I think this is a wonderfully done version of The Merchant of Venice that suffers from some inevitable balance problems.
I don’t think the casting, costuming or cinematography could have been better and the soundtrack is a particular triumph.
It’s a difficult and problematic play and this production did much, possibly too much, to address the issues inherent therein.
This is a Pacino vehicle and that’s saying something considering the cast. (Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, Lynn Collins)
He glowers and gnashes and stares forlornly in a way that feels sympathetic and off putting all at once.
He’s taken a role that was meant to as a caricature of a morality play villain and turned it into a fully realized human being. He’s done a better job at it than I’ve seen and kept to the text. The successes and failures of the rest of the play lay mostly at the feet of the choices he’s made to do that.
The Merchant of Venice is a comedy. We must bear in mind that comedy means happy ending in these plays and not as we modernly define it (as funny).
Because Pacino succeeds so well with humanizing Shylock none of the funny stuff lands.
I know this is a directorial/production decision as well and I can’t fault it because I doubt very much the movie would have been made otherwise.
So given that the tone is so grim, how does everything else fit?
It feels like Venice in the late 1500’s.
It does a good job of effective scene setting. It is lush and beautiful.
Just look at these gorgeous shots.
They could each be a painting.
Lynn Colin’s has the least encumbered role of the main cast and plays an interesting and effective Portia.
The Great Courses lecture advises us to view this play as a fairy tale. That is the best and most valid reading in my view as well.
In its romantic plot Bassanio woos Portia and wins her by choosing the right box of 3 while solving a riddle about the nature of love.
Bassanio has spent all his own money and needs to borrow some from an older friend (lover?) Antonio.
Antonio is out of ready cash but he has 3 ships out, any of which is worth lots of money. Antonio therefore an agrees to co-sign on a giant loan so that young Bassanio can go woo in style.
They get the loan from Shylock. Shylock is a money lending Jew who hates Antonio and will only give the loan with a pound of Antonio’s flesh as collateral.
In Venice of the 1500s a money lender (Usurer) was pretty much guaranteed to be a Jew as that was the only group of people allowed to lend money.
It’s important when watching this play to pay attention to how it’s been viewed in the past.
By the time the movie gets to the pivotal courtroom scene all the characters have been fully established and they get to be their best or at least most authentic selves.
Bassanio is a slimy bastard, Antonio is a pitiable victim, Shylock is a stubborn and vindictive fool, and only Portia comes out well as the (Shakespeare typical) cross dressing young lawyer.
The argument that Shylock is Shakespeare's first tragic hero is strong here. He paints himself into the corner of merciless inflexibility and suffers for it.
After this scene the movie falls apart. The “happy ending” feels jarring nasty.
I think Mariam will write more about that as it bothered her more.
Things that potentially could have worked in a slapstick/vaudeville style are uncomfortable in a serious drama setting.
The couples (Bassanio and Portia) and their servants (including Shylock’s now Christian daughter Jessica) all pair of happily in prosperity and joy.
The movie knows that this ending doesn’t work and follow it up with a no play scene of Shylocks daughter Jessica looking forlornly into the Venice lagoon.
I don’t love this play but am impressed by the movie.
None of the characters are speaking to me and I don’t like the dehumanizing of Shylock.
I think the fairytale reading is right but it’s not a fairytale I like either.
It’s weird that I’m giving the 4 star rating given all that but it’s just so well done.
Mariam said that it’s one of the most contemporarily relevant plays we’ve watched so far. That probably has something to do with it.
I think it was the music that took me from my expected 3.5 up to a 4.
It’s just transporting.
The Merchant of Venice - 4 stars for production
Mom score - 0 stars
This play really could have used some moms. I feel like a mom or even better some wives and moms would have injected a modicum of sense and restraint and maybe even compassion into the heads of these stories.
This is probably only due to my mom-ness.
They after moms did nothing of the sort for Romeo and Juliet.
I watched this play almost a month ago and it is startling how much I remember of it and how consistently my opinion of it has stayed the same. It was perfectly pleasant and entertaining to watch. It was very forgettable. So why did it stay in my memory?
It was beautiful for one. I love a good pastoral setting and there were beautiful gardens, Japanese bridges, and beautiful costumes. The lighting was good too although it was into the 2000s now so it was starting to lose that nostalgic 90s feeling.
I do have one gripe which is there was absolutely no reason for this movie to have been in Japan. Apparently Kenneth Branagh was in Japan (?) or a Japanese garden (?) and thought, "now couldn't this be the Forest of Arden?" And so he did it. At first, I thought he wasn't going to have any of the Japanese characters speak at all which would have been very weird but thankfully he didn't do that. I think he got away with it not being offensive, but a Japanese person needs to fact check that.
I was not a fan of this couple.
He was horrible to her and she did not deserve that. It was pitiful how happy she was for him to make a wife of her and how much she was willing to give him and he was just trying to trick her. I didn't find it funny at all.
I thought it was insane the game Rosalind played with Orlando, pretending to be a man and "allowing" him to practice his courtship of Rosalind on her. But I also got it. Who doesn't want to hear the honest, tortured thoughts of your lover? But mostly I'm with Celia here:
I liked Celia. She was sweet and good and loyal. She fell in love a little too fast but they all did and at least it was mutual.
I do wonder, if the right cast could add depth to this play. Like Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in Much Ado About Nothing. That could be a fluff play but they brought some depth to it that wasn't written explicitly into the script.
This was very much a fluff production, but IF someone could do this with depth, I would love to see it. Perhaps there is no depth here though. Missy has mentioned some of his plays are not so strong and I can see that this might be one of them.
Oh, one interesting As You Like It mention I came across soon after watching it! I was reading The Orient Express by Agatha Christie for my Ramadan book club (theme is Orient Express this year) and one of the characters is an actress named Linda Arden. She took that on as her stage name for the Forest of Arden from As You Like It. I had not expected to ever come across a reference of this play much less so soon!
We are on to The Merchant of Venice next which I hear is a good production but cringey and horrid and anti-Semitic. And rated R which I certainly hope is not for violence or a "pound of flesh".
As You Like it was another comedy and as light and fluffy as you could wish for. Its the story of lovers and disguises and an evil duke and good wins the day.
We saw the 2006 Branagh version.
It was well cast and very well acted. It had some of my favorite Shakespearean actors in it and was filmed in a cozy and pretty landscape. I do wish that they had tried this in Japan if they wanted to pursue that vibe though.
I wonder, a lot, about Branagh's choice to set it in Japan. Mostly it wasn’t Japanese enough to justify that decision, although my vote is still out on the Sumo.
It felt a little too British colonial orientalist for my comfort. Very Mikado vibes.
Also the camera filters were bad or maybe they were shooting on video? This was an HBO production. I wished for less grainy golden and more crisp HD or at least more clarity.
I wound up with one very strange highlight of the viewing.
My dog was riveted by this production.
It was bizarre. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of it. When I started it she ran into the room and fixated on the screen.
At one point she walked out to check something then turned right around and trotted back in. She got sleepy halfway through and laid down on her bed and watched the rest with one eye open.
I was slightly less enthralled.
There were some real strengths here though.
I found it impressive how straight they played it. The Rosalind as a boy trope was particularly jarring. She looked even less like a boy than Viola in Twelfth Night, but they were committed.
It was a little like watching a Superman movie where the pretense of glasses is all it takes for our suspension of disbelief. It’s fun and I’m glad they stuck to their guns on the interpretation. I do enjoy, but feel a little let down by, the modern camera winking of a lot of productions. If a thing is preposterous let it be that. You don’t need to draw attention to the fact that you the production company are also aware that it’s preposterous.
This entire play, like most comedies, is fully preposterous and it’s fun that way.
Kevin Klein was the highlight for me, close runner ups go to both Bryce Dallas and David Oyelowo for their Rosalind and Orlando they were really enjoyable and I don’t know either of them from other works.
The play is not thought provoking in and of itself but it’s fun and this was a very well done version
As You Like It - 3.5 stars for high watchability
Mom score- 0 no moms here this is another father daughter play
Come unto these yellow sandsAnd then take handsCurtsied when you have, and kiss'dThe wild waves whist Foot it featly here and thereAnd, sweet sprites, the burthen bearHark, hark!The watch-dogs bark
Full fathom five thy father liesOf his bones are coral madeThose are pearls that were his eyesNothing of him that doth fadeBut doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange, rich and strangeSea-nymphs hourly ring his knellHark, now I hear them...
All of which is to say there is a lot of variety with Shakespearean music, even for the music for which we have good records.
I went to a concert yesterday. It was a lovely concert and free.
A friend told me they were doing lute music and I was excited and blocked in my calendar with great anticipation.
Not exceptionally surprisingly there was some Shakespearean music performed.
They did The Willow Song from Othello and Full Fathom Five (the song at the top here) from The Tempest.
They talked about how they were using the Robert Johnson music because he was a Shakespeare contemporary so they knew what the songs sounded like for lute.
I had no idea this was the case. I thought all Shakespeare music was speculative.
Robert Johnson was a court composer in the court of James I and later of his son Charles I.
He worked with the Kings Men (The name of Shakespeares company at that time) and is closely associated with Shakespeare. He set songs from The Tempest and Cymbeline and The Winters Tale to music.
It is not recorded that his music was played during the plays, to his tunes and accompaniment, but there is a fair shot.
It’s not actually recorded what any of the music in the plays sounded like and lots of people have tried lots of things to make feasible examples. Lots more people have just taken the lyrics and themes and treated Shakespeare as a librettists of sorts.
I only recorded small snippets of the concert to keep in fair use but here is what I heard.
Full Fathom Five
The Willow Song
Here is a very pretty and complete version of that song.
Shakespeare swaps the He in the song for a She and uses only the first few verses.
For me, this moment in the play always makes me tear up. A good soundtrack will do that.
The audience would have gotten it instantly.
I’m so happy to have gotten to hear live music and especially this type of live music.
I quite liked Ayreheart and bring your attention to this piece with a different lead singer.
Beyond that, it’s clear that Shakespeare had music in his bones.
According to google Shakespeare included approximately 100 vocal songs in his work and made over 400 references to music or things musical.
I will leave you here with a few of my favorite Shakespeare music tunes but bear in mind they may or may not be Shakespeare. Like most else with the Bard it’s all speculation. So here are some songs I like that are Shakespeare adjacent.
And this one because I sang it most recently.
Hopefully someday I will have permission to post our version.
It was the last night of my holidays, the very twelfth night for which this play was named. I was in the mood for a last bit of celebration and this play was it.
And for that purpose it worked great.
The style and setting was much the same as Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream, all filmed in the 90's, with that very warm lighting and heavy on the flora. Vines climbing buildings, vast gardens, very similar architecture, and bikes. Actually, somehow I had convinced myself that all three of these films were made by the same person, but in fact, each one is directed by someone different.
The plot is that a twin brother and sister believe they have each lost each other in a ship sinking. The sister dresses up as a man to become the manservant of a local duke. She falls in love with him but he enlists her to court a local lady named Olivia. Olivia swears she'll mourn her recently dead brother for seven years. (I never figured out if this was real or she was just trying to get rid of the duke.) Sister-dressed-as-man tries to convince Olivia to marry the duke. Olivia falls in love with sister-dressed-as-man. Hijinks ensue. Fortunately brother turns up and marries Olivia and duke marries sister and all is well.
Helena Bonham Carter was Olivia and I just can't get into her being a fragile female protagonist. I first saw her as Bellatrix Lestrange and I'll always get slightly creepy, slightly insane vibes from her. I do think she leans into a little batty in all her roles.
The funniest part was when brother and sister-dressed-as-man finally appear together and for a second, before it is explained, Olivia thinks she's looking at two men that look like the one she loves.
She gasps, "Most wonderful!" I cracked up.
There was a side plot in which various staff of Olivia's estate and her uncle were involved in various ploys. One ploy was that the uncle was pumping a rich guy, Sir Andrew for money while convincing him that Olivia would marry him. Sure, he was an unattractive character, but he was actually quite hurt at the end and it was awful.
Another ploy was that they decided to gang up on one old manservant, Malvolio because he was stuffy and pompous and asked them not to cause a ruckus all night. They trick him into thinking Olivia is in love with him and when he pursues Olivia, he is made to look ridiculous and thoughtless Olivia has him thrown into a cell for being insane.
Neither of these people are given so much as an apology in the end and I think it was supposed to be funny but it was mean.
Finally, there was Feste the Fool who was played by Ben Kingsley. He played the role a little too dark and Missy and I have been talking after the Hollow Crown Falstaff fiasco and now this Feste, the perils of believing that darkness gives depth/seriousness to a role. Everyone wants to be that serious actor who does Shakespeare. But I think Shakespeare did really well making good points in jest and that is lost when you get too caught up in making Shakespeare proud of you.
But! All I need is 90s foliage climbing up old stone buildings and warm, warm colors and I feel cozy and happy.
I agree with Missy that this is not a strong play. But it whiled the evening away pleasantly and that's all one really wants from a celebratory entertainment piece.
We're going for another comedy next. As You Like It. More women dressed as men and romantic hijinks. Shakespeare had a limited number of tricks in his bag but oh, did he use the heck out of him. Respect.
So this is the play I have rated the lowest out of all the plays so far and I wonder if I'm being too harsh because we have a lot of poorly filmed stage plays to get through. Of course the cinematography is not the issue at all. As all of the Hollow Crowns so far, the sets and costuming are fantastic.
I was just...bored.
Remember, I was scared of the Henriad when we started this project? Well, it was not so bad especially watching it. I imagine reading it would have been torture. Additionally, it seems I've gotten through the worst of it and they get better from here.
Chronologically, some lists put the Henriad as Shakespeare's first. The literary critic Harold Bloom makes the argument that the Henriad is some of Shakespeare's best work, but I, some sort of critic, argue that if you have a huge literary career it's unlikely that your first work is your best work. That is, I say Shakespeare gets a pass.
This story briefly is the continuation from the last. Hotspur's contingent is upset and make a little bit of noise and then kind of settle on their own with some machinations of the other prince. (Eh? Yes, four other princes just sprout from somewhere, most of them teenagers.)
Henry IV and Hal (V) are still having father-son spats that are not nearly as royal as you think. The concerns are: does my son just want me to die so he can have the crown? Does my dad really not see the genius of my plan to (pretend to but kind of also really) frivolously spend my princehood so then I can do an AWESOME reveal of my reformation when I am king?? (Umm if that sentence doesn't make sense, it's not supposed to, what mental gymnastics he must have gone through to come to that conclusion, my goodness gracious.)
Then Henry IV tells Hal that the best way to keep a country united is to attack foreign countries. He dies. Hal does a magnificent reformation which mostly consists of him publicly rejecting Falstaff in a really awful way. The end.
I agree with Missy this Falstaff was just pitiful. That made it clear that Hal's plan had been mean and nasty the whole time. All of the noble class hated Falstaff and this rejection of him probably made Hal instantly part of the nobles' club. So Hal got to spend his youth having fun and then got to be a respectable king too all at the expense of pathetic old man. Less genius and more underhanded.
I don't know that a funny Falstaff would have made this less true.
The three storylines of the dissatisfied nobles, Falstaff, and Henry IV and Hal either barely overlapped or never did. This made the Falstaff story feel forcibly injected into the whole plot. Again, I feel this is an issue with the writing rather than this particular version.
There's nothing even that interesting to screenshot...
I'm falling asleep just writing this. I'm sorry Shakespeare, I was bored.
Twelfth Night next, watched on actual twelfth night!
We stepped a little out of order so that we could watch Twelfth Night on Twelfth night.
It is light and silly and this is a sweet version of the play. This is also the last Shakespeare play that I saw live.
Given all that you’d think I’d remember it better. I conflated Merry Wives of Windsor with Twelfth Night and kept waiting for Falstaff to appear and try to woo some ladies. It occurred to me about 10 minutes in that in my head Sir Toby is Falstaff.
Oh dear.
Nevertheless, I watched the right play at the right time and enjoyed it.
I’ve seen this version before and feel like it was well cast and well acted and overall very well done for a play I consider somewhat weak.
I mean the twins even look like twins!
And it’s all pretty, apparently, forgettable.
Even while I was watching it I was reimagining it as a modern LGBTQ flick where a woman who falls in love with another woman (in drag) just stays in love with her
and a man who pursues unattainable women just goes off with the dudes he’s been denying himself.
That Freddy Mercury mustache was not helping.
Then I had another one where Sir Toby and Falstaff are the twins and they cavort around drunkenly lead on by Feste.
Then I realized I was doing Shakespeare fanfic and put a brake on it and tried to pay attention.
That I forgot the play and had to drag my attention back is a good indicator that I was a bit bored by the it all.
It really is well done but I always have a hard time with the twins comedies. They just don’t grab me.
The real stand out here for me is Ben Kingsley who played the most intense and interesting Feste I’ve ever seen.
My best friend used to quote Feste a good bit and I have a special fondness for him. I often imagine him while thinking of Hamlets poor Yoric. It’s the strangest and most inspired bit of casting here where all the cast is good
I sometimes have a hard time with this play because of Malvolio’d treatment. In the play it goes from funny to cringe to abusive, real quick, and I don’t like it. This is 100% due to difference in humor and acceptable behavior from then to now, but at best it reminds me of a sitcom (I find sitcoms to be very uncomfortable and don’t watch them) and at worst it’s just cruel.
Is Malvolio an irritating ass? Yes, of course. Does he deserve his treatment? To me? Absolutely not.
In an only slightly earlier time Sir Toby and Malvolio would have been one dimensional parts in a morality play, they work like that. There is the gluttonous rich man and here is the upright steward. You could put them into Punch and Judy and they would work, but Shakespeare gave us gray areas and humanity. The pious man is insufferable in his inflexibility, the libertine is repulsive in his revenge.
This is Shakespeare doing The Great Shakespeare Thing in a play that to me is only mediocre. All hail Shakespeare.
