okay i don't make films but if i did they'd have a samurai

[jazzfish]

The Cinamatheque, the semilocal artsy theatre, is doing a Shakespeare 400 film series. I like the Cinematheque quite a bit but their Shakespeare preferences ... are not mine.

Choices that I am fully on board with:

• Chimes at Midnight, aka Orson Welles plays all the Falstaff in one movie
  
• Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Ran, aka Samurai Macbeth and Samurai Lear
  
• My Own Private Idaho, the single most arthouse Shakespeare film I can think of
  
• Forbidden Planet

Choices that I understand while not agreeing with:

• Polanski's Macbeth
  
• Whedon's Much Ado and Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet, because people will come see those (I will go see R+J, because it's been at least a decade)
  
• West Side Story, ditto plus classic-musical cachet

Choices that baffle me:

• Three different Oliviers: Hamlet, Henry V, Richard III. Surely one was enough?
  
• Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Taming of the Shrew, though there may be context that I'm missing

Omissions that baffle me even more:

• Branagh. I assume someone at the Cinematheque hates Branagh.
  
• Ian McKellen's fascist Richard III
  
• Julie Taymor's Titus

Comments

[lilysea]

OMG, I love your icon! ^_^

[jazzfish]

:) thanks! It's by visiblemarket.

[sorcyress]

If we're going to do Taming of the Shrew, we should do it 10 Things I Hate About You style, pretty much always.

[jazzfish]

This I am on board with. Taming is a play where I adore one scene (II i, Petruchio/Kate) and cannot stomach most of the rest of the play.

I am THERE for 10 Things, though. Julia Stiles and JGL are fantastic.

(Unrelatedly, one of these days I will get around to watching She's The Man, aka "Twelfth Night at a private school." From the trailer it looks terrible and awesome all at once.)