Hamlet (again)
Apr. 29th, 2009 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI got the BBC collection version out the college library. I saw the box set in the shop I usually buy my Doctor Who stuff from and I was all *ooooh, shiny!* cause lookit, Shakespeare! But it costs a ton, and I didn't know if I'd like them, and the library has.
Hamlet played by Derek Jacobi, Claudius by Patrick Stewart, Ophelia was Lalla Ward, Laertes David Robb. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/527101/
There were other people too, but that's The Master, Captain Picard, Romana, and Kalas, to my fan filing system. Which admittedly is a really specialised set of associations. But I figured it would be good.
I'm not convinced. It's interesting to see the differences, but most of my brain thinks the David Tennant version is now The Right Way, which makes most everything else not the right way. My student brain can acknowledge that different productions are trying for a different effect, but the part that's kind of a Hamlet fan now is really particular.
Jacobi's Hamlet is... theatrical. He gets involved in the play within a play to a very great degree, getting out on stage and stuff. Made me think of Slings and Arrows and Hamlet-the-director. Though chronologically obviously tis the other way around and all going back to the text. But it's not just that scene. There's a lot more of him acting mad that looks like Acting Very Loud. There's a moment where he's scared Polonius off by grabbing a dagger and making like he's going to kill himself, and then when the old man is gone he just sort of drops the attitude and goes back to reading. He's always talking to either the audience he can see or the audience the other side of the camera. This is not an introspective man talking to himself, this is a man who is always playing to a crowd. There's a lot of people in this version of court, always people watching. It's interesting, but it gives us a Hamlet who is almost always false. He's turned up to 11 sometimes, when he's acting crazy on purpose, but even at his most calm he's not lower than 7. The closest he gets to looking sounding genuine is when he's speaking to Horatio, when it's just the two of them. The only moment he seems calm is when he's accepted the duel and says the stuff about accepting whatever happens. Everywhere else he's wound up. And it felt odd, like the character we see most of is the one we see least of, because he's always performing the role. Note, I'm not criticising Jacobi's performance, I'm saying it's the version of Hamlet that fits the essays I've been reading about how Hamlet is searching for a role to fit in to, that he struggles for identity in a highly scripted world. It works, but I don't like it so well.
He's also vastly unsympathetic around Ophelia and Gertrude. Which he is even on paper. But add physically assaulting them, knocking them around, shaking them, and some scenes with his mother where he throws her on the bed that look most like a rape scene... it's beyond uncomfortable. There's too much sex stuff here. Weird kissing combinations. Yuck.
And he always knows he's observed, so there's no moment between him and Ophelia that he believes to be genuine, and only the few violent and icky ones with his mother. Ophelia he knows is false because she walks in with her book upside down, and then he goes around searching out behind the arras looking for her father. Makes it much less interesting. He directs most of his comments to the walls, the hidden observers. There's no ambiguity, there's no hint this is internal conflict, he's pissing off the mouses in the walls.
Ophelia and Gertrude do a lot of crying. Which makes the hearing what they're saying a bit trickier. Then once Ophelia goes mad she gets mad in the modern colloquial sense - she's angry, she throws the songs around like daggers, accusations that seem very clear the way Ward played them. Made me realise the difference music and acting and who talks to who when can make to that scene. I've seen three Ophelias, which isn't many, but I don't think they had anything in common. Slings and Arrows Ophelia was wrecked with grief, crying and with a little girl voice. Stage Ophelia I mostly remember the others around her, the tiptoe feeling of not quite knowing what she'll do next, brittle reactions. Ward hardly seemed mad at all, she made so much sense, but nobody wanted to hear it. And they're all quite right. Performance is fascinating.
Claudius was different here than on stage even with the same actor playing him both times. Here he was the smiling villain, broad and loud and playing to the whole court whenever he said anything. On stage he seemed much more controlled, and much more in control. I'd love to have the two performances next to each other to see how it's done. I await the DVD most eagerly.
I confess though I kept getting distracted by his hair. As in, he has it. Hair! I mean I realise most people do at some point, but still. You can hardly see him in all that hair. How weird is that?
... yeah, not very, okay...
So student me liked watching this one for the contrast, but fan me wants wants wants the David Tennant DVD... or better yet the ability to revisit the theatre experience as if memory were recordable. It isn't though. Fades and alters, can't hardly trust it at all.
Now I don't know if I want to buy the rest of them. Will I rewatch them much? Do I like them? I do keep getting moments where I notice they're not doing TV they're doing theatre with cameras, where the stage just looks all wrong and I wonder why they're not using... lots of things. And yet I can't watch it as I would the stage, the camera keeps deciding things for me and I do not always agree. It feels awkward and in betweeny. I'd probably get used to it, but...
There's also the thing where it might be recorded on a DVD but it looks really less good on my nice big TV.
Wants new versions. With all the best people in.
Possibly leaving out some of the words though. I know Shakespeare writ that ending and I can see the point of it, but I really did prefer the finishing it sooner version.
Right. Now some more theory reading. Which I was trying to do but couldn't keep my attention stuck to the page.
Also today there as dishwasher, cleaner person visit, laundry machine, hanging up laundry, and shopping reception. Been a bit busy. Just doesn't feel like much got done.
Hamlet played by Derek Jacobi, Claudius by Patrick Stewart, Ophelia was Lalla Ward, Laertes David Robb. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/527101/
There were other people too, but that's The Master, Captain Picard, Romana, and Kalas, to my fan filing system. Which admittedly is a really specialised set of associations. But I figured it would be good.
I'm not convinced. It's interesting to see the differences, but most of my brain thinks the David Tennant version is now The Right Way, which makes most everything else not the right way. My student brain can acknowledge that different productions are trying for a different effect, but the part that's kind of a Hamlet fan now is really particular.
Jacobi's Hamlet is... theatrical. He gets involved in the play within a play to a very great degree, getting out on stage and stuff. Made me think of Slings and Arrows and Hamlet-the-director. Though chronologically obviously tis the other way around and all going back to the text. But it's not just that scene. There's a lot more of him acting mad that looks like Acting Very Loud. There's a moment where he's scared Polonius off by grabbing a dagger and making like he's going to kill himself, and then when the old man is gone he just sort of drops the attitude and goes back to reading. He's always talking to either the audience he can see or the audience the other side of the camera. This is not an introspective man talking to himself, this is a man who is always playing to a crowd. There's a lot of people in this version of court, always people watching. It's interesting, but it gives us a Hamlet who is almost always false. He's turned up to 11 sometimes, when he's acting crazy on purpose, but even at his most calm he's not lower than 7. The closest he gets to looking sounding genuine is when he's speaking to Horatio, when it's just the two of them. The only moment he seems calm is when he's accepted the duel and says the stuff about accepting whatever happens. Everywhere else he's wound up. And it felt odd, like the character we see most of is the one we see least of, because he's always performing the role. Note, I'm not criticising Jacobi's performance, I'm saying it's the version of Hamlet that fits the essays I've been reading about how Hamlet is searching for a role to fit in to, that he struggles for identity in a highly scripted world. It works, but I don't like it so well.
He's also vastly unsympathetic around Ophelia and Gertrude. Which he is even on paper. But add physically assaulting them, knocking them around, shaking them, and some scenes with his mother where he throws her on the bed that look most like a rape scene... it's beyond uncomfortable. There's too much sex stuff here. Weird kissing combinations. Yuck.
And he always knows he's observed, so there's no moment between him and Ophelia that he believes to be genuine, and only the few violent and icky ones with his mother. Ophelia he knows is false because she walks in with her book upside down, and then he goes around searching out behind the arras looking for her father. Makes it much less interesting. He directs most of his comments to the walls, the hidden observers. There's no ambiguity, there's no hint this is internal conflict, he's pissing off the mouses in the walls.
Ophelia and Gertrude do a lot of crying. Which makes the hearing what they're saying a bit trickier. Then once Ophelia goes mad she gets mad in the modern colloquial sense - she's angry, she throws the songs around like daggers, accusations that seem very clear the way Ward played them. Made me realise the difference music and acting and who talks to who when can make to that scene. I've seen three Ophelias, which isn't many, but I don't think they had anything in common. Slings and Arrows Ophelia was wrecked with grief, crying and with a little girl voice. Stage Ophelia I mostly remember the others around her, the tiptoe feeling of not quite knowing what she'll do next, brittle reactions. Ward hardly seemed mad at all, she made so much sense, but nobody wanted to hear it. And they're all quite right. Performance is fascinating.
Claudius was different here than on stage even with the same actor playing him both times. Here he was the smiling villain, broad and loud and playing to the whole court whenever he said anything. On stage he seemed much more controlled, and much more in control. I'd love to have the two performances next to each other to see how it's done. I await the DVD most eagerly.
I confess though I kept getting distracted by his hair. As in, he has it. Hair! I mean I realise most people do at some point, but still. You can hardly see him in all that hair. How weird is that?
... yeah, not very, okay...
So student me liked watching this one for the contrast, but fan me wants wants wants the David Tennant DVD... or better yet the ability to revisit the theatre experience as if memory were recordable. It isn't though. Fades and alters, can't hardly trust it at all.
Now I don't know if I want to buy the rest of them. Will I rewatch them much? Do I like them? I do keep getting moments where I notice they're not doing TV they're doing theatre with cameras, where the stage just looks all wrong and I wonder why they're not using... lots of things. And yet I can't watch it as I would the stage, the camera keeps deciding things for me and I do not always agree. It feels awkward and in betweeny. I'd probably get used to it, but...
There's also the thing where it might be recorded on a DVD but it looks really less good on my nice big TV.
Wants new versions. With all the best people in.
Possibly leaving out some of the words though. I know Shakespeare writ that ending and I can see the point of it, but I really did prefer the finishing it sooner version.
Right. Now some more theory reading. Which I was trying to do but couldn't keep my attention stuck to the page.
Also today there as dishwasher, cleaner person visit, laundry machine, hanging up laundry, and shopping reception. Been a bit busy. Just doesn't feel like much got done.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 06:45 pm (UTC)Also noticed while watching this version is the impact pace has on understanding lines. Say something too slow and it's like when the music does something dramatic, it drives the interpretation, This Is Important, which when I notice it I find annoying. Quick has disadvantages too of course, but I like to think I can keep up, and if too much is slow slow then it feels like they're giving us thinking time. :-p
... also, I am cranky.