Magnum has proposed to his lady friend, a good one, and I hope they get married soon so I can go home for a bit. I'm a touch homesick these days. Belgium has beautiful spots of colour but there is nowhere, absolutely nowhere like northern Ontario in the fall - chilly enough to make the mosquitoes die, good crisp sun, and miles and miles of continuous and startling orange and red hues across the landscape. When I think about climate change, I think about that - how awful it would be if that landscape were to change - since I somehow refuse to wrap my head around island nations sinking and Australian-type drought.
Watched Orson Welles' Macbeth last night - it ran a little roughshod over some of my favorite scenes, but I really liked it in terms of the acting and and loved it in terms of the interpretation, and so I thought about how much I hate Kenneth Branagh. Well, hate is a strong word. How little I like Kenneth Branagh. He didn't really add anything to filmed Shakespeare besides lots of shouting and millions of dollars.
What I liked best from him was Henry V, which had the least shouting and as far as I can tell the fewest millions of dollars, despite some fighting sequences. But even that was a bit shit compared to Orson Welles' Macbeth, and I'm not sure if that's down to direction (though the use of a set more suggestive than representative worked really well in Macbeth) or if it's just down to Orson Welles being motherfucking Orson Welles and Kenneth Branagh not being Orson Welles. Probably a bit of column A, a bit of column B.
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Wait - does that mean the 2 great families are uniting?? Yay! That's fab news that I hadn't heard yet.
Kenneth Branagh, if anything, can be applauded for bringing Shakespeare to our generation?
Oh no, you're thinking about Elvis and the Vermeer lady, honey. This is Magnum and his unpseudynomenous lady. That is soooo not a word.
And for that . . . well, Shakespeare is Shakespeare and if Branagh hadn't brought it someone else would have, because it's a big famous uncopyrighted brand. And maybe someone else would have done a much better job. But then I get cranky about adaptations of Shakespeare generally, I though Baz Lurmann's 'Romeo and Juliet' was crap and I think I'm in an army of one on that one.
Oh, I wondered if I had it right but I couldn't remember what Magnum's status was these days..well tell Elvis to get on that! ;)
I really enjoyed Baz Lurmann's Romeo and Juliet, all because of the one scene where Romeo is introduced and that wicked Radiohead song is playing in the background. That was my intro to Radiohead...the soundtrack was wicked in general! And Mercutio, what an actor!
La-di-da..should be in bed but am watching election coverage..
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