranged until Macbeth is too numb to mourn his wife’s death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">MACBETH</strong><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">:</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [9] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Henry V and Catherine</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">After defeating France, Henry V woos French princess Catherine over a language barrier in a charming scene. However, there is plenty of ambiguity here, considering this is an arranged marriage between conquered and conqueror.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>KING HENRY V</b>: O fair Catherine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10. Relationship [10] </span><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Antony and Cleopatra</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Unlike most lovers on this list, Antony and Cleopatra are middle-aged. In spite of their experience, they are rash, dramatic, and passionately in love. But balancing love and work, when it involves running countries and working at cross purposes, can be messy, even for the most formidable historical icons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">ANTONY: Egypt, thou knew’st too well<br />My heart was to thy rudder tied by th’ strings,<br />And thou shouldst tow me after. O’er my spirit<br />Thy full supremacy thou knew’st, and that<br />Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods<br />Command me.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14px;">That's it. Hope you enjoyed it! :)</span> </span>Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-72872206501829059132014-07-13T21:08:00.004-04:002014-07-13T21:08:58.371-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Nine Protagonists<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [1] </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Berowne</strong>, <em>Love’s Labour’s Lost</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Literary, cynical, and merry, Berowne is a delightful protagonist who can argue for or against anything. He delivers gorgeous, witty speeches, and, to me, represents a young Shakespeare.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [2]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Cleopatra</strong>, <em>Antony and Cleopatra</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In many ways, Cleopatra is a stereotype of a histrionic woman. However, I eventually came to admire how open she is about her desires and emotions as well as her more tactical side. Mark Antony brags about how independent he is from Cleopatra, but in battle, in spite of her genuine love for Mark Antony, Cleopatra is the one thinking about numero uno.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [3]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Hamlet</strong>, <em>Hamlet</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">How could I not include Hamlet, one of the most famous, complex characters of all time? This intense young prince is overwhelmed by grief and circumstances that are out of his control. Deeply emotional, philosophical, troubled, and witty, Hamlet is often hailed as a modern man whose thought surpasses his action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [4]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Othello</strong>, <em>Othello</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The titular Othello has lived a hard life, but he considers himself a lucky man. In spite of being a black Moor in Italy, he has become a general and married a senator’s daughter. Othello is remarkably cool-headed and respected—until his close friend, a comrade-in-arms, starts spinning lies to play on his deeply buried insecurities. Othello’s fall is one of the greatest and most tragic in Shakespeare.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [5]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Lear</strong>, <em>King Lear</em></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/c77f072620313b7e73b63d8504795184/tumblr_inline_n6kc8tjzK31qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="332" /></span></em></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lear is a highly flawed king, bombastic, self-righteous, and, in his old age, unwise. Yet his decline into dementia is devastating. After the betrayal of his daughters, he vacillates between lucidity, confusion, and extreme bitterness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [6]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Macbeth</strong>, <em>Macbeth</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The audience watches as Macbeth turns from respected soldier to manipulative and bloody villain. Spurred on by three witches and his wife, he is at first reluctant to kill for the throne. Yet once he starts, paranoia takes over, life and love lose meaning, and Macbeth can’t stop murdering friend and foe to keep his power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [7]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Rosalind</strong>, <em>As You Like It</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><em><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/a21b0bbaeb8dab42e1b9bfcf4d91be75/tumblr_inline_n6oiseN4l61qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="299" /></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Rosalind is the vivacious </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">daughter of a banished duke. After her uncle also banishes her, she heads for the woods, dons men’s clothing, and cheekily names herself Ganymede. She uses her disguise to flirt with her crush and teach him about love, teasing and obsessing over him along the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [8]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Benedick</strong>, <em>Much Ado About Nothing</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Benedick is a misogynistic if hilarious fellow who swears off marriage. He loves war, his comrades at arms, and cracking jokes. By the end of the play, he sides with a woman while other men malign her and consents to both love and marriage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">9. Protagonist [9]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Beatrice</strong>, <em>Much Ado About Nothing</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>DON PEDRO: </strong>Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you, for out o’ question you were born in a merry hour.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>BEATRICE: </strong>No, sure, my lord, my mother cried, but then there was a</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">star danced, and under that was I born.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Beatrice is free-spirited, outspoken, fiesty, loyal, and witty. Her friends list her flaws as being proud and sometimes merciless. Basically, she’s the bomb. Delightful company, great entertainment, and a friend who will defend you to the end.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-31868213365193827882014-07-13T19:56:00.001-04:002014-07-13T19:56:45.021-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Eight Plays<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [1] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hamlet</span></strong></div>
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<span style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; color: black; font-size: x-small; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;"><a href="http://confusedlarch.tumblr.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;">(confusedlarch)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">What can I say about Hamlet, the character or the play? They are never ending, fascinating puzzles, portrayed and interpreted countless times. The plot follows a young prince driven to avenge his father’s murder. Along the way, the audience is treated to existential meditations about the human condition. Don’t worry, though, there’s humor as well. Filled with iconic quotes and characters, the play is considered by many to be a remarkably modern study of an individual’s grapple with purpose, life, and death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [2] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Othello</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" height="319" src="http://media.tumblr.com/a5a53bbdc8bb40aabcb9ecbe7ae2eeb0/tumblr_inline_n52w4efzl61qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Though written four hundred years ago, Othello deals with racism, sexism, and psychopathy. It includes gorgeous language and well-drawn characters. Othello is a black “Moor,” a former slave who becomes a renowned general. He and Desdemona, a young white daughter of a senator, fall desperately in love and marry. Unfortunately, Iago, one of Othello’s comrades and closest friends, takes the opportunity to play upon Othello’s weaknesses. The audience watches in fascination and frustration as a one of the most wicked villains of all time torments sympathetic but highly flawed protagonists. Sometimes problematic, always controversial, the play is one of Shakespeare’s most painful tragedies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [3] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Much Ado About Nothing</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" height="253" src="http://media.tumblr.com/9329da03558852944771720df00bad27/tumblr_inline_n52y04lnae1qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Much Ado About Nothing follows two couples, one young and innocent, the other slightly older and much more cynical. When slander drives their small community apart, the play veers awfully close to tragedy. Thankfully, it remains a delightful comedy, with scintillating banter, buffoonery, and a battle between the sexes. In spite, or perhaps because, of the play’s genuine tension and heartbreak, one leaves Much Ado thinking of the ridiculous wonders of love and how “man is a giddy thing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [4] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Measure for Measure</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/b042717b28b4f5b55dcb33da74e4c1e0/tumblr_inline_n5361u3lDs1qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="326" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A very dark comedy, Measure for Measure includes sexual coercion, the threat of beheading, and lots of prostitution. The few “moral” characters are, at best, hypocrites. There is some hilarious and ribald humor deriding draconian laws and pious attitudes, particularly when it comes to sex.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [5] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Winter’s Tale</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/25ed2d5e81b54c97b4adca8a2c4d7669/tumblr_inline_n56p98x0DC1qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="339" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Winter’s Tale is a beautiful play of grief and loss, joy and restoration. A king, in a mad fit of jealousy, disrupts his court and destroys his family. The character “Time” divides the play in two. The second part takes place years later, where the warmer spring winds offer second chances and fresh hope. There is a hint of the supernatural, but perhaps it is simply the power of love that renews the human soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [6] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" height="399" src="http://media.tumblr.com/98b307490e24a57839a3d263a0f16b62/tumblr_inline_n59uu992lR1qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">At first, I thought A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a remarkably silly play. But now I couldn’t do without the enchanting setting and abundant humor. Mismatched lovers, bickering fairies, magic spells, a hilarious troupe of actors, and one ridiculous play within a play add up to make one of Shakespeare’s most memorable comedies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [7] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Antony and Cleopatra</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" height="395" src="http://media.tumblr.com/3758e7cbf58ab562a6161c5d330e08ac/tumblr_inline_n59vkn44nc1qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I’ve only read Antony and Cleopatra once, and, truth be told, I don’t remember it in detail. I do remember the vivid, plausible characters who grew on me over the course of the play. The romance initially comes across as overwrought and gendered before revealing itself as complex and mature. It is ultimately a moving and complicated political story of the end of an era and a love between two great figures with personalities to match.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Play [8] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Romeo and Juliet</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/afcdf15f647bbfec493677baf6466541/tumblr_inline_n59weqnFYe1qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="373" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This tragic story of two very young lovers has been adapted both before and after Shakespeare’s version. It is filled with beautiful poetry and lively characters, such as our heroine’s bawdy nurse and our hero’s wild friend. The love story illuminates the rashness and innocence of youth in a community fraught with prejudice and violence.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-47733809864363566752014-07-13T19:47:00.003-04:002014-07-13T19:48:45.299-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Seven Themes<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">7. Theme [1] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nihilism</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Creeps in this petty pace from day to day</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">To the last syllable of recorded time,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And all our yesterdays have lighted fools</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">That struts and frets his hour upon the stage</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And then is heard no more. It is a tale</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Signifying nothing.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Macbeth)</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">7. Theme [2] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Reconciliation</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/0a89f07146f3b63e6fa2ffe8191f8c0b/tumblr_inline_n4yvw3S08m1qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="396" /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; color: black; font-size: x-small; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;"><a href="http://himmapaan.deviantart.com/art/The-Winter-s-Tale-105840863" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;">(himmapaan)</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">They looked as they had heard of a world ransomed, or one destroyed: a notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say if the importance were joy or sorrow; but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">(The Winter’s Tale)</span></em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;">7. Theme [3] </span><strong style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mistaken Identity</span></strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/ed49f895b605d9ca4c1877e1564cc0ec/tumblr_inline_n4yxy0Y6Ef1qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Why, how now, gentleman! why, this is flat knavery, to take upon you another man’s name.</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Taming of the Shrew)</span></em><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;">7. Theme [4] </span><strong style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Girl Power</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/7a36a7fb03e41624ce4fbb9c50b95bbb/tumblr_inline_n4yz8pH0bQ1qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="360" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">But I do think it is their husbands’ faults</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And pour our treasures into foreign laps,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Or else break out in peevish jealousies,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Or scant our former having in despite;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And have their palates both for sweet and sour,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">As husbands have. What is it that they do</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">When they change us for others? Is it sport?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I think it is: and doth affection breed it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I think it doth: is’t frailty that thus errs?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">It is so too: and have not we affections,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Then let them use us well: else let them know,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Othello)</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">7. Theme [5] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bigotry</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/56d425a89786adeceae41e88149ceb7b/tumblr_inline_n4z0rcHN5x1qj3mmv.jpg" height="246" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">(The Merchant of Venice)</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">7. Theme [6] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Duplicity</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/89e99120b27978a083950ff02c179380/tumblr_inline_n4z2sbqQHC1qj3mmv.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 500px;" /></span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">For when my outward action doth demonstrate<br />The native act and figure of my heart<br />In compliment extern, ’tis not long after<br />But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve<br />For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Othello)</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">7. Theme [7] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Irreverence</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/776c8081159039ac8d55513d8a590a70/tumblr_inline_n4z3ebMiAe1qj3mmv.jpg" height="326" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">DEMETRIUS: Villain, what hast thou done?<br />AARON: That which thou canst not undo.<br />CHIRON: Thou hast undone our mother.<br />AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Titus Andronicus)</span></em></div>
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Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-79245158228295667282014-07-13T19:38:00.006-04:002014-07-13T19:39:29.586-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Six Settings<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">6. Setting [1] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Winter’s Tale</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/80d294f946bd2d167301063c074cd529/tumblr_inline_n4wz4xtwtk1qj3mmv.jpg" height="266" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The setting of The Winter’s Tale beautifully conveys a sense of rejuvenation. The first half takes place in Sicily’s winter and covers what is essentially a tragedy. Sixteen years later, the second half happens mostly in Bohemia’s summer, a time of harvests, festivals, dancing, and singing, of humor, love, and forgiveness. What better way to depict the thawing out of old men’s hearts and the magic of redemption?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">6. Setting [2] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">King Lear</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/14241f49919c329136cf573c69c2af28/tumblr_inline_n4x0x5wfKv1qj3mmv.jpg" height="266" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">King Lear is set in pre-Christain Britain, an ageless place, bereft of tangible society and context. The setting is as dark and chaotic as Lear’s mind. Even though several countries are mentioned, the play could take place in the absence of space. This emptiness directly reflects Lear’s and humanity’s absurd position at the hands of insensitive fate. Our protagonist howls into the abyss. But is there any response?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">6. Setting [3] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Macbeth</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/99a11293048b7c41162abb23444b40ce/tumblr_inline_n4x2fi1aIV1qj3mmv.jpg" height="172" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Macbeth’s tale of ambition and bloodshed can be set anywhere, including the 1970s (like in the hilarious Scotland, PA) or a postapocalyptic battleground. But there’s little question as to where the original is set. It is even referred to as the <em>Scottish</em> Play starring the <em>Scottish</em> King, due to the<em>Scottish</em> Curse that brings harm when “Macbeth” is uttered in a theatre. Supposedly based on real king, Medieval Scotland is a perfect gothic setting for witches and warring factions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">6. Setting [4] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/e4c7a0c757c78e5c18d9681a8068d7df/tumblr_inline_n4x3ngRVln1qj3mmv.jpg" height="252" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The woods play a huge part in Shakespeare’s works. They represent magic and moral chaos, a place away from society. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, fairies reign in Athens’ ancient forests. Spells are cast, people are transformed, and couples fall in and out of love. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often one of Shakespeare’s most visually beautiful plays due to the setting’s fantastical possibilities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">6. Setting [5] <strong>The Tempest</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/ae4e9cd5fb005c0e31297c92f47fff3a/tumblr_inline_n5h30gUTwS1qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="295" /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; color: black; font-size: x-small; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;"><a href="http://collation.folger.edu/2011/08/sue-doggetts-the-tempest-a-unique-artists-book/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;">(Sue Doggett)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Tempest is a rare Shakespearean play that follows Aristotle’s “unities” theory: unity of action, time, and place. The Tempest happens in one day on one island. The setting is of utmost importance as the magician Prospero and his daughter have been stuck on this island for more than a decade. Prospero creates a storm that shipwrecks a passing boat which carries his wicked brother. Now they are on his land, as Prospero has mastered the island and its spirits. The setting illuminates themes of colonization and the human fear of something untamed and wild.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">6. Setting [6] <strong>War of the Roses</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/4ccb7e5e38e248eece1e2d24cfcdaf41/tumblr_inline_n4xkbqcnJG1qj3mmv.jpg" height="392" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The War of the Roses tetralogy, which includes Henry VI parts one, two, and three, and Richard III, covers several decades in 15th century England. The plays are an epic retelling of political maneuvering and slaughter. The tetralogy portrays an essential part of English history, and is intriguingly complex historical propoganda.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-61610843997733023312014-07-13T19:33:00.001-04:002014-07-13T19:35:00.040-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Five Minor Characters<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">5. Minor character [1] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lucio</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/de3cf548a8889b30cb630f041d272d5c/tumblr_inline_n4nmf4C13n1qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="265" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lucio lies in order to stir up trouble, but he tells some serious truths about society and humanity. A mischievous knave, a flippant rascal, and a helper and a hinderer, Lucio frequently skewers puritanical laws against sexuality and other human “sins.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">5. Minor character [2] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Barnardine</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/a57a7b65138636cfdcd95be7e972f109/tumblr_inline_n4nnn4IO6d1qj3mmv.jpg" height="400" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="370" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Barnardine (right), a p</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">risoner of nine years, says only a few lines, yet he is highly memorable. The characters in Measure for Measure describe him best:</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Provost: A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what’s past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal. </span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Duke: He wants advice.</span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Provost: He will hear none. He hath evermore had the liberty of the prison: give him leave to escape hence, he would not: drunk many times </em><em>a day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him, as if to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.</em></span></em></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">He appears in a hilarious exchange in which he is threatened with execution, which he refuses, due to being too drunk. Amazingly, this excuse works, as he marches right back into his cell to live and drink another day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">5. Minor character [3] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mercutio</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/4f03c68a2d440545d59dcb0c475ed8b4/tumblr_inline_n4o1wgu4Ik1qj3mmv.jpg" height="308" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="400" /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://www.ardenellennixon.com/gallery/mercutio.html" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;">Arden Ellen Nixon</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In the above painting, the aptly named Mercutio is shown with fairy midwife Queen Mab. She appears in a detailed speech that displays Mercutio’s imagination. He also possesses a bawdy sense of humor, which makes him delightful if sometimes overbearing company. However, he can quickly lose his temper or sink into melancholy. Mercutio is both avid entertainer and haunted, tragic figure. Shakespeare supposedly said “he was forced to kill him in the third act, to prevent being killed by him.” Check out Zeffirelli’s 1968 Romeo and Juliet for John McEnery’s beautiful interpretation of the character.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">5. Minor character [4] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Caliban</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="image" src="http://media.tumblr.com/02d7809948f6dd634398290171bd9eca/tumblr_inline_n4o4r1rRBs1qj3mmv.jpg" height="320" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 500px;" width="230" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">If the spirit Ariel is protagonist Prospero’s ethereal superego, Caliban is his id. Born to a witch, is he man or monster? A crude portrait of an indigenous, Irish, or African slave? A sympathetic underdog or a base creature? Though ignorant and subversive, Caliban can be achingly poetic. One of Shakespeare’s most debated characters, Caliban is one to fear, laugh at, and cry for.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">5. Minor character [5] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Octavius</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Octavius appeared briefly in Julius Caesar, but Mark Antony was the young manipulator who made an impression in his rise to power. In Antony and Cleopatra, Antony is older, and Octavius is the up-and-coming threat. When others celebrate and drink, Octavius abstains and observes. His icy calculation is frightening, but his motives might actually be loftier than our hedonistic protagonists’.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-6547244896808304992014-07-13T19:27:00.002-04:002014-07-13T19:28:31.683-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Four Villains<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4. Villain [1] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Iago</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://wjsolha.deviantart.com/art/IAGO-THE-CYNICAL-16191713" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-out;">wjsolha</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I don’t think there’s a greater, more malevolent, unrepentant, intelligent, repulsive, inscrutable, or fascinating villain in Shakespeare or in fiction than Iago. It’s not what he does to his enemies but to his friends that is so frightening. He destroys others from the inside out, using their flaws or virtues against them. A devil figure and a textbook psychopath, Iago is both endlessly cunning and mundane. The audience never witnesses his death or gets a satisfying explanation for why he led his comrades into spectacular disaster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">4. Villain [2] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Richard III</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Scholars consider Richard III to be one of the most maligned figures in history, thanks in large part to Shakespeare’s dynamic creation. This Richard III ruthlessly kills his way to the throne, playing with victims as he goes. He is despicable, yet he seduces audiences with his brilliance and wicked sense of humor. Unfortunately, we eventually realize that he has also duped us. Once king, Richard becomes a paranoid despot, revealing himself as nothing more than an empty, lonely mad man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">4. Villain [3] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Aaron</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In a play filled with heinous individuals, Aaron the Moor stands out as the most cunning and sadistic. Though he refuses to repent and delivers epic speeches about reveling in depravity, his position as a slave and his love for his infant son are points of sympathy. Aaron is one of Shakespeare’s most charismatic and evil characters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">4. Villain [4] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Shylock</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Shylock is one of Shakespeare’s most written about and most controversial characters. Both an antisemitic charicature and a sympathetic figure, Shylock craves money and blood and gives stirring speeches about the mistreatment of Jews. He has been used in arguments defending and condemning bigotry. Ultimately a bitter, sad, and vengeful man, ill-treatment has warped Shylock’s humanity. He is a reminder of prejudices present in Shakespeare’s time and now.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-64003185644720282352014-07-13T19:20:00.002-04:002014-07-13T19:21:54.787-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Three Quotes<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3. Quote [1]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Love’s feeling is more soft and sensible<br />Than are the tender horns of cockl’d snails;<br />Love’s tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste:<br />For valour, is not Love a Hercules,<br />Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?<br />Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical<br />As bright Apollo’s lute, strung with his hair:<br />And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods<br />Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.<br />Never durst poet touch a pen to write<br />Until his ink were temper’d with Love’s sighs;<br />O, then his lines would ravish savage ears<br />And plant in tyrants mild humility.<br />From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive:<br />They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;<br />They are the books, the arts, the academes,<br />That show, contain and nourish all the world:<br />Else none at all in ought proves excellent.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Berowne, Love’s Labour’s Lost)</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This whole monologue is gorgeous, and David Tennant’s delivery of this speech in the 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company's production made me feel as though I was watching a young Shakespeare stand before me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">3. Quote [2]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Come, let’s away to prison.<br />We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage.<br />When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down<br />And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live,<br />And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh<br />At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues<br />Talk of court news, and we’ll talk with them too—<br />Who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out—<br />And take upon ’s the mystery of things<br />As if we were God’s spies. And we’ll wear out<br />In a walled prison packs and sects of great ones<br />That ebb and flow by the moon.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Lear to his daughter Cordelia in King Lear)</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The description of my blog features a quote from this speech. Almost nothing is more heartbreaking than the end of King Lear. All too late, Lear wants to reconnect with his one loving daughter and enjoy life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">3. Quote [3]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,<br />Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.<br />Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments<br />Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices<br />That, if I then had waked after long sleep,<br />Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,<br />The clouds methought would open and show riches<br />Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,<br />I cried to dream again.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />(Caliban, The Tempest)</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Choosing favorite quotes from Shakespeare is ridiculously difficult. Shakespeare contains so many modern phrases and beautiful passages. So for my third choice, I’ll go with Caliban’s speech. That Caliban, “this thing of darkness,” has the most beautiful little monologue in The Tempest is still remarkable to me.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-34756464899420185492014-07-13T19:12:00.000-04:002014-07-13T19:23:02.958-04:00Shakespeare Challenge: Two Years<div style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2. Year [1] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">1599</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Merry Wives of Windsor</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Much Ado About Nothing</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">As You Like It</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Henry V</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Julius Caesar</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hamlet</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It is very likely the plays I’ve listed were not written or performed in 1599, but we don’t have any exact dates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">2. Year [2] </span><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">1604</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">All’s Well That Ends Well</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Measure for Measure</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Othello</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In order not to overlap with Morituae’s <a href="http://moriturae.tumblr.com/post/80925890395/shakespeare-meme-2-2-years-1595" style="text-decoration: none;">excellent</a> <a href="http://moriturae.tumblr.com/post/80925352404/shakespeare-meme-1-2-years-1606" style="text-decoration: none;">selection</a>, I decided to go with 1604. Othello and Measure for Measure fascinate me. I’ve only seen All’s Well That Ends Well once, but I didn’t hate it.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-74878712786926875932014-07-13T18:51:00.001-04:002014-07-13T19:22:31.515-04:00Ten-Part Shakespeare Challenge<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px;">Tumblr user </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><a href="http://moriturae.tumblr.com/">Moriturae</a> posted a Shakespeare Challenge, which I decided to undertake. I selected: </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">one genre</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">two years</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">three quotes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">four villains</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">five minor characters</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">six settings</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">seven themes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">eight plays</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">nine protagonists, and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">ten relationships.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">To start, I chose one genre: <strong style="line-height: 14px;">Tragedy.</strong></span><br />
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Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-29342448687963974402014-01-28T19:14:00.000-05:002014-01-28T19:14:13.478-05:00Sexism and the Oscars<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Adam+Schlesinger+Alison+Klayman+Ai+Weiwei+sgFKY2cKibMl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Adam+Schlesinger+Alison+Klayman+Ai+Weiwei+sgFKY2cKibMl.jpg" height="273" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h1 class="captionTitle" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 85, 85); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px 0px 6px; text-align: start;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry premiere (<span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Adam Schlesinger, director </span><span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Alison Klayman, </span><span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Karl Katz, and Julie Goldman)</span></span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last year several excellent documentaries were not nominated by the Oscars, two of which were directed by women. In 2012, Queen of Versailles, directed by Lauren Greenfield, and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry by Alison Klayman were both critically acclaimed but not even in the running for best documentary. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Look what happened this year:</span></div>
<blockquote id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389975736157_4979" style="background-color: white; border-left-color: rgb(244, 244, 244); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; line-height: 13px; margin: 10px; max-width: 400px !important; padding-left: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389975736157_5264"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389975736157_5418"><span class="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1389975736157_15 yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389975736157_5007" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1389975736157_17">A couple of surprises came in the feature documentary category, where Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell,” a personal yarn about her own dysfunctional family, and Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s “Blackfish,” about allegations of abuse of animals and trainers at the SeaWorld parks, were left out. Both films appeared on list after list of favorites. (</span><a href="http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/stay-tuned-oscar-watchers/?nl=movies&emc=edit_fm_20140117" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389975736157_5140" style="-webkit-transition: 0.2s ease-in; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s ease-in;">NYT</a><span class="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1389975736157_15" id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389975736157_5133">)</span></span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1389975736157_37"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two films directed by women, AGAIN mysteriously snubbed? I also found it strange that The Invisible War, which focused predominantly on the sexual assault of women, lost to the male-focused Searching for Sugar Man.</span></span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1389975736157_37"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(I must note that I saw Searching for Sugar Man but not The Invisible War. Sugar Man is a remarkable story, charming if initially hagiographic, but The Invisible War <em>actually inspired policy change</em>.)</span></span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1389975736157_37"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am unfamiliar with the politics of nominating and selecting best pictures. However, isn't this snub of four prominent documentaries over two years, all directed by women, a blatant example of sexism? Not having seen most of the examples, I can't say whether the movies deserve to win or even be nominated based on quality. But w</span></span>e all know the Oscars have little imagination. A movie doesn't have to be groundbreaking to become an Oscar nominee. </div>
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I will speak for Queen of Versailles, though: it is one of the best documentaries I have seen, certainly one of the best films I saw in 2012. A timely, funny, and dark take on the American dream, it follows it's extremely wealthy subjects with subtlety and precision. The movie speaks volumes about gender relations, the state of the economy, ambition, inequality, and a variety of other issues.</div>
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Other worthy movies, including those I consider modern classics, have been ignored by the Academy. Most of them are not directed by women. But the absence of these female-directed documentaries should be noticed.</div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-59240126580796753632013-11-18T15:59:00.001-05:002013-11-18T15:59:35.547-05:00The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The second part of Peter Jackson's </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Hobbit</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> trilogy will arrive in about one month, so I am revisiting my experience watching the first movie in the theatre. <i>An Unexpected Journey</i> is entertaining but bloated and frustratingly familiar. </span><br />
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The story follows Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) years before his younger cousin Frodo's adventures in <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>. Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Frodo's mentor, drops by one day to take Bilbo on an adventure. More than a dozen dwarves join them in an attempt to reclaim their treasure and homeland from a greedy dragon. Jackson doesn't just follow J.R.R. Tolkien's book <i>The Hobbit</i>. He adds tidbits from other Tolkien books to flesh out the story.<br />
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The film's ambiance is jarring, alternately somber and colorfully childish. The latter is the more endearing, mainly because it is more original. Many shots and scenes come across as a worn imitation of <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> trilogy. Action scenes are repetitive and confusing, while other scenes drag on. Cutting a good 45 minutes might have improved the pacing.<br />
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That said, revisiting Tolkien's work is nostalgic. Its ominous tone, including a glimpse of the dark "necromancer," foreshadows the increasing perils in <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>. The characters are charming. Bilbo is more mischievous and developed than the movie-version's saintly Frodo (Elijah Wood). (It is still nice to see Frodo again.) The dwarves, though stereotypes, including Richard Armitage's Thorin, are nicely acted and likable.<br />
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There is something enjoyable about talking monsters. Their humor SLIGHTLY humanizes them. Unfortunately, a white, giant orc is given a very cheesy role as Thorin's nemesis. The film dwells far too long on how evil this creature is. We had three movies to discover how bad orcs are. I didn't find this plotline compelling.<br />
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Perhaps the best scene of the film occurs between Bilbo and (SPOILER ALERT) Gollum (Andy Serkis). It is one of the most subtle moments in a loud, heavy-handed movie. The encounter between the former hobbit-like creature, a currently mad Gollum, and the inexperienced but crafty hobbit Bilbo is genuinely suspenseful.<br />
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The cinematography and music are lovely, but all derivative. It feels more like a copy than an ode. <i>The Hobbit</i> could have been a truly resonant, enchanting movie instead of a trilogy. The makers could have distinguished this film from its predecessors. But the lure of gold, as Smaug the dragon would agree, is strong enough to justify one movie for the price of three.</div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-60780063462719404842013-05-05T11:55:00.000-04:002013-05-05T11:56:08.140-04:00More Tony nominees: Best Featured Actor in a MusicalRead more about nominations <a href="http://stagedoordish.com/the-race-to-the-2013-tonys-a-look-at-the-candidates-for-best-featured-actor-in-a-musical/">here</a>, at StageDoorDish.com.<br />
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<br />Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-2036314517804674962013-05-05T11:41:00.000-04:002013-05-05T11:41:48.534-04:00Excited about the Tonys? Check out nominees for Best Featured Actor in a PlayRead the brief rundown <a href="http://stagedoordish.com/the-race-to-the-2013-tonys-a-look-at-the-candidates-for-best-featured-actor-in-a-play/">here</a>, at StageDoorDish.com.<br />
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<br />Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-27231190745695922282013-04-29T22:09:00.000-04:002013-04-30T13:40:11.735-04:00Graceland (pilot episode)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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USA Network's summer television show "Graceland" airs June 6, but viewers can watch the pilot episode on VOD (Video on Demand) from April 29 to May 12. The series follows a group of undercover FBI, DEA, and customs agents who live under one roof in Southern California. Their house, confiscated from a drug dealer and Elivs fan, is an expansive beachfront home dubbed Graceland.<br />
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Brand new agent Mike Warren's (Aaron Tveit) abrupt arrival initially causes some tension. He is eager to be trained by the legendary Agent Briggs (Daniel Sunjata). Though very green, Mike's innovation and book-smarts impress the others. He wonders how the once driven Briggs turned into a surfer dude, and Briggs privately puzzles over why Mike was suddenly sent to Graceland, against his request. Other house members include the easygoing Johnny (Manny Montana), and Dale (Brandon Jay McLaren), the only customs agent.<br />
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Unfortunately, the heavy-handed writing is mostly expository. The creators appear to know as much about undercover life as I do, which isn't good. The plot is more diverting than intense, and the straightforward dialogue doesn't crackle.<br />
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What works is an engaging sense of camaraderie between these young agents. The actors do what they can to make their characters believable. Also welcome is the diversity. Mike is the only white male dwelling in the house, and the two women, Charlie (Vanessa Ferlito) and Lauren (Scottie Thompson), are more than just token females. The flirtatious and competent Charlie is especially appealing, and Dale.<br />
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In the end, in spite of the lackluster writing, the cast of characters and their relationships indicate that "Graceland" has potential.Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-89825472781672302972013-04-11T14:16:00.003-04:002013-04-11T14:16:26.236-04:00Reservoir Dogs<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOFVSxtJpykcR453TZjX8Dnrh4zqAk2rr_JSbAQq1Q9GCbhPyX5Y_Iaj-oCs8bjBULoYwGbxT0u6rim_VpdpKngMGSxuZclSKeLQBuugJ8QUGtQNeh-FmHJ02SQnTdkl6PuTWyJoc7xM/s1600/Reservoir+Dogs+do+lunch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOFVSxtJpykcR453TZjX8Dnrh4zqAk2rr_JSbAQq1Q9GCbhPyX5Y_Iaj-oCs8bjBULoYwGbxT0u6rim_VpdpKngMGSxuZclSKeLQBuugJ8QUGtQNeh-FmHJ02SQnTdkl6PuTWyJoc7xM/s1600/Reservoir+Dogs+do+lunch.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I only recently saw Quentin Tarantino's first film <i>Reservoir Dogs</i>. More focused than most of his movies (but by no means a tight narrative, this being Tarantino), <i>Dogs</i> follows a group of criminals. The story slowly unfolds, using flashbacks to tell the audience important--or just diverting--information. All we know for sure is that a heist went terribly wrong. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The men only know one another's code names. The shrewd (or paranoid) Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) suspects there was a betrayal, but Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) lives by an older creed, and finds it difficult to imagine that any of the men he worked with are less than "honorable." Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) has been shot and will bleed to death if he doesn't get medical attention. The rest have either died or scattered. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Needless to say, the movie includes trademark graphic violence, artful cinematography, and moments of pathos. Scenes are long and self-conscious, full of dialogue both relevant and random. The recognizable cast fit their roles perfectly, from Michael Madsen as the crazy Mr. Blonde to Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie, son of big shot Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). While they are all varying degrees of lowlifes, make no mistake, they have no problem murdering policemen or people who get in their way. Yet several appear to hold genuine, even tragic, affection for another comrade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Reservoir Dogs</i> is recommended viewing for Tarantino fans and one of his funniest and most emotional pieces.</span></div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "http://images-onepick-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?container=onepick&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*&url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-imXxr4cUbjY%2FUL53WFEQKNI%2FAAAAAAAADCg%2FNJvIsnjQM0U%2Fs1600%2FReservoir%2BDogs%2Bdo%2Blunch.jpg" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOFVSxtJpykcR453TZjX8Dnrh4zqAk2rr_JSbAQq1Q9GCbhPyX5Y_Iaj-oCs8bjBULoYwGbxT0u6rim_VpdpKngMGSxuZclSKeLQBuugJ8QUGtQNeh-FmHJ02SQnTdkl6PuTWyJoc7xM/s1600/Reservoir+Dogs+do+lunch.jpg" -->Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-24336383734449618832013-04-10T15:29:00.001-04:002013-04-10T15:30:19.937-04:00The Master<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The Master</i> is an uncomfortable piece of cinema. Characters are irritating, pacing is slow, and the plot is pieced together through flashbacks and the occasional hallucination. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The movie will frustrate some and absorb others</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, but the gorgeous cinematography, evocative music, and fantastic acting make it a film worth seeing. Though much of the movie may be baffling, it raises valid questions about the human condition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The story follows Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), an alcoholic and addled veteran of World War II. He stumbles across philosopher Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his group of followers. Lancaster, everything Freddie is not, takes him under his wing and teaches him about "The Cause," a way of living which includes acknowledging past lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Phoenix is astounding as Freddie, an embodiment of the id. His poisonous moonshine exacerbates his mental disorders. Unusual for the movies, he is completely unglamorous. Freddie's hunched over, thin form and gnarled but enthralling face contrast with Lancaster's paunchy figure and composed expression. Hoffman is, of course, excellent. Amy Adams (or her character) is slightly over-the-top as Lancaster's uncompassionate and creepy wife Peggy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Freddie's existence disproves Lancaster's mantra, "Man is not an animal," which may be why Lancaster is so drawn to him. Freddie is by and large loyal to Lancaster, dangerously so. Their relationship is a strange love story of sorts. In the end, though, Freddie is his own man, a chaotic force of nature. Will the brainwashing techniques of The Cause work on him?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Deep, dark colors emphasize a sense of post-war paranoia, and the unique cinematography and music emphasize how strange people are. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Everyone is searching for some kind of truth, be it through control or a connection. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The Master</i> may be full of symbolism, but its oddness makes one thing very clear: humans are silly and fascinating creatures.</span>Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-36974415470242107362013-04-07T11:43:00.001-04:002013-04-07T11:45:07.367-04:00Hannibal: Apéritif (Episode 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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NBC’s new television series <i>Hannibal</i> opens with a stylistic reenactment of a double murder.
Music pounds, time reverses and speeds forward, and deep red splatters white
walls. The audience watches criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) put himself
in the mind of a killer. We literally see him shoot two people. The scene hints
at what is to come: intense visuals, Grand Guignol violence, and heavy-handed direction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Viewers will recognize Will Graham from the movies <i>Red Dragon</i> and <i>Manhunter</i>, based on Thomas Harris’s crime novels. At the beginning
of the pilot, Will already appears to be falling apart. Dancy plays him with
twitchy intensity, too much so, as one wonders where he will go from here.
While Will is lecturing a class about empathizing with murderers, FBI agent
Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne, apparently bored) approaches him about a
string of abductions. Women have disappeared, but no bodies have been found. Jack
wonders about Will’s methods, but Will assures him that he is more autistic
than sociopathic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The show tells us over and over that Will is special, a
savant on the edge of madness. Minor characters exchange glances and comment on
how “different” he sees things. Will reluctantly joins Jack and interviews the
latest victim’s parents at their home. With his powerful skills of
perception—his ability stretches credulity, as we hardly see his process—he divines
that this young woman was taken from her home. He asks to see her bedroom, and,
lo and behold, there she is! The kidnapper tucked her corpse back into bed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Once again, Will reenacts her death. The scenes of
violence are artful and purposefully gratuitous. How many times are we going to
watch as a woman is graphically murdered? A fibers specialist (Hettienne Park,
mostly subtle) interrupts his intense reverie and eventually asks if he is
unstable.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Burdened by his gift, Will drives home alone. He spots a
dog on the side of the road, which he slowly woos, takes home, cleans up, and
introduces to his other dogs. It’s a nice way of showing how Will has a hard
time connecting with people, but, like anyone, needs some form of comfort. At
night, his dreams make him sweat so much, he sleeps on towels.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In a bathroom at work (he yells that a fellow employee
should use the ladies’ room), Jack confronts Will about the case. Since their
explosive conversation takes place about a third into the episode, it feels
rather unearned. Will tells Jack that the culprit might not be a psychopath because
he appears to feel empathy for at least one of his victims. He kills them
“mercifully.” The way Elise was put back in her bed makes Will think that she
was an apology. In fact, he may have even tried to heal her.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the lab, the same forensic scientist who spoke with
Will finds a metal shaving on the body. Cut to: a young girl who resembles
Elise (slender, brown hair) waves at a construction worker.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jack speaks to Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas), Will’s
psychologist colleague. Jack wants her to keep an eye on Will, but she states
that she never studied him because she wants to remain his friend. She makes
Jack promise that he won’t let Will get too close to the case as Will,
interestingly, is driven by fear, which comes from having a good imagination.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Back in the lab, the scientists conclude that the young
woman was pierced by antlers (of all things) post mortem. Her liver was also
removed and sewn back in. Will correctly gauges that there was something wrong
with the “meat;” it turns out, she had liver cancer. Why “meat,” you ask? Well,
our killer is a cannibal! Cut to a certain someone delicately eating a
scrumptious looking meal. In the episode’s most meta moment so far, this dimly
illuminated man looks straight at the camera. While over-the-top, the scene is
a welcome surprise.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Not surprising is that this is our titular Hannibal Lecter
(Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen), most famously played by Anthony Hopkins in <i>Silence of the Lambs,</i> also based on
Harris’s novel. His character is the poster child of a monster with a human
mask, as intellectual and cultured as men get, but as savage and heartless,
too. Though I couldn’t catch every word from Mikkelsen’s mouth, his calm, urbane
presence is a blessed relief from the more blunt minor characters.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dr. Lecter advises a client about his anxiety, telling
him that there is no lion in the room—and if there is, he will know. (Lecter
has some of the stranger but more original lines.) As the client leaves, Jack
visits Lecter’s immaculate office and expresses great admiration for his work.
Jack asks if he can use his expertise to help with a psychological profile.
Apparently, Alana Bloom recommended him. Lecter’s face is impassive. Everyone
must assume his uncanny suaveness is due to being European. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He and Jack meet Will to discuss the investigation. Lecter
initially asks about confessions but soon begins to size Will up, prodding him
about eye contact, dreams, and barriers. Will walks out when he realizes that
he is the one being psychoanalyzed here. Lecter tells Jack that Will has “pure
empathy.” Jack asks for a more delicate approach next time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In blazing daylight, in the middle of a field, a naked
woman’s body is mounted on antlers in the middle of a field. Will arrives and
avows that this is completely different from the others. The man they’ve been
seeking is, in his mind, “loving.” He tries to consume women, not destroy them.
This copycat is mocking everyone involved. He viewed the woman as a pig. Will
miraculously deduces that the original killer has a daughter who looks like the
victims and is leaving home. The murderer wants to connect with women. (Never
heard of a serial killer like that before, but I guess that’s why this is
fiction.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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He doesn’t have hope for finding the copycat. Her lungs
were cut out when she was alive. This man is an intelligent sadist. He is
motiveless and probably traceless. Meanwhile, Lecter is at home, slicing up and
flambéing some lungs. He eats them with amusing smugness. They actually look
pretty tasty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next morning, Lecter visits Will, bringing him eggs
and… lung sausage? Over breakfast, Will tells him that the recent murder was a
twisted gift because it showed him everything the first killer was not. On
another note (supposedly), Lecter wonders if they’ll be friends, but Will
replies that he doesn’t find him that interesting. “You will,” Lecter replies.
He says that Jack views Will as a delicate tea cup, but he views Will as a
mongoose that hides under the house while snakes slither by. Will is initially
amused, but then puzzled and possibly disturbed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The two of them visit a construction site that uses the
same kind of metal which was found Elise. They go through employee records. One
didn’t leave his address and missed several days of work at a time. While Will
is preoccupied, Lecter calls that employee and warns him: “they know.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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The secretary manages to dig up an address, and our duo
finds the killer. Unfortunately, he cuts his wife’s throat right on his front steps
and retreats to the kitchen to cut his daughter’s throat. Will riddles him with
bullets. Horrified by the turn of events, Will ends up covered in blood trying
to save the wife and daughter, who is taken by an ambulance. Lecter watches
everything with cool detachment. Er, was Will just too distraught to notice
Lecter’s lack of reaction?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Elsewhere, Alana scolds Jack for letting Will get too
close. Will visits the daughter in the hospital. Lecter appears to have been
there all night, as he dozes next to her, holding her hand. How comforting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Hannibal</i> is
dreamlike and visually interesting, but somewhat slow and awkwardly paced. The
dialogue is occasionally poetic but mostly clumsy. Its graphic violence
diffuses the tension, drawing attention away from the plot to the beauty of
bloodshed. While the pilot feels off kilter, the cast is strong, particularly
Mikkelsen as the seductive Lecter. Hopefully the story will fall into a rhythm,
and the relationship between the impenetrable Lecter and the perceptive Will
can build into something truly intriguing. Though it might bore and repulse
many viewers, the series will likely delight fans of aesthetic carnage and of
the notorious and memorable Hannibal Lector.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bryan Fuller’s (Dead Like Me, Pushing the Daisies) <i>Hannibal</i> airs on Thursday nights at 10
on NBC.<o:p></o:p></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-44868701858081630232013-04-03T17:40:00.000-04:002013-04-03T17:40:47.315-04:00Top 10 movies seen in 2012<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">I usually see only two or three movies that I really love per year. Last year, I saw about five. (Some of these movies were released in 2011, but I wasn’t able to see them until 2012. I saw or will see several 2012 films in 2013.)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">1. </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">Damsels in Distress</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> is unique, especially if you’re not acquainted with writer and director Whit Stillman, which I wasn’t. The characters speak as though from an articulate subconscious.This comedy includes not only one of my favorite characters of all time, it feels like a strange expression of my life and thoughts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">2. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"><strong>The Avengers </strong>made me feel like a kid again. I had to restrain my nerdy glee as superheroes overcame their differences, embraced their flaws, and worked together. I expected much less.</span></div>
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/b6458eb15744f858e93c08057c54dce6/tumblr_inline_mj85e6iVBj1qz4rgp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/b6458eb15744f858e93c08057c54dce6/tumblr_inline_mj85e6iVBj1qz4rgp.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">3. </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">Moonrise Kingdom</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> is a beautiful, humorous, and fanciful tale of two twelve year olds who run off together and the adults and peers who try to track them down. The soundtrack and art direction are gorgeous.</span></div>
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/f80abd3a48f9dd1e6f26e99b8729b903/tumblr_inline_mj85f3wExw1qz4rgp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/f80abd3a48f9dd1e6f26e99b8729b903/tumblr_inline_mj85f3wExw1qz4rgp.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">4. </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1361061184_0">Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</span></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> is a spy classic, an opaque, bleak, and intriguing piece set during the Cold War, based on John Le Carre’s novel of the same name.</span></div>
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/a0778ff0517b5ac8abe0c70e5876a659/tumblr_inline_mj85fw8rLv1qz4rgp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://media.tumblr.com/a0778ff0517b5ac8abe0c70e5876a659/tumblr_inline_mj85fw8rLv1qz4rgp.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">5. </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">Queen of Versailles</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> is a hilarious and disturbing documentary about an extremely wealthy family going through the recession. The film manages to raise questions and shed light on a lot of issues, both on intimate and national scales.</span></div>
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/50c563fa0cf5a2b3a71deb21de427afe/tumblr_inline_mj85giGQr71qz4rgp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/50c563fa0cf5a2b3a71deb21de427afe/tumblr_inline_mj85giGQr71qz4rgp.jpg" width="293" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">6. The excellent </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">Polisse</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> follows numerous cases and officers in Paris’s child protection unit. In spite of its harrowing subject matter, it is both dramatic and believable. This film stuck with me for some time.</span></div>
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/354d5fd7086267d0f3f0fb011ed8e514/tumblr_inline_mj85j62sZT1qz4rgp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://media.tumblr.com/354d5fd7086267d0f3f0fb011ed8e514/tumblr_inline_mj85j62sZT1qz4rgp.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">7. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"><strong>Django Unchained</strong> can feel like a very long (but awesome) music video. This funny and graphically violent blaxploitation/Western/revenge tale is deliberately offensive, and actors like Jaimie Foxx and Samuel Jackson create gripping characters. The movie skewers slavery’s premise that people are property.</span></div>
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/cf4432e598d720f6e0d4c59818965575/tumblr_inline_mj85jyxZTh1qz4rgp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://media.tumblr.com/cf4432e598d720f6e0d4c59818965575/tumblr_inline_mj85jyxZTh1qz4rgp.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">8. Though a bit muddled, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"><strong>The Dark Knight Rises</strong> feels like a rousing and dark finale to a great trilogy. It </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">brings the story full circle,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> making me want to revisit the other two films.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">9. </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">The Master</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> is an odd but beautifully shot film about a wild man who stumbles into a cult in the years following WWII. Joaquin Phoenix is remarkable as the addled veteran, a kind of un</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">glamorous</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> character I’ve never seen before.</span></div>
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10. <strong>The Deep Blue Sea</strong> is a simple adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s play. Drenched with angst and sadness, the movie theater director said of this emotional story of a woman’s obsession with her lover, “Don’t marry a mama’s boy and don’t run off with Loki.” (Tom Hiddleston played the boyfriend.)</div>
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<em><strong>Worst</strong></em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">Gorgeous production values, interesting themes, and Michael Fassbender’s fascinating performance couldn’t save </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">Prometheus</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">’s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond, 'Hoefler Text', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px;"> Planet 9 From Outer Space plot. Most disappointing here was its potential.</span></div>
Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-79693399833354357662013-01-23T00:32:00.002-05:002013-02-02T10:03:14.123-05:00Polisse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Maiwenn's excellent police drama <i>Polisse</i> follows the Parisian Child Protection Unit, expertly weaving officers' personal and work lives. Maiwenn plays Melissa, a quiet photographer who is more of a cipher than a fully drawn character, but she serves as the audience's eyes. The force is filled with more dynamic characters, including Joey Starr's passionate Fred, Karin Viard's insecure Nadine, and Marina Fois's bitter Iris.<br />
<br />
The workers are dedicated professionals, but that isn't to say they are patient or polite. Often more intimate with their peers than their lovers, they are more reliable parents than spouses. Plagued with alcoholism, depression, and neuroses, there is a sense that our heroes could explode at any time. In fact, many of them do, and their rants about the trials of their job are repetitive but believable. In spite of the numerous storylines, careful editing and naturalistic, sometimes unbearably raw, acting distinguishes the various characters.<br />
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This work is neither easy nor cut-and-dried. Suspects range from tearful to unrepentant, and the young victims sometimes don't want to be torn away from their abusers. Relationships between the officers are also intense and complicated, whether they are platonic friendships or romances, repressed or consummated. In spite of the harrowing subject matter, characters often mask their pain as humor, and there are rare moments of relief and pure jubilation.<br />
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While some plots are underdeveloped (this would have been a fascinating miniseries), the film manages to follow quite a few stories as well as touch on broader issues such as bureaucracy and cultural clashes. The conclusion is simultaneously inconclusive, heavy-handed, and effective, suggesting that these prickly workers struggle through life and sacrifice themselves for the children. Aided by hand-held camera work, the gripping <i>Polisse </i>feels real.<br />
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<i>French with English subtitles.</i><br />
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<br />Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843378725801790113.post-47094691354944454312012-12-29T19:14:00.000-05:002012-12-29T22:57:02.048-05:00Queen of Versailles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lauren Greenfield's masterful documentary The Queen of Versailles follows billionaire David Siegel and his beautiful wife Jacqueline into the great recession. </span>They live in Florida where nannies tend to their eight children, one of whom they "inherited." While in the middle of building the largest house in the United States (inspired by Versailles), the economic crisis hits. David's timeshare empire, the biggest in the world, faces severe cutbacks.<br />
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Few tears are shed. The Siegels can be hilariously clueless and outrageous, but they also share moments of regret and generosity. As monetary woes sink in, the excess which was a source of pride for the couple becomes a garish nightmare. In spite of her degree in computer engineering, the buxom, botoxed Jackie claims to be in the dark about their financial situation. David becomes consumed with saving his company, often ignoring the rest of his family or lashing out at Jackie, who admits that she is living in a fantasy world. (The movie's apt title recalls Marie Antoinette and her notorious decadence.)<br />
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Before the crisis, one of their many children says it best: they never think about money, but they always think about money. The sense of anxiety hanging over the Siegels will be familiar to many Americans, but their opulence will not. David and Jackie blame the banks for lending them too much money, even though David's cutthroat Westgate Resorts dangles the American Dream in front of people who likely can't afford it.<br />
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This well-edited movie interviews the Siegels, their children, employees, servants, and old friends. We find out that the hired help have the smallest rooms in the house and haven't seen their family in years. They tend to children who, along with the pets, appear to be accessories. When David embarks on a Citizen Cane like quest to rescue his wealth, it's not difficult to conclude that Jackie, and perhaps all women, are also possessions to many men in the moneyed world. Hints at strained or broken family relationships are also telling.<br />
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This searing family portrait illuminates both the current state of the country and the effect of money on the psyche. The film doesn't clearly track the trajectory of David's company, but it does display hollow, disturbing, and even repulsive results of great wealth.</div>
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Elleoneiramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077749591393287680noreply@blogger.com0