Saturday, October 23, 2004

The Bard and I
Far and away, the single greatest thing about Netflix is the ability watch a large number of films made from William Shakespeare's plays. Reinterpretations like 10 Thigns I Hate About You and O have their place (respectively, The Taming of the Shrew and Othello), but nothing beats the original language. Yes, I could spend a good deal more time reading Shakespeare's works - I have a copy of Complete Works in my room - but these are plays, not novels, and they need to be seen staged. And since I doubt Kenneth Branagh or Brian Blessed are going to be coming to my local imitation of the Globe, cinema's where it's at. Understandably, I am skipping Romeo and Juliet, as I've already seen several versions several times. I have seen Mel Gibson's Hamlet and have little desire to see Ethan Hawke's production; I want to see Kenneth Branagh's bloated version, but apparently it is not available on DVD. Curses!

Returned to Netflix:
Titus (from Titus Andronicus*)
Richard III*
Much Ado About Nothing
Henry V
Othello


Need From Netflix:
A Midsummer Night's Dream*
MacBeth*
The Merchant of Venice*
Julius Caesar
King Lear
*

*Denotes plays I have beforehand neither seen nor read.

It seems there are no film versions of Twelfth Night. Blast! My only experience with Twelfth Night is second hand from Shakespeare in Love.

By and by, thank you so much for the free month of Netflix, Daddy Dylweed.

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