I began this play with a pretty bad attitude. I was bored before it even started. Mostly, this had to do with the visuals. It's from the 80s and it's worse than black and white in that the edges are completely gone. It's like watching something through a peephole. And because they weren't filming black and white, they didn't adjust coloring and lighting and so whole thing looks like it's taking place in a very dim, evening, indoor setting.
I first started to really pay attention when the king and Helena kissed because I KNEW that wasn't part of the story. I was like wait just one dang minute.
Anyway, they never followed up with that. So I don't know what the point of that kiss was. But it got my attention.
This is how I feel about Helena. If she was a man, we would think she's despicable. To pressure a man to marry her and then to force his hand was wrong. It makes me think she was a little self-aware how pious, righteous, beautiful, good she was because she must have believed after marriage he would see her charms.
He was pretty despicable himself trying to get a girl to sleep with him that would be ruined afterwards.
Actually, I quite liked Diana. She was a girl's girl and she did much more for Helena than she really had to. Maybe she enjoyed the drama and doing something exciting. She's also quite beautiful.
Lots of virginity talk. Just a note, lol.
The mom was alright in the end. I don't know how I feel about her disowning her son for the reasons she did. There were other reasons that I'd be ok with her disowning him for lol. Her heart was in the right place, I think.
The whole Parolles storyline was not worth much commentary. Was Bertram dumb for not seeing right through him? Yes, but also I think this whole arc was supposed to be ridiculous and slapstick and not realistic.
I'm giving it a half extra star more than I ought to because given the bad attitude I started with, I ended it with much more interest. For sure, I was waiting to see how the whole king and Helena chemistry was going to play out. I think if they could have given it a new interpretation without departing from the text, I would have been impressed. But they didn't.
Also, I think it was in the scene where the women are looking down over the balcony that I thought, if this film wasn't degraded so badly, I bet this was supposed to visually appeal to us like A Midsummer Night Dream or Much Ado About Nothing. Flowers and sun and old brick walls. And I felt the spirit of that even if I couldn't see it.
We have a poem break next.
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