Macbeth

Watching a filmed stage productions is usually pretty boring (musicals being a pretty consistent exception). Rarely do the performances transcend the screen without the aid of editing, music, sets, anything cinematic. I might as well just listen to an audio recording; and in the case of Shakespeare, listening to a recording is almost just as good since settings and actions are usually vocalized anyway.

I braved such an adaption of Macbeth because I had never seen it and I wanted to watch it online. The 1983 version part of a "Tragedies of Shakespeare" series is okay in the sense that it gave me a good idea of the story (with the aid of sparknotes) and I got to hear all the oft repeated lines that are used so often for other things ("sound and fury"--cochlear implants? "Double, double, toil and trouble"--isn't that an Olsen twins movie? "the weird sisters"--magical Billy Idolesque rock?). Anyway, the Scottish play is pretty creepy, in a power-hungry-ill-gotten-gains-mystical sort of way, and I'm sure if I'd watched a more cinematic version I would have enjoyed it more.

But I loved the ShakespeaRe-told version because it visualized a lot of what Shakespeare revealed with long speeches. In other words, it was a more accessible version for film. And instead of the position as king being the incentive for murder, it's the chance to be the top chef at a 3 star restaurant. James MacAvoy plays Joe Macbeth, a chef whose hard work is overshadowed by his employer Duncan Docherty (who he only refers to as the Scottish Chef, haha). One night, Joe and his fellow chefriend Billy Banquo (Joseph Millson) encounter a trio of garbage men who predict Joe's success as head of the restaurant, but also Billy's son's eventual inheritance of it all.

After Joe recalls the experience to his wife Ella (Keeley Hawes), she ends up convincing Joe that the only way that he'll gain his success is by murdering Duncan (obvs) by using his practiced killing skills as a chef with a knife. Things spiral out of control from there.

But what really pulled things off (besides the presence of James MacAvoy and Richard Armitage(!) as Macduff) was the creepy visuals. Joe starts seeing blood everywhere, most disturbingly the water of his wife's shower. And his wife's guilt is shown in how she repeatedly washes her hands and the steadiness (or lack thereof) of her hand as she applies make-up. Somehow this all worked together. I was impressed by how dark a made for TV movie could be. I also thinks this is a great introduction to the story for anyone unfamiliar, although being able to catch some of the references makes it fun to watch even for those who know the play well.

You can find it on YouTube or Netflix instant play.

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most ridiculous plays. I read part of it when I was a in a history of performance class as part of this heinous dramaturgy project that later got aborted. I never finished it, mostly out of the laziness of my heart, but also because I find reading Shakespeare plays really boring. Seeing a good production, however, is fun.

But The Taming of the Shrew is probably best seen live. I've never had that pleasure, but the play just cries for an audience to goad on the cruelty of both Katherina and Petruchio.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton spar in the 1967 film version of The Taming of the Shrew sporting great cleavage and a great beard, respectively.

I'm all for mutual insults. In fact, that's the backbone of many great romantic comedies (see: It Happened One Night, When Harry Met Sally). However, The Shrew takes a much discussed misogynist turn in which Katherina is "tamed" by physical, mental, and emotional torture by Petruchio. I can see that maybe being entertaining if done in a very joking and brash way since Petruchio seems to get genuine amusement out of the whole situation.

Physical domination: eeeeh. Please also note Elizabeth Taylor's intense eye shadow.

However, in a more faithful adaptation of the play seems to require a sudden and unexplained submission to by Katherina to her somewhat lunatic husband Petruchio. In that way, I wasn't quite sure I found Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 film version that amusing so much as mildly disturbing. I think there needed to be a bit more farce for it to be enjoyable, which the oft cut framing device seems to provide.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that it's a fairly outdated play that has always been a little creepy. However, the updated version part of the BBC's ShakespeaRe-told* in 2005 gives enough motivation behind both Katherine and Petruchio.

I find myself attracted to Rufus Sewell in his BAFTA nominated role as Petruchio. Mostly when he says "I want you to have all my babies." But I'm also impressed by how well he wears those boots on his wedding day.

Katherine (the pocked sized Shirley Henderson) is a politician who's goals to move up the ranks are threatened by her frighteningly temper and shrill yelling. Petruchio (Rufus "I'm actually quite endearing" Sewell) seems to have genuine affection for Katherine (in addition to his gold digging which he's rather upfront about), and his lunatic antics seem to be his crazy way to win her over.

That's about a foot difference in height. I find that endearing.

Plus, the ending speech where a woman's duties to her husband are enumerated are also applied to a man to his wife, thus making things more whimsical and less sexist. Although it's still odd.

I think I may be in love with this adaptation. Here's a little taste when our lid finds his pot:


Right? It's just ludicrously cheesy, but made for TV in Britain seems so much classier, right?

End notes: I didn't mention the Bianca and her many suitors storyline, but that's mostly because it's rather dull. Who wants to hear about the popular girl? Not me, unless you make her likable, like in the teen adaptation 10 Things I Hate About You (also, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt being one of the suitors makes that plot more endearing exponentially).

And for the curious both the 1967 and 2005 versions are found on YouTube here and here. Enjoy.

Judging Amy

One of my favorite procedurals, Judging Amy, still isn't released on DVD. This makes me sad. I was possibly the only person in my high school who watched this show religiously when it was on, and I still love it. It's really a character based show at its heart, with family and coworker dynamics being a large focus of the show, not just the cases. Unfortunately, there aren't any channels showing reruns and there doesn't seem to be any plan to release DVDs any time soon.

My favorite moments in an episode are where Judge Gray and her CSO Bruce make eye contact when something crazy happens. It's an understated and fun way to show how much they relate to each other.

So if you're as desperate for your fix of a neurotic family with an awesome matriarch and large portions of the inadequacy of social services and the juvenile court system, here are places I've found episodes:

TNT "DramaVision," although they haven't uploaded new episodes in quite some. I must warn that the episodes that are on there right now feature heavily the character Stu, also known as the-dumbest-boyfriend-Amy-ever-had-although-maybe-not-as-bad-an-idea-as-that-Smallville-guy.

There's also YouTube user StarryMikage who's uploading episodes. The episodes start at season 3 episode 8, which is when cousin Kyle comes in after Vincent has left, and most recently downloaded is season 4 episode 6. Most of the episodes in between are there.

Here, I'll get you started with "Roses and Truth":

Medley of the Day: Prostitutes get the best songs edition

If you're going to bring in prostitutes, they better be the fun part of the musical.

"Le Val D'amour" from Notre Dame de Paris

The call and response between singer and (fake?) strings make this way more catchy than it should be. And yes, those are flesh colored leotards with weird attachments (Star Wars or All That Jazz?).




"Lovely Ladies" from Les Miserables

This one is actually pretty icky; so much detail about the smell of women. But the melody sure sounds fun!




"El Tango de Roxanne" from Moulin Rouge!

General awesomeness in the form of strained, gruff voices, jealousy, and the tango.




"Crossroads" from Perhaps Love

What was that? You want another depressing envy involving prostitutes song? Coming from the utterly confusing pastiche-heavy film that is Perhaps Love, here's "Crossroads." It sure looks and sounds gorgeous, in a dirty sort of way. Starts about 1:09.




"Come Together" from Across the Universe

The whole thing isn't about prostitutes, but they've got the sweetest harmonies out the other scenarios. Plus, Joe Cocker is a pimp.

Two Black-and-White Films from 1980

Raging Bull (1980) was nominated for many awards and is highly rated in many "best films ever" lists. It won Oscars for Robert De Niro's performance as the fallen boxing champion Jake La Motta and for best film editing by Thelma Schoonmaker. These are deserved awards. De Niro brings his A-game, ranging from a fit young scrapper to a fat has-been. And the boxing scenes are magical, combining classical music, quick editing, slow motion, and fog to an already legend-implying black-and-white film.

However, I did not care for this film. Never has Martin Scorsese's knack for capturing the male gaze been so apparent. Yes, the character La Motta is sexist, so having the film treat the women as mere objects of desire makes sense. But watching a man order a woman around as to how she can pleasure him is just sickening--if not tedious--to watch, not to mention the more blatant physical abuse. And even when the women in Raging Bull do fight back or divorce, it comes off as mere annoyance rather than a deeply emotional event. Again, this reemphasizes La Motta's perspective, but it sucks and I don't want to see it reemphasized in the film's overall perspective.

And besides my feminist rantings, Behind the Music and E! True Hollywood Story episodes have told the tale of the fallen star enough times that this film doesn't seem as fresh as it may have in 1980. I doesn't help either that I saw Casino before this, which has a similar De Niro/Pesci fighting about a blonde woman moments, just with less mafia and actual adultery.

In the end, I wish there was less sexist asshole and more boxing, for I could watch slow motion boxing set to Pietro Mascagni all day.


Opening scene from Raging Bull.


The Elephant Man, another heavily nominated film of 1980, appeals to my taste for the bizarre. The black-and-white filming in this case made the story of 19th century John Merrick, or the Elephant Man, seem more like an urban legend. Though an odd story about a highly deformed man, it's based on a true events (though the script sensationalizes some of the accounts found in The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences and The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity). It somehow walks a fine line between respecting the life of the Elephant Man and exploiting the fantastic elements in his life. It also managed to keep something that features sideshow freaks from getting campy and something so life-affirming from getting saccharine.

One of the most effective devices in showing John Merrick's journey from freak to full human is how the character is filmed. Certainly, Mr. Merrick's face has monstrous elements. The beginning of the film finds him being gawked at, first as part of a side show and later as part of Dr. Treves' anatomical lecture. David Lynch's decision to hide Merrick's face and body at the beginning borrows suspense-building techniques from horror films, keeping the audience in the same trepidation that the characters around him are. But as Dr. Treves' starts to bring out Merrick's humanness, mostly in the form of oral communication, he is finally shown on the screen as much as the other characters, no longer hidden behind is deformities.

The two main protagonists are played as good men without it coming off as sanctimonious. John Hurt, as John Merrick, manages to bring out genuine goodness and intelligence from behind the heavy makeup required for the role; Anthony Hopkins brings a clinical but kind air to his role as the anatomist Frederick Treves, with a healthy dose of conflicted feelings toward his treatment of Mr. Merrick. These two fit well into a film that in some ways almost feels like a Charles Dickens tale, with no good villains, dirty streets, and upper-class slumming.

But this is a David Lynch production, so it's not completely cheesy so much as vaguely surreal and somehow beautiful.


Opening scene from The Elephant Man.


Post script: Despite my obvious preference between the two films, I can't choose between these two gorgeous scores. Raging Bull makes violence beautiful with its use of Italian opera, while The Elephant Man finds beauty after a journey through strange and haunting circus themes. But they are both absolutely lovely soundtracks.

"Intermezzo" from Raging Bull composed by Pietro Mascagni (again, because I can't resist):


The romance of Italian opera.

"The Elephant Man Theme" from The Elephant Man composed by John Morris:


The horrors of circus music.

"John Merrick and Psalm" from The Elephant Man composed by John Morris:


The beauty of resolved dissonance.

The Audacity of Rock: Part 26

Stealing girls from guys.

It's a well documented fact that the presence of a guitar instantly makes a guy 7x more attractive than without. Apparently it's so attractive that women may leave their boyfriends for such talented guys. Level of talent needed to impress a girl: 3 chords, probably in the key of D.

"You're Gonna Lose that Girl" by The Beatles (1965)

Dude. It's the Help!-era Beatles. Of course your girl is going to leave you for one of them. Even Ringo. Just give up.




"Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy" by Fall Out Boy (2003)

If I had heard of them before summer 2005 when "Sugar, We're Going Down" was their breakout hit and my Cold Stone manager incessantly played "Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy" at closing time, I may have been a big fan. But alas, I was over the age of 15. But you have to admit that early Fall Out Boy was kind of adorable. No one was wearing eyeliner or casting their across their eyes. Plus, they're totally going to steal your girlfriend. Because they play guitar in a pop rock band.




Questions to ponder:

1. Is there really a good time besides a campfire to pull out your guitar in public?
2. What song makes you want to punch a guy in the face for playing?