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| Ian Mckellen In 'Richard III'--"Now Is The Winter Of Our.." |
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Shakespeare's 'Now is the winter of our
discontent' soliloquy performed by Ian McKellen in
his film version of 'Richard III' from 1995.
---tho with the long introduction in this
modernized version, the soliloquy actually starts
about 5 and a half minutes into this clip.
I really like the re-created 30s style jazz tune
here, but for those who want just THE SPEECH, go
here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5-SUDrHMU
Stacey Kent (born 1968 in New Jersey) is the fine
jazz singer in this clip (and in real life!).
Excellent music by Trevor Jones for this film.
Christopher Marlowe. 1564--93
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
COME live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.
A belt of straw and ivy-buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.
Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of
English Verse: 1250--1900.
from an interview with Sir Ian McKellen:
Now, why the Thirties?
If Shakespeare was offering a commentary on
comparatively recent events for his audience,
shouldn't we look for what to us is a modern
period? The Thirties are close enough for us to
relate to them in the Nineties. Characters dressed
in Thirties fashions are easier to distinguish
from each other than if they are all done up in
floppy hats, feathers and wrinkled tights. In such
medieval costume, of the period when the original
Richard III was alive, everyone looks the same.
For instance, you cannot tell in the Olivier movie
what people do for a living, how much money
they've got, what their social standing in
relation to each other is, simply by looking at
them. You can by listening to them; but in a drama
about the way individuals interrelate (and their
professions), what they wear and own, the sort of
buildings they use are as important as their
manners.
The Thirties was perhaps the most recent time when
the English royal family might have played a major
part in politics. Richard III centres on power and
the structure of politics. It was a period when a
tyrant reminiscent of Richard III might just have
arisen in the United Kingdom. On his abdication,
Edward VIII visited Hitler with approval and
Oswald Mosley aped Germanic fascism in the streets
where I live in the East End of London. These
reverberations were helpful for the play's
credibility, presenting not real history but
events that might have happened -- an aid to the
audience's suspension of disbelief.
Tags : mckellen richardIII shakespeare soliloquy IanMckellen |
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Affichage : 41032
Durée : 508 s |
| Ian Mckellen in 'Richard III'-Lady Anne mourns, gets wooed |
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McKellen delights in showing Richard's humor and
arrogance as he dances off at the end of this
scene to the jazz music of the first.
What Is Worth Dying For... Is Worth Killing For.
Kristin Scott Thomas ... Lady Anne
from an interview with Sir Ian McKellen:
---You're not suggesting that the audience should
have sympathy for him?---
I'm not suggesting that they do anything, but if
they don't I'd be very disappointed. He's very
engaging. I think they will catch their breath,
hopefully, at his bravado. I hope at times that
they will be so convinced by his acting that they
will forget what he's up to, which is why he has
to keep reminding the audience. "You know what
I've just done..." I hope they're going to see not
just one person all the way through. They're going
to see the different facets of this man's ability
and his potential which he channels to absolutely
the wrong purposes; but he is undoubtedly an
attractive figure and that's why Lady Anne is
momentarily seduced by him.
---Yes. I find that rather hard to believe.---
You find it hard to believe on the stage but you
won't when you see it on the screen. The reasons
are many, but one is Richard's overwhelming force;
the other is her own heightened emotion, she's at
a very vulnerable state emotionally. She's
exhausted with grief. She cannot keep it up even
faced with a man who legitimately killed her
husband in battle. She is totally destitute at the
point when she was about to become First Lady,
Queen of England. She has no family support,
apparently. Where is she going to live now? Who's
interested in her? Overnight that happens and
along comes a very powerful man who is old enough
to be her father and says: "Marry me and you can
have it all back." Now in her state of confusion,
who's to say that Lady Anne is a totally innocent
child? She may be, probably is, considering her
social class and her upbringing, extremely
ambitious on her own behalf and she's fooled, not
realising that Richard's wife is never going to
get a look in and she regrets it for the rest of
her life, of course. Basically, she believes him
when she says he loves her -- at a moment when she
is bereft of love.
---You mentioned his sense of humour. Would you
elaborate on that?---
His sense of humour comes from the same place as
his conscience. He knows what he's doing. It's
irony; but he's observing himself and he's pleased
with himself, admires himself and asks the
audience to admire what he's done, along with him.
So he's extremely arrogant; but he just hopefully
wins the audience into wanting him to succeed. The
audience are accomplices in this journey to power.
I hope, when the film is over, they will remember
how much they wanted Richard to succeed in
becoming king and how like many people in the
story they got seduced by the excitement of it.
In other words, I hope they're not just going to
sit back and watch this story. I hope they're
leaning forward and that humour is one of the ways
that they're drawn in. It wouldn't be right to say
it's a comedy! In fact, it's interesting that
Shakespeare calls the play The Tragedy of King
Richard III.
Tags : richardIII shakespeare IanMckellen |
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Affichage : 9337
Durée : 464 s |
| Othello: Iago (Ian McKellen) tells of a handkerchief, 1/2 |
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Shakespeare's "Othello", Act III, scene 3, lines
294 to 384.......Emilia's "I am glad I have found
this napkin" to Othello's "Nay, stay, thou
shouldst be honest".
go here to see Laurence Olivier do this same bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDXG04pIH_0
Ian McKellen ... Iago
Willard White ... Othello
Zoë Wanamaker ... Emilia
Othello (2006 film)
from Leo Africanus' A Geographical History of
Africa (Trans. John Pory. 1600):
The commendable actions and vertues of the
Africans
The Arabians which inhabite in Barbarie or vpon
the coast of the Mediterran sea, are greatly
addicted vnto the studie of good artes and
sciences: and those things which concerne their
law and religion are esteemed by them in the first
place.....Likewise they are most strong and
valiant people, especially those which dwell vpon
the mountaines. They keepe their couenant most
faithfully; insomuch that they had rather die than
breake promise. No nation in the world is so
subiect vnto iealousie; for they will rather leese
their lives, then put vp any disgrace in the
behalfe of their women....
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy!
--"The Merchant of Venice" (3.2.115-16)
Tags : Shakespeare Othello jealousy Iago IanMcKellen WillardWhite ZoëWanamaker |
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Affichage : 17337
Durée : 454 s |
| Shakespeare's "Macbeth" (Ian McKellen) "Tomorrow and Tomo... |
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Ian McKellen "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow "
from the 1979 TV version of the Trevor Nunn
production by the Royal Shakespeare Company
G. Fletcher ("Studies of Shakespeare", 1847):
There is no want of physical courage implied in
Macbeth's declining the combat with Macduff. He
may well believe that now, more than ever, it is
time to 'beware Macduff'. He is at length
convinced that 'fate and metaphysical aid' are
against him; and, consistent to the last in his
hardened and whining selfishness, no thought of
the intense blackness of his own perfidy
interferes to prevent him from complaining of
falsehood in those evil beings from whose very
nature he should have expected nothing else.
There is no cowardice, we say, in his declining
the combat under such a conviction. Neither is
there any courage in his renewing it; for there is
no room for courage in opposing evident fate. Bu
the last word and action of Macbeth are an
expression of the moral cowardice which we trace
so conspicuously throughout his career; he
surrenders his life that he may not be 'baited
with the rabble's curse'.
Tags : Macbeth Shakespeare IanMckellen theatre play |
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Affichage : 10929
Durée : 599 s |
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