OSF 2010 Season opens February 19th!
February 13, 2010 by Debra Murphy
Filed under Bard Northwest, Bill Rauch, Dan Donohue, Hamlet, OSF
In this sometimes dreary third week of February, Clan Murphy is all a-quiver that the wheel has not only turned on another new season of LOST, but is about to turn on another new season of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Previews begin on February the 19th! Your Humble Bardolater will be attending (with her better [...]
Shakespeare in Love directed by John Madden
January 27, 2010 by Debra Murphy
Filed under Bardfilm, Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Madden, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jim Broadbent, Joseph Fiennes, Romeo and Juliet spinoffs, Rupert Everett, Spinoffs, Tom Wilkinson
© 2006 John Murphy
Bard-love received an unexpected shot-in-the-arm with the 1998 release of this buoyant, multi-Academy Award-winning imagining of the “making-of” Romeo and Juliet. The smart script by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard smoothly mixes Bard biography/mythology, Romeo and Juliet, and some Shax-worthy comedic high-jinks: mistaken identity, cross-dressing, and flights of verbal fancy, courtesy of [...]
Othello (1952) directed by and starring Orson Welles
January 22, 2010 by John Murphy
Filed under Bardfilm, Orson Welles, Othello, Othello film reviews
In terms of literature, Shakespeare is the greatest mind of all time. Visually, Welles is one of the greatest minds of all time. Bring the two together and you have the makings of an all time classic. Othello certainly qualifies.
It is frightening to think that we may never have been allowed to experience this masterpiece. [...]
Vidclips from Titus (1999) directed by Julie Taymor
January 21, 2010 by Debra Murphy
Filed under Alan Cumming, Anthony Hopkins, Bard Vids, Bardfilm, Colm Feore, Jessica Lange, Julie Taymor, Titus Andronicus, Titus Andronicus vidclips
If ever there was a “you-re not in Kansas anymore” Shakespeare adaptation, it is Julie Taymor’s gorgeous and horrifically violent screen adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. Here are some way cool bardclips therefrom:
First, here’s the trailer:
This is the amazing scene-setting opening, probably my favorite scene:
And, if you can stomach it, The [...]
Titus (1999) directed by Julie Taymor and starring Anthony Hopkins
January 21, 2010 by John Murphy
Filed under Alan Cumming, Anthony Hopkins, Bardfilm, Colm Feore, Jessica Lange, Julie Taymor, Titus Andronicus, Titus Andronicus film reviews, Titus Andronicus vidclips, Tragedies
© 2000 John Murphy
Roger Ebert pretty much hit the nail on the head with his statement about this movie: “It’s what the play deserved.” That’s exactly right. The original play by William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus is a gratuitously violent, overblown, hambone piece of trite trash. And I love it. I loved every minute of this [...]
Shakespeare in Love(1998) directed by Guy Madden
January 21, 2010 by Debra Murphy
Filed under Anthony Sher, Bard Bio, Bardfilm, Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Madden, Gwyneth Paltrow, Imelda Staunton, Joseph Fiennes, Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet spinoffs, Rupert Everett, Simon Callow, Spinoffs, Tom Wilkinson
© 2006 John Murphy
Bard-love received an unexpected shot-in-the-arm with the 1998 release of this buoyant, multi-Academy Award-winning imagining of the “making-of” Romeo and Juliet. The smart script by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard smoothly mixes Bard biography/mythology, Romeo and Juliet, and some Shax-worthy comedic high-jinks: mistaken identity, cross-dressing, and flights of verbal fancy, courtesy of [...]
Romeo and Juliet (1968) directed by Franco Zeffirelli
January 20, 2010 by John Murphy
Filed under Bardfilm, Franco Zeffirelli, John McEnery, Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet film reviews
© 2006 John Murphy
A Pair of Star-Cross’d Lovers
Ah, the Sixties — the tie-dyed era of youth and rebellion. An age when the word was Love, hope sprang eternal, and the world seemed perfectible. Franco Zeffirelli’s lush and energetic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, released in 1968, touched a deep chord in the audience of [...]
Macbeth (BBC, 1983) starring Nicol Williamson
January 20, 2010 by Debra Murphy
Filed under BBC Shakespeare series (ca. 1980), Bardfilm, Jean Lapotaire, Macbeth, Macbeth film reviews, Nicol Williamson
© 2005 John Murphy
Nicol Williamson’s voice curiously combines the sound of a rumbling train and a hissing snake. I mention this because it’s borderline distracting, and only adds to the suspicion that Williamson has been beamed in from another planet. John Osborne claimed he was the greatest actor since Marlon Brando, and both thespians unquestionably [...]
Macbeth (1971) directed by Roman Polanski
January 20, 2010 by Debra Murphy
Filed under Bardfilm, Jon Finch, Macbeth, Macbeth film reviews, Roman Polanski
© 2002 John Murphy
It is difficult to watch Roman Polanski’s haunting Macbeth and not be uncomfortably reminded of the gruesome circumstances that inspired it. In the late sixties, Polanski was shit-hot off the success of Rosemary’s Baby. He had a beautiful wife, an expectant child, and a posh house in Beverly Hills. Then the gravy [...]
Macbeth (1998) starring Sean Pertwee, directed by Michael Bogdanov
January 20, 2010 by Debra Murphy
Filed under Bardfilm, Greta Scacchi, Macbeth, Macbeth film reviews, Michael Bogdanov, Sean Pertwee
© 2005 John Murphy
Mad Max Macbeth
From the back of the box: “Sean Pertwee plays the painfully ambitious royal who schemes to murder so he can ascend to the throne in this superior version of William Shakespeare’s literary classic. Spurred by the pressure exerted by his equally power-hungry wife, Lady Macbeth (Greta Scacchi), the Thane conspires [...]
