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Thursday, July 5, 2018

Film Club Shakespeare Series: July

Hey everybody!

Thank you to everyone who made it out for our first two films: Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing.  We had a fantastic turnout for both films (probably some of our biggest crowds yet!).  Thank you also to everyone who brought food to share, we all appreciate it immensely.
Ok, moving on to July business.  For this month of the series we will be focusing on two the Bard's histories.  We will be watching Richard III and Henry V.

Thursday, July 19th at 6:15pm-Richard III


Richard III is a 1995 British drama film adapted from William Shakespeare's play of the same name, starring Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, John Wood, and Dominic West.  The film sets the play in 1930s Britain with Richard as a fascist sympathizer plotting to usurp the throne.  Richard III received universal acclaim from critics.  It currently holds a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars later adding it to his list of Great Movies.  He said this in his review, "Harold Bloom thought Sir Ian McKellen was the greatest Richard III he had ever seen, and Richard Loncraine's 1995 film is based on McKellen's famous 1990 National Theater performance.  It sets the play in an England of an alternate timeline, which clearly evokes 1930's fascism.  In recent London, Shakespeare's language remains the same; I imagine the playwright himself would have cared little about the sets and costumes of a staging so long as his words were respected.  This is a film with a dread fascination.  McKellen occupies it like a poisonous spider in its nest.  Lurching sideways though his life, smoking as if it's as necessary to him as breathing, seductive when he wants to be, when angered Richard reveals the predator within."

Thursday, July 26th at 6:15pm-Henry V


Henry V is a 1989 British historical drama film adapted for the screen and directed by Kenneth Branagh, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name about King Henry V of England.  The film stars Branagh in the title role with Paul Scofield, Derek Jacobi, Ian Holm, Emma Thompson, Alec McCowen, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, Brian Blessed, and Christian Bale in supporting roles.  The film received worldwide critical acclaim and has been widely considered one of the best Shakespeare film adaptations ever made.  It won an Oscar for best Costume Design and Branagh, in his directorial debut, received nominations for Best Actor and Best Director.  It currently holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars saying this in his review, "There is no more stirring summons to arms in all of literature than Henry's speech to his troops on St. Crispan's Day, ending with the lyrical "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."  To deliver this speech successfully is to pass the acid test for anyone daring to perform the role of Henry V in public, and as Kenneth Branagh, as Henry, stood up on the dawn of the Battle of Agincourt and delivered the famous words, I was emotionally stirred even though I had heard them many times before.  That is one test of a great Shakespearean actor: to take the familiar and make it new.  What works best in the film is the over-all vision.  Branagh is able to see himself as a king, and so we can see him as one.  He schemes, he jests and he deceives his soldiers during his famous tour of the field on the night before the battle.  In victory he is humble, and in romance, uncertain.  Olivier, who was 37 when he played Henry in 1944, wrote that Henry V was the kind of role he couldn't have played when he was younger:  "When you are young, you are too bashful to play a hero; you debunk it."  For Branagh, 29 is old enough."

I hope you are able to make it out to these wonderful films.  See you there!