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Shakespeare in Love
Good news: we finished above 10,000 today!
Also good news: I seem to have fixed my TV last night. Crossing fingers, but it was fine this morning.
I watched my DVD of Shakespeare in Love last night and today. I can't adequately express how much I love that movie. It's simply perfect. There's not one thing, not one scene, one character, one joke, one line I'd change about it. I love the way it parallels Romeo and Juliet--I'd caught some of it when I first saw it, especially with that lovely exchange "'Twas the rooster--believe me, love it was the owl" (this is rendered into "'Twas the lark--believe me love, it was the nightingale" in the play). But I noticed a lot more this time--Will first sees Viola at a party, where she meets the man with whom her parents have arranged a marriage. Will dances with Viola at the party, then overhears her talking on her balcony. Viola has a nurse. One lover is falsely informed of the death of the other.
I love how layered the movie is, how even if you don't know Shakespeare all that well, it's still enjoyable. Geoffrey Rush is hilarious with his deadpan English delivery. "How refreshing." And it's so charming and engaging at first--the leads are beautiful, and brilliant (I have no idea why Joseph Fiennes didn't get a Best Actor Oscar nomination), the writing is so clever. Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard are amazing--the plot is so well constructed and planned, into finally, perfectly, Viola is Juliet and Will is Romeo, and art is life. And when Viola and Will first become lovers, it's the best mixture of romantic and sexy--the scene when they're making love as they're saying their lines to each other is incredible. And then gradually, like a fine mist, things turn darker and darker: "It is not a comedy I'm writing now. A broad river divides my lovers..."
And oh God, that luminous, lovely ending, as they spin heartbreak into something rich and strange, spun gold, a tale to last the ages. "You will never age for me, nor fade, nor die...It will be a love story, for she will be my heroine for all time. And her name...Viola." I wept at this. There's something about it that touches me so deeply--it's simply perfect. The artist turning heartbreak into art, because that's what we do, that's what makes us artists--we gather up our emotions and experiences and press them into clay, to turn them into something finer.
Also good news: I seem to have fixed my TV last night. Crossing fingers, but it was fine this morning.
I watched my DVD of Shakespeare in Love last night and today. I can't adequately express how much I love that movie. It's simply perfect. There's not one thing, not one scene, one character, one joke, one line I'd change about it. I love the way it parallels Romeo and Juliet--I'd caught some of it when I first saw it, especially with that lovely exchange "'Twas the rooster--believe me, love it was the owl" (this is rendered into "'Twas the lark--believe me love, it was the nightingale" in the play). But I noticed a lot more this time--Will first sees Viola at a party, where she meets the man with whom her parents have arranged a marriage. Will dances with Viola at the party, then overhears her talking on her balcony. Viola has a nurse. One lover is falsely informed of the death of the other.
I love how layered the movie is, how even if you don't know Shakespeare all that well, it's still enjoyable. Geoffrey Rush is hilarious with his deadpan English delivery. "How refreshing." And it's so charming and engaging at first--the leads are beautiful, and brilliant (I have no idea why Joseph Fiennes didn't get a Best Actor Oscar nomination), the writing is so clever. Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard are amazing--the plot is so well constructed and planned, into finally, perfectly, Viola is Juliet and Will is Romeo, and art is life. And when Viola and Will first become lovers, it's the best mixture of romantic and sexy--the scene when they're making love as they're saying their lines to each other is incredible. And then gradually, like a fine mist, things turn darker and darker: "It is not a comedy I'm writing now. A broad river divides my lovers..."
And oh God, that luminous, lovely ending, as they spin heartbreak into something rich and strange, spun gold, a tale to last the ages. "You will never age for me, nor fade, nor die...It will be a love story, for she will be my heroine for all time. And her name...Viola." I wept at this. There's something about it that touches me so deeply--it's simply perfect. The artist turning heartbreak into art, because that's what we do, that's what makes us artists--we gather up our emotions and experiences and press them into clay, to turn them into something finer.
big sigh
I thought Joseph Fiennes was so robbed of a nomination. He had the harder job. He was playing Shakespeare for God's sake. Playing him as an insecure playwright with writer's block. Who gets to do that and do it well?
Oh, but the scene where they make love is the most romantic.
Best sex line ever:
"Stay but a little. I will come again."
I think I stopped breathing when he said that.
Re: big sigh
I just finished watching one of the commentary tracks. They were talking about the editing of that sequence and how gradually they sped up the cuts--going from Rome and Juliet on the stage saying their lines, and then Will and Viola making love saying the same lines--life feeding art feeding the artists, until the cuts are so fast and seamless you don't know what world you're in. Is this really happening? Is this the stage or real life? And to me those are negligible distinctions--art is life.
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Oh, and lest I forget: Happy Birthday!
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This weekend--I think my only free time is Sunday afternoon? How is that for you?
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Well, I can make it any time Sunday, but later afternoon would be preferable. let me know what's good. (And in case you can't get to this again, I'll be calling you tomorrow)