Impenetrable Shakespeare

Lysander said:
Isn't that the same with everything?
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That's true, but with most things you're able to understand them. It seems Shakespeare films may be aimed at Shakespeare fans rather than anybody else - which again sounds bleeding obvious, but the Lord of the Rings films, by contrast are aimed to appeal to people who have not read the books.
 
Lysander said:
Probably A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Merchant of Venice.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you'll be able to undestand the plays right off the bat though. Even the 'accessible' ones. Here 'accessible' only means 'less challenging'. They're still hard. Take this speech from Hamlet for instance:

I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

Now when I first read this I didn't know what the HELL it meant but after a few goes it made sense. Sometimes you will have to read the same speech over and over but it will click.
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A lot of that is just needlessly waffling prose probably designed to try and dazzle those with a more average education in literature.
 
The Halk said:
The point was to ask what the more accessible stuff is, rather than be told to watch the more accessible stuff. :)
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Out of interest, have you tried reading the Cambridge University Press copies of Shakespeare's plays? They are aimed at secondary school level so are annotated and come with some useful background and thematic information.
 
Rroff said:
A lot of that is just needlessly waffling prose probably designed to try and dazzle those with a more average education in literature.
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I don't think I could agree with that at all. You could condense it down to "People get on my ****" and it'd have the same meaning, but it'd have lost near everything.

One More Solo said:
Out of interest, have you tried reading the Cambridge University Press copies of Shakespeare's plays? They are aimed at secondary school level so are annotated and come with some useful background and thematic information.
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I have not - I might resort to reading :/ However I have a list of books to read as long as your arm, and I'm running out of films I want to watch.
 
I can see how that would be incomprehensible to a lot of people at first reading tho there are concepts in it more layered than just the unnecessary prose - you have understand the significance of "quintessence of dust" before 2/3rds of the waffle preceding it in the quote make any sense at all.
 
Rroff said:
I can see how that would be incomprehensible to a lot of people at first reading tho there are concepts in it more layered than just the unnecessary prose - you have understand the significance of "quintessence of dust" before 2/3rds of the waffle preceding it in the quote make any sense at all.
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Saying it's unnecessary prose is like saying Dream Theater make unnecessary instrumentals in their songs. It's all about the enjoyment of the art form. Of course it's "unnecessary" on a practical level, it's all about the exploration and love of the art itself.
 
Lysander said:
Saying it's unnecessary prose is like saying Dream Theater make unnecessary instrumentals in their songs. It's all about the enjoyment of the art form. Of course it's "unnecessary" on a practical level, it's all about the exploration and love of the art itself.
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Theres enjoyment of the artform and theres artform for artforms sake.
 
The Halk said:
I have not - I might resort to reading :/ However I have a list of books to read as long as your arm, and I'm running out of films I want to watch.
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I don't think it's one of those things where you are going to watch a film and it will all make sense unfortunately, you will need to do some reading and studying. I've studied Shakespeare for about 7 years of my life up to degree level and there are still moments where I go WTF.
 
Macbeth was amazing to me at school. So dark and violent, perfectly handling envy/guilt, very intense. Can't think of anything similar offhand which explores these themes so well.....maybe American History X.
 
Lysander said:
That's because, in my experience at least, you have to get to know the play very well before seeing the film. That goes for each play.

However, I do remember going to the cinema to see Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing years ago and being able to understand a lot of it pretty much straight off. Maybe try that?
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I'd agree with all of this. Also Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing is very accessible I think, even to those who don't really know the play. It's really quite funny too :)
 
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