Shakespeare on Film

Many people have attempted to put Shakespeare to film, and many have failed. In fact, I’d say that, of the many Shakespeare films I have seen, only one made full use of the medium of film and gave us something special, something memorable that actually stands on its own as a film without requiring the Shakespeare tag.

The problem with Shakespeare is that he wrote for theatre. His characters spend most of their time talking about their intentions, going on and on about plots and possibly how this morally affects them. While the psychological points are still interesting in this day and age, the repetition of plot points as well as talking about every tiny detail is necessary on theatre, where many people may not properly see the action, but completely useless on the big screen. Not only is it not necessary, it actually makes people fall asleep, as proven by this graph:

Graph = proof

The horizontal line indicates the percentage of people falling asleep, running to 100%. The vertical line indicates useless words being spoken. That’s right, even with only 200-400 useless words spoken, over 50% of people fell asleep. This is quite shocking evidence, really, and points to Shakespeare being out of date. The only reason the graph is not filled out to its 1600 maximum is that the researchers had fallen asleep by then, also, as had the actors reading the lines (a Shakespearisation of Die Hard).

The only memorable Shakespeare film I have seen is Richard III, starring Ian McKellen. This film is rare in that it actually employs great cinematic techniques, and visually keeps you on your toes. Not only is the setting both macabre and fascinating at the same time, as well as wonderfully detailed and stylish, but loads of wordless sequences are used that surprise the viewer. The shaking glass of water moments before a tank drives through, the army camp using a train for a command centre, the setting for the Now is the winter of our discontent speech, etc – it is all wonderfully done and keeps your interest. Only Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V comes close.

Most Shakespearian film directors appear to be under the mistaken belief that they are actually making a stage production. Not only do the actors say far too much, but the directors go to the patronising length of first having the actors say what, for example, they are carrying, and then actually showing it. This is basically the same kind of depth you would find in most soap series and is about as interesting as watching paint dry while hearing a scientific voice-over explain the process in detail. Get on with the show!

 Actually, I like Shakespeare loads. He has a beautiful writing style, and I love reading large parts of his works. But to say that his plays can be easily translated to film is a plain and simple lie, and generally resolves in uninspired, if well-acted, films which have difficulty keeping you awake. Filming Shakespeare is incredibly difficult and requires incredibly gifted directors to succeed, as neither the pace of his stories nor the texts themselves fit the medium of film, where the visual world has been opened up and allows you to tell things without telling them.

And that’s not a weakness or a sign of a society where people find it more difficult to keep their attention focussed; being kept visually awake is a necessary part of cinema, and that is no easier than any other part of producing an entertaining story.

Dutch exam

Had my Dutch exam on Monday, which was a breeze. The exam consisted of two parts, reading and writing. For writing we had to write a two page letter to a uni paper concerning Global Warming, making a point. I went all David Attenborough on their arse, disapproving of the current CO2-centred changes being proposed, claiming that for a healthy environment we also require better protection of nature’s fragile food chain, including better planning, fishing quotas, labels to prevent illegally caught fishes from appearing in the supermarket, etc. It’s good enough, I’m sure, and will make for a more varied point than just “Global Warming takes place do something!” or “Global Warming is crap let’s pollute pollute pollute!”
Reading was even easier. We had a massive two hours to condense a four-page article into 150 words. Seeing as the article was on a historical subject (depictions of natives in the publications of travel journals in the 16th century), I had no difficulty understanding the point it tried to make, and sifting out the important and unimportant bits. High marks, I’m sure.

Also, I collected a lot of information and compiled a list of all battles that took place in the Low Countries from 1200-1500. Linked on the right. It’s lengthy – there was lots of fighting – but worth my time; I’ve never actually encountered a similar list before. Not even the “Kalendarium van de Nederlandse Geschiedenis”, which attempts to list all major events in the Low Countries, has them all.

The Day after TOMORROW

Today, in effect.
Yesterday I had my exam and it went pretty well. I don’t know if I made it or not, as it was fairly tough, and I’ll have to wait until 16 June before I’ll hear whether I passed it or not. I’ll have to prepare for a possible resit, in any case.
The exam was in Utrecht and it had been a while since I last went there – visiting the city, I mean, not just passing through – and it was nice. Utrecht is quite a charming city with a lot of everything, and probably the Dutch city most closely resembling Venice. Obviously the first thing to do in a city when you’re free to do what you want is visit the local bookstores, which I did. I think I spent at least half an hour rummaging through Broese’s excellent collection of medieval history books: they have about ten shelves of medieval and early modern history, four shelves of Dutch medieval and early modern history, and then some extra books on those periods classified under their respective countries. Very nice to see such dedication, though I came away without any purchases, as most of their books were either too expensive, not really my subject, or both. I then went on to visit the wonderful De Slegte bookstore, but as I was just ascending the stairs to the second-hand history books I was shoved out as they were closing. I didn’t even get to see their assortment.

Also, on Tuesday I went to The Hague to the presentation of the Gruuthuse manuscript at the Royal Library (link on the right, the manuscript is displayed on the Dutch section of the site). This is a valuable 14th century middle Dutch manuscript which was in private hands until now, and boasts 147 middle-Dutch songs complete with musical notation. The songs are artistic in nature, not popular, and most are delivered only through this manuscript, making it one of the most important middle-Dutch manuscripts around – even in the Middle Ages, the Dutch were not known for composing songs in their own language, so this collection is very rare. It also has international importance, as these are among the very few, if not only medieval poetical texts displaying cyclical patterns: for example, many poems start and end with the same verse, and many poems have every verse end with the same line, creating a primitive refrain of sorts. There’s also repetitive use of acrostics – one charming poem (Melancolie dwinct mi de zinne) deals with the love of the poet, every verse hiding an acrostic of the person of his affection: Marie.
It was very cool not just to see the old book (opened on the page with its most famous poem, Egidius waer bestu bleuen), but also to hear the experts – including Frits van Oostrom and Frank Willaert – talk about it, and finally to listen to a small group of musicians perform some of the songs, which can best be described as a combination of gregorian and polyfonic music with almost renaissance texts, dealing with love, money, etc.
At the Royal Library they also host a permanent collection displaying some of the prize-pieces belonging to the Library and the National Archive, including the original constitution, the treaty of Münster (ending the conflict between Spain and the Republic), the death certificates of Anne Frank, illuminated manuscripts, etc. Very nice.

After the presentation I walked through The Hague a bit, which was nice, visiting De Slegte, where I was kicked out because they wanted to close (notice a trend?).

TOMORROW

Tomorrow I have an economics exam I need to pass to be accepted to study history at Nijmegen uni. So I’ve been revising a lot, doing practice exams etc. Nevertheless I got into a rather feeble debate about medieval warfare against someone who admitted to not knowing much about it, as well as another one which was about a lot of things pertaining to medieval warfare, none of which were properly understood by my opponent. He was persistent but the only constant in his arguments was not giving up, and so things dragged on. And on. And on and on and on. And then he got banned for trolling.

Days Like This

… They could last a bit shorter. The weather is far too warm to do anything distracting, such as cycling; it is still too light to watch a DVD, even with the curtains closed, and I already spent a considerable time on the PC so doing more of that will make me feel guilty. My concentration to either read or write is insufficient. Bah! Wish it were evening.

Who the hell put this on?

Oi, look at me.
Can I just say one thing?
I’m not gonna say there’s plenty more fish in the sea,
I’m not gonna say if you love her let her go
and I’m not gonna bombard you with clichés
but what I will say is this…

It’s not the end of the world.

Tidings

More time has passed! A principal event since then has been that the problem which was fixed at the end of the previous post wasn’t fixed at all, and has returned to haunt me (and the chap in the room next to me). We have both reminded the landlord a few times and every fix thus far hasn’t helped; they’ll probably have to break open the wall at one point and replace some of the piping altogether – hopefully they’ll start on Monday.
An unfortunate business, but I’d rather have work done and have it fixed than live in this stinking mess for much longer (although luckily it only really stinks when the water is coming up, which happens less frequently now as housemates are learning to wash their dishes downstairs rather than in the washing basins in their own rooms).

Another, more important event that has happened since then, has been meeting Ulrike! We get on really well, so well in fact, that I have now fallen from the noble bachelor ranks (a phrasing from Firefly I am so fond of, I have used it too many times already; I did like the thought of applying it in Dutch, also, but didn’t. No one would know that “baatselaar” is middle Dutch for bachelor, and if they did they would probably still not get the meaning). I just want to see her more often now.

REMINDER

Also, this is a reminder to
1. Get a job (holidays are coming, should give nice pay)
2. Write a certain letter to a certain university

Big steps must be taken before the next time I’ll write a blog entry, and in any case before this day next week.

REMINDER

Early Morning

Not having made any new posts in recent times, perhaps I should give some updates.
Most importantly, my grandmother died of cancer on 2 November; the funeral was on Monday 6 November. Although it was of course a sad occasion, it was a good commemoration. It was nice that a lot of people came, to support the family.

Apart from that, not terribly much happened. For the past three days we’ve seen a lot of rain, after a long build-up of clouds. Typical Dutch November weather, I suppose.
Oh, and, rather annoyingly (understatement), I have drainage pipe problems in my room. It appears that when some people use water (not sure if it counts for all my housemates or just a few) water comes up in my sink, filled with soap, both through the main drain and the reserve one. As far as I know it hasn’t flooded over yet, but it’s still an incredible pain, particularly as there’s regularly smells of Hades coming up, as well. And I can assure you (although probably not much assuring is needed) that sewer smells are AWFUL. Hence, I’ve stayed at my parents’ while I’m trying to sort it out, but I’ve had difficulties even reaching the landlord. Yesterday his telephone was unreachable, and he hasn’t replied to my email (sent on Friday) yet. Perhaps he just makes very long weekends.
I hope to go round there today and ask him about this, if the calling won’t work today either, but it may be a little difficult as I have two different meetings filling up the entire afternoon and co-responsibility for dinner after that. Also, constant rain.

Bah!

Edit:
Things are going well. I called and the problem should be fixed; they externally drained the piping system on Friday, and when one of my neighbours still reported problems yesterday they came again this morning to fix it up good. Should all be fine now. Also, no more rain.

Yay!

Holidays

Because my parents are currently on holiday, I am now in possession of a house. Two houses, actually, as friends of us are also away and I’m watching over their house, dog and plants as well. This is fairly uneventful, so I’ve been spending my time reading, watching TV or films and of course walking dogs. I took a picture of Arwen and Boris (the two dogs I’m looking after at the moment, the first one my own) and will scan and upload it fairly soon. While they’re very different dogs, they fit together quite well as they’re both black and white.
Thanks to the heat, none of the walks have been very long or memorable, although there’s no problem with Boris, who is usually fairly aggressive towards other dogs, because there’s simply not that many dogs being walked at any time. People make shorter walks, so the slightly off-beat paths I’m taking are nearly always deserted.

Last Saturday I went to Friesland for a family reunion, which was very good. Friesland is a nice province, sort of like North Holland but with more lakes and ships and a funny language. We went to Sneek/Snits (the city’s Frisian name), a very nice place with an old feel to it. Seeing as basically none of us were real Frisians, there was much touristy behaviour, which included acquiring the top two local products, Oranjekoeken and sugarloaves. They tasted excellent, which, together with the company, made up for spending 8 hours of the day in a train.

Busy week

The past week was very busy, as I already told you a little about in my previous post. The biggest event, however, was on Saturday, when my parents celebrated their silver marriage anniversary. 25 years of marriage is not something to just pass by, with many people apparently trying to marry 25 times in just one year.

We celebrated by inviting lots of people – old friends as well as new. Many came, from all over the country. My parents have moved quite a bit, and so have their friends, so there were people coming from many different provinces. Yes, even from abroad!
So, I talked with many people, preferring those from far away and along ago. Lots of things to catch up with. In the background we had a beamer displaying photo’s of the 25 years on a screen. It was very nice, and always good to keep conversations going. Plenty of new photographs were made, too, and I might post some of those later on. I still have a batch of November photographs waiting to be scanned in – showing the Kannerforest as well as the Line of Du Moulin, in snow.