Shakespeare Movie Club

March 17, 2024 1:30 PM

I started a Shakespeare Movie Club, mostly because I was already doing it and was hoping people would also be interested and then I could talk to people about Shakespeare.

I've seen a lot of Shakespeare's plays performed live because we would go to the local Shakespeare Festival (shout out to Oregon Shakespeare) every year when I was a kid. I think it was for 5 or 6 years, and we would see 3 or 4 plays a year. Usually 2 Shakespeare, 1 classic and maybe 1 nouveau thing. It's where I saw La Bête and loved it.

I don't know exactly when it started but I felt I wanted to have more Shakespeare in my life. Maybe when Dame Judy did a sonnet on Graham Norton.

So come join me if you want more Shakespeare in your life too.

posted by fiercekitten (5 comments total)

I am torn between loyalty to very BBC-trad filmed stage performances, and lush, beautiful landscapes full of lush, beautiful people, a la Branagh's first couple of Shakespeare movies.

I mean, the prescriptivist English major in me pulls toward the formal stuff...but the kid who wonderingly walked around Stratford-Upon-Avon (and took home a pebble!) and who cackles at the Reduced Shakespeare Company and who finds himself quoting lines under his breath -- he wants lively, lovely movies full of real people saying the real words.

....Yeah, now I think I know which way I really lean. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 1:10 PM on March 19

I might be interested in this! I haven't done a Fanfare Club before so I'm not really sure what's involved, but I'm assuming it mostly consists of watching some movies and then maybe talking about them.

I'm generally more interested in the things on the more adapted end, just because I have seen a lot of Shakespeare productions, but would potentially watch some more traditional productions as well. I don't have a lot of time/energy to track things down, though, so would probably mostly only watch things that are available to stream relatively easily.

I would love an excuse to watch Scotland, PA again! It's Macbeth, but a 1970s hamburger stand. It's such a ridiculous idea for an adaptation, and I remember really enjoying it. Plus, I'll be seeing Macbeth at Oregon Shakespeare this year, and it can definitely be fun to watch a few adaptation beforehand.
posted by duien at 4:11 PM on March 19

I posted this in the April pick post but it applies here too.

Personally I would do a mix of film adaptations and "filmed in front of a live audience", be it BBC, RSC or Lincoln Center or what have you. Even wacky adaptations like Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet are entertaining.

I was thinking about posting "extra credit" films each month, like Scotland, PA or 10 Things I Hate About You for whoever might have an inclination to watch a more liberal adaptation of the source material. So many of them are good on their own!
posted by fiercekitten at 9:45 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Uh I am now 💀. NYC Shakespeare in the Park's 1981 production of Taming of the Shrew starred Raul Julia and Meryl Streep.
posted by fiercekitten at 9:51 PM on March 19

Yah I am always up for talking shakespeare. My son and I were lucky enough to get the last two tickets to one of the final performances of David Tennant's Macbeth last year. It was his first live shakespeare, he came at it as a Doctor Who fan. He dug it.

Point being, eventually they'll probably release a filmed version of that production. I like those the most, but I wouldn't turn down watching Baz Lurhman/Orson Welles/Peter Brook/et al versions as well.
posted by nushustu at 11:33 AM on April 11