My Shakespeare by Greg Doran - Parts 16 to 18

 

Part 16   Anthony and Cleopatra

-2006: Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Novello Theatre, London. Filmed by the V&A

Greg starts with a trip to Egypt with Tony for inspiration. Three pages could be called "Searching for Cleopatra". He tells us "the language of this play is more lush, more heady with sensuality than any other Shakespeare play". And it all depends on the title roles as they have two thirds of all the lines. So here we have Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter. Top casting. Patrick was especially good at creating lots of laughs, and Harriet was especially good in the last act.

We hear a lot about Mark Antony, for example a longish piece on how he botches his own suicide. I liked the passage about the snake and why a real one had to be substituted for a false. Michael Billington in his review calls Antony "Shakespeare's most demanding role" and that Patrick was "the best Antony since Michael Redgrave half a century ago.

19th August 2010 at The Royal hakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Post of 20th August 2010

Part 17   Merry Wives - The Musical

-2006: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Michael Boyd had proposed a Complete Works Festival for 2006. Greg comes up with the idea of a musical version of The Merry Wives of Windsor. He tells us "it's a romp, Shakespeare's sitcom, or as someone once said "it is the I Love Lucy of the Shakespeare canon". We have Falstaff, Bardolph and Pistol are deposited in Windsor, a long way from their normal residence of Eastcheap. 

Songs are required and here Greg is enjoying his role of a  back seat driver, giving more responsibility to musical director Bruce O'Neil along with the composer and choreographer. We hear how the couple who sing the love duet were actually marvelous. And Alec McGowan found he could sing. As did Judy Dench. Top marks for Brendan O'Hea as Pistol, a cross between Russell Brand and Jack Sparrow. 

However, disaster strikes when Des Barrit who was playing Falstaff is injured and the search is on for a lst minute replacement. Who can start immediately! They are so lucky that Simon Callow is free, is perfect and already knows some of the lines. But the critics were not impressed, but what do they know. The production was sold out with standing ovations every night.

17th November 2010 at Milton Keynes Theatre

Post of  18th November 2010

Part 18   Coriolanus

-2007: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon; Eisenhower Theatre, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC; Theatre Royal, Newcastle; Teatro Albeniz, Madrid, Spain"

An invitation to the British Library involved listening to extracts from their recordings of every production at Stratford. Greg is particularly impressed with Sir Laurence Olivier's performance of Coriolanus in 1959 directed by Peter Hall with dame Edith Evans as Volumnia. We are now at the very end of the Complete Works Festival and Greg is directing Coriolanus before the Royal Shakespeare Theatre closes for a transformation. With Will Houston (Coriolanus) and Janet Suzman (Volumnia) they are described as perfect casting. And Timothy West as Menenius Agrippa. We hear a lot about the set and how they are able to open up the stage to the very back wall, only because it's the last play in the theatre. 

Greg goes into some detail about the different political factions in the play and how he must not prefer one to another. For example: the tribunes. "Was there ever a more self-serving, cowardly, vicious, pusillanimous pain in all literature". He talks about the casting of Janet Suzman and how she is so good: "never a loss for words. She has just delivered a fifty line appeal to her son, surely one of the longest speeches in Shakespeare. 

Greh explains how "it would be very hard to ignore the theme of homoeroticism". Aufidius and Coriolanus declare how much they love their wives, but "how much more they worship each other". "They even dream of one another". Lastly, we hear about the "terrifying bloodbath" at the end. The reviews were great, especially those for Will. Even compared with Larry. There is also a nice postscript about the tour and meeting the "acclaimed actress and director Zoe Caldwell in Washington". She had never played Volumnia because watching Edith Evans in the part, it could never be equaled.  

28th September 2017 The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Post of 29th September 2017

Frankenstein at the Rex Berkhamsted

 

As the poster suggests, there was no general release for Guillermo del Torro's  Frankenstein. I was lucky that the Rex in Berkhamsted had acquired this Netflix film. I did mention in my review of November's Sight and Sound Magazine that it was a shame I wouldn't be able to see it. Revisiting the magazine, it was great to see all those splendid stills from the film. The movie is an adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel, (see below). The dialogue (by del Toro) was just almost OK, but why doesn't he have help? But it's the visuals for which he is quite rightly famed. The sets, costumes, production design and cinematography are all Oscar worthy. From the first scenes of the boat stuck in the arctic ice to the isolated castle where experiments take place, I'm glad I was able to see in on a biggish screen. The story mimics the book as it is set in three parts, the Captain, Victor and the Creature. There is one segment in the latter's story that seemed unnecessary, but then we would have missed David Bradley's blind man, this actor has never been better.

I was unsure about the casting. Oscar Isaac puts heart and soul into Victor, but maybe something more subtle was needed. And Jacob Elordi has a thankless task as the Creature. Even Mia Goth was miscast as Elizabeth, and that also goes for  Christoph Waltz as Heinrich and others. Critic Eileen Jones says it's a "big bloated mess" but it isn't. In that nine page section in Sight and Sound, the director called it a "melodrama rather than a horror". He has obviously forgotten the wolves! Jonathon Romney tells us "the film is authentically rooted in the structure of Shelley's novel, beginning and ending her story amid the ice flows of the far north. But the director tells him "most of the dialogue is not from the book" which might have been a mistake. Jamie Graham in the Sunday Times full page review mostly includes an interview with the director without ever concluding whether or not he liked the film. Strange.

Snow in November

 

We have to go back to 2010 for the last time we had snow in November (my post of the 30th), and then it was the last day of the month. Today it was quite heavy for half an hour and then tailed off. So not much of a covering. And by mid morning it had mostly disappeared.

Bugonia, The Choral and Now You See Me, Now You Don't

 

Well that was weird. It all started to feel that way when the screen size opened in it's 1:50:1 aspect ratio. More of a square box so that took some getting used to. The film seemed to me more of a black comedy than a horror. Director Yorgos Lanthimos and writer Will Tracy have remade the Korean movie Save the Green Planet. In Bugonia, Teddy Gatz played by Jesse Plemons is convinced that the corporate queen Michelle Fuller, played by Emma Stone, is actually an alien. When she is captured and held prisoner, it's hard to be convinced when Teddy is just full of conspiracy theories. Especially when we discover that Michelle's company was responsible for experimenting on his ill mother.  

This first half of the film is actually hard work. As someone said "it's a very very long run up to the finale". Where it goes completely bonkers. Sight and Sound magazine had a double page review by Travis Jeppeson where he says it "adheres dangerously close to the cliches of horror schlock without quite managing to subvert them". Hmm, not sure. But "the depth brought by the performances" is spot on but is "everyone gets what they deserve" not going too far? 

Mark Kermode found the film "profoundly odd" and "hard to warm to it", but "it picks up speed" in a race to the conclusion. I thought it was a very black satire. 

The Choral could not be anymore different. Alan Bennet and Nicholas Hytner are reunited after their previous successes of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van. We are in a small town in the north of England (obviously) at the start of the first world war. The young men are beginning to be called up. They go off to a fanfare from a brass band, unlike the somber partings later. The older men still want to put on a concert. Roger Allam and Mark Addy (supported by vicar Alun Armstrong) are stuck for a choir master and as a last resort turn to Dr Guthrie. A superb performance by Ralph Fiennes. I also liked Robert Emms as the quiet pianist. 

We see a lot of the young men not quite old enough to be called up, but help swell the numbers. Tom Shone in the Sunday Times was spot on when he said "the script spends too much time with pursuing the romantic subplots of his teenage choristers". There is a very late cameo from Simon Russell Beale as Elgar. It's his "The Dream of Gerontius" that will be performed, against all the odds. Tom Shone ends his review with the director having "frittered away his drama in pleasing vignettes".

I thought Now You See Me, Now You Don't was badly let down by an awful script. Director Ruben Fleisher (Zombieland (good), Unchartered (OK) and Venom (not for me) does his best to make it a fast production. And he does have a pleasing cast in this, the third in the series. All the characters from those earlier two movies are back, including a smaller role for Lizzie Caplan (Cloverfield). Morgan Freeman pops up but we never know if he survives or not. I'm not sure who had the idea of casting Rosamond Pike as the villain with a strange South African accent. She has come a long way from seeing her in Hitchcock Blonde at The Royal Court in 2003. I will not trouble this review with the plot/story as already it's forgotten. But it does have that attractive cast, some expensive sets, costumes and hardware. Shame about script. That's what you get when five writers are involved. I thought I had only seen the original film, but realise I did see the second with Daniel Radcliffe as the villain. What is it about Hollywood casting Brits in these roles. 

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 4 Episode 4 - The Story of Highlander

 

I must have seen Highlander but none of it was familiar. And that would have been in 1986, so that is thirty nine years ago!  Ian Nathan introduces as usual calling the film a "strange and rousing fantasy epic". It was called "a true cult classic" and how the film goes "back and forth in time". Ian and Stephen Armstrong discuss what makes a "true cult classic" and the latter adds that it's "never ever become mainstream"? The story is all about being an immortal. It's Christopher Lambert who plays Conor MacLeod with Sean Connery as his mentor Juan Sanchez Villalobos. The latter was, apparently, only hired for seven days of filming. He bet the director he would not be able to do it, but lost.

The film was called "an early VHS sensation", although Neil Norman reminds us that when first released, the movie was "very badly reviewed". Including him. (I have to mention here (which the team only glossed over) the soundtrack with songs by Queen. I have the CD called A Kind of Magic that I played so many times in those days). It's Stephen who tells us about the concept starting with the highlands of 16th century Scotland. There are a number of immortals who are gradually hunted down by The Kurgan, one of their own. That's it. That's the plot. 

Apparently inspiration for the film first came from Ridley Scott's The Duelists starring Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel. Gregory Widen wrote the first script and was also taken with the armour and swords in the Tower of London. A journey to the Highlands of Scotland and the the whole concept came together. Adding in a love story in New York was the final piece in the jigsaw. 

Thorn EMI were the producers and it was they who brought in Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson to make the script "more palatable" from Widen's dark and dangerous story. They hired Russell Mulcahy as director and we hear about his background in music videos. Christina Newsom thought it was more about the imagery than the story. Stephen tells us that this is his favourite Sean Connery role. He is "so charming". Wd hear about The Kurgan played with relish by Clancy Brown. Christina said he was "a cartoonish picture of evil". The location in the highlands was the remains of Eilean Donan Castle.

Neil Norman liked how the director used opposite eras, the highlands for the 16th century and modern day New York. He contrasts the huge open vistas of Scotland with the claustrophobic urban scenes of New York. Ian Nathan tells us about the swordfights and the rigorous training by the former Olympic fencer Bob Anderson. He has huge experience in choreographing these in films. Stephen Armstrong thought he was the "greatest" in his field. 

Ian Nathan thinks the "heart of the story is about immortality". Christina adds it's about "the sadness of outliving someone" shown towards the end of the film. Stephen adds it's the "perfect Friday night VHS movie". He and Ian talk about how, because of VHS, it became a cult success after disappointing at the cinema. Anyone could hire it from the video shop, or to own it and watch it time and again. The team discuss the sequels that none of them liked. They were nonsense and a disaster. Neil loved the ending when he is no longer immortal. Stephen thought it was "mad" and a one off, with Ian concluding it was "timeless".

The Garden in November

 

There are some nice autumn colours in the garden including above the two large pots of Hostas at the front. Below is the dwarf crab apple, the maypole crab and the silver birch.

There are even flowers starting on the wallflowers below. 

The campanula has more blue flowers.

And the odd rose in flower. 

The bedding border has been cleared of the Dahlias, and already some bulbs are beginning to appear. In November?

It was yesterday, the 14th November that I cleared most of the leaves from the lawn, nearly filling the garden waste bin in the process. It was a combination of a leaf blower and a garden rake. The few that were left were taken by the mower when I cut the grass. Maybe the last cut this year?

Next to the wildflower border in the picture below, I cleared all the Asters that have been poor for the last couple of years. The soil seemed quite good so next to the dwarf wall I planted some Dianthus that I split from the plant that used to be in the large pot that collapsed. 

And then some bits from the Geranium that struggles in the poor soil of the long border. I left a large area to make sure the Asters do not reappear before finding some new plants in the Spring. 

All change in the wildflower border

 

This was part of the wildflower border after I dug up a lot of the disappointing Asters. More came out this week to leave a brand new area for planting. 

One of the large pots with Dianthus in the side patio had disintegrated so out they came and are now planted alongside the dwarf wall.

There was also room for some more Geraniums. The one in the long border that was not happy there provided a number of smaller pieces for the area in the middle. We shall see how this develops in the spring.

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 4 Episode 3 - The Story of Passport to Pimlico

 Ian Nathan, who introduces this series, had already mentioned this movie in previous documentaries. These were referred to in my posts of 27th September 2023 (Sky Arts: The Pioneer Years) and The Art of Film on 27th November 2023 and 1st January 2024. I also reviewed Passport to Pimlico on 3rd March 2025 when we watched the DVD. 

Ian starts by denouncing the "absurd plot". He talks to Stephen Armstrong about how much it is about what it's like to be British. We hear about how the film is set in 1947 when rationing is at it's height. Christina Newland tells us about the austerity faced by the population. However, when the film was released in 1948/49, rationing was virtually at an end. So some very late words were added to the introduction that paid tribute to the population that experienced the hardship. We still see the area with it's bomb sites. (They were still there when we arrived in London in 1952)

The plot itself is pretty crazy. The discovery of an ancient scroll deems that this part of London was in fact governed by Burgundy. It's independence from the UK ratified by the equally bonkers historian Margaret Rutherford. So this is partly a challenge to Westminster that would have gone down really well with audiences at the time. It's Stanley Holloway, of course, who is made the Prime Minister of Burgundy. However things are not actually that straightforward and problems arise in every increasing circles. Director Henry Cornelius ups the ante. We hear about his background and that this was his very first feature. The presenters talk about the political climate of the time, the comedy and the development of the plot.

It was one of the first films that dealt with what it was like to be working class. Ian Nathan describes the humdrum surroundings and the disillusionment with life after the end of the war. (What would foreign audiences make of customers in a pub dancing around to "Knees Up Mother Brown"). We hear about the large cast and a "soap opera of lives". The ensemble included actors such as Charles Hawtrey,  Hermione Baddeley, Barbara Murrey, Jane Hylton, Sidney Tafler (I think my father knew him) and Michael Hordern. There was also clever casting of the double act Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne playing the face of officialdom. But they were mainly concerned with the cricket score, as they were in their previous films that included The Lady Vanishes.

The movie was not filmed in Pimlico but across the river on the Lambeth Road. We see the huge crowds who surrounded the area to watch the filming take place. However it was not all straightforward. A record hot and dry summer made the filming run way over budget. There were daily rows between the director and producer Michael Balcombe. Ian Nathan concludes that this was "the seeds of Great British soap opera". Neil Norman tells us how the film became so popular and how it still resonates today.

Shy Creatures, You Are Here and Talking It Over

 

Clare Chambers is on a roll. After her excellent Small Pleasures comes another great story. In Shy Creatures we are in 1964 (maybe I'm biased as I was nineteen) and Helen Hansford, an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital is having a thing with Gil, the chief. It's when the silent William Tapping arrives with his aunt (who never recovers from a tragedy) that Helen wants to understand his background. And so begins her quest.

The book then alternates from the sixties, back to when William was a child, living with his aunts. In his later life we wonder why he has never been outside the house in years. This part of the book takes us back in time in steps to reveal a trauma. And that is not when he ventures out, for once, to a fair in the next door park that does not end well. Nor a piece in 1944, when William is seventeen, and playing cards with his aunts. He shuffles and cuts like a croupier even if he has never seen one. "He could cut the deck time and time again one handed and flick and flex them in a neat arc from one hand to the other, or spread and flip them over in a smooth wave".

Back to 1964 and, at Helen's instigation, William, now a permanent patient, is visited by a friend Francis (not seen since their schooldays) and his mother Mrs Kenley. The story of their childhood provides some clues to William's background. I did like how his part of the book was told in stages that take us gradually back in time. And how Mrs Kenley feels somehow responsible for how William has become so with drawn. But those alternating passages that involve the relationship between Helen and Gil I found not quite so interesting. But they do provide a nice counterpoint to William's story.

Two lost souls. Marnie is thirty eight and alone after a divorce. Michael is forty two and not over his split from his wife. It seems they have a mutual acquaintance in Cleo who turns out to be organising a walk on Alfred Wainwrights "Coast to Coast". Of course they both arrive at the first hotel ready for the whole route. There is quite a group and it's handsome Conrad who pals up with Marnie. I was not familiar with the western and northern stretch of the Lake District, we stuck mainly to the southern and central fells. The group dynamic in the first days is quite interesting.

But then suddenly they arrive at the familiar Buttermere and Haystacks. (We found them when we stayed in Keswick in 2008 - see post of 26th June). However, of course it is pouring with rain, the group gradually duck out except for Marnie and Michael who are up for pressing on. And they do. The introduction to part 3 has a section that is by far the most familiar. Grasmere (where we stayed for years) was busy during the day (that's when we were somewhere else - it's very nice early and late). But there is less than a page on Grasmere, except for the pub they visit.

Then more places are familiar: Grisedale Tarn, St Sunday Crag (2005) and Angle Tarn (1995, 2000 and 2016 when we climbed High Street). Back to the story. Marnie and Michael are talking about their lives and after a shaky start, are becoming more friendly. They have their own rooms at the places they stay on the route. However some unexpected events in the last third of the book changes the feel of the book completely. Probably more realistic than a comfortable story, and not poorer for that. Some of the chapters are surprisingly short, averaging six pages. But with You Are Here, this is David Nichols on top form.

Stuart, Gillian and Oliver. They address the reader in shortish pieces, taking you into their confidence. Talking it Over by Julian Barnes is all about their relationships, the first two are married, the men are close friends and knew each other at school and then at University. Oliver is far more erudite than Stuart, but his vocabulary is just a way of showing off. The author has fun with this, all those words we never use in everyday conversation. Oliver ends one chapter with "Yes, I do know, I've used "crepuscular" again.

But Oliver doesn't know what he is talking about when he thinks we still might be "living in mud huts, eating frightful food and listening to Del Shannon records". There's nothing wrong with Del Shannon records. I saw him at the Royal Albert Hall in 1985 and his "Runaway" was a huge hit. It's when Oliver realises that he's in love with Gillian that the book takes a massive turn. The author cleverly describes his inner turmoil. For me, I loved the first half, but the second became a bit of a soap opera. Although the writing is top drawer as usual.

Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks

 

Yesterday at the cinema came the trailer for the new movie Christy starring Sydney Sweeney. But what moved me was the song in the background. I knew it was a Stevie Nicks number but I had to revisit the trailer to find it was called The Edge of Seventeen. I'm such a sucker for great pop songs in films. And this was just a trailer. 

How the garden has revived

 

The photo above was one corner of the garden in June. It just happens to be my screensaver. I compared it with how it looked in August after that long dry spell.

And now in November, the shrubs are looking far better and in good shape for next year. Today I cleared some of the asters around the rose. (The spade is a give away). In the border around the conservatory, the campanula has flowered again, and on the far left is the felicia and then the wallflowers that I planted last week. Roll on spring.

Alfred Hitchcock's - The 39 Steps

 

After watching the first episode of the new series of Classic Movies on Sky Arts, I found a second hand DVD of The 39 Steps on eBay. This is a digitally remastered special edition that looked superb. I had already said everything on my post of 29th October. Only to add that the scene on the Forth Bridge was amazing and that there were all those young woman who saved Hannay along the way. And I spotted John Laurie as a crofter where he stays the night. Famous in our house for playing Private Frazer in Dad's Army.

Above at the age of 38 playing the crofter in 1935 and below in Dad's Army 1968 to 1977.

Twin Peaks Season 1

 

It was the obituary and lead article in the March 2025 Edition of Sight and Sound magazine that made me think about David Lynch (see post 22nd February 2025). I had seen most of his films, but not this TV series: Twin Peaks. Some interesting technical stuff in the magazine in the Summer 2025 Edition, and mentions in other months. I found a box set of the first season cheap on eBay and dived in. The screenplay is by David Lynch and Mark Frost.

The Pilot

What struck me at first was the scenery. Set in a fictional town in Washington state near the Canadian border, but actually filmed in towns east of Seattle. Small town America looks great. The over-riding feel of the series is that of a detective investigating a murder of a young woman, Laura Palmer, something that we are now so used to in the many TV series seen over the last decades. And here he is, the FBI detective Dale Cooper played by Kyle McLachlan flown in the solve the crime. He's very smartly dressed, always smiling, the laughing detective. But he is clever, there are numerous times when he spots something others do not see. 

Episode 1

Or is it episode 2? Anyway, the investigation is underway. The local chief of police Sheriff  Harry Truman says he is "beginning to feel like Dr Watson". Lots of interviews with the locals, I was struggling to make out who was who. But that's not unusual these days.

The theme music is so haunting. Angelo Badalmenti received many plaudits for its composition. It is amazing despite being slightly repetitive. 

Episode 2

This was the episode I nearly gave up. Some of the verbal and physical attacks on women would never be shown today. Well, this was filmed in 1990. That's thirty five years ago. There are lots of suspects and Agent Cooper sets up a demonstration to remind us. He also needs some forensics and who should arrive but Albert and his team. Now we are used the forensics to be brainy but mostly nice and laid back. Not Albert. He must be the most loud and horrible guy ever. 

Episode 3

Cooper said at the end of the previous episode that he knows the murderer. But here he says it was only a dream and just has a clue. The best scene was a punch up in the morgue with nasty Albert. 

Episode 4

One of the locals, Sarah palmer has had visions, but of no use. But they are on the trail of a one armed man (used again for The Fugitive). There are now many more scenes that involve couples from the town as we try to work out who is who. Also arriving is Laura's cousin Madeline Ferguson.

Episode 5

It's all very messy, all over the place. We have to remember that this is David Lynch. I'm still not sure who everyone is. More scenes between couples, less on the investigation. The owner of the diner is Norma Jennings played by the wonderful Peggy Lipton. She was famous in her twenties before she married Quincy Jones. After leaving her acting career, she came back in 1990 in her early forties looking better than before. Cooper leads his team to a backwoods cabin, only to find the older Margaret who can tell them about what she saw on the night of Laura's murder. But everything leads to One Eyed Jacks. The episode ends with Madeleine finding a tape in Laura's bedpost. As you do.

Episode 6

 Nothing much to report except Audrey getting a job as a hostess at One Eyed Jacks. And who should be playing black jack but a thinly disguised Agent Cooper. But then the discovery of yet another tape, this time hidden in a coconut.

Episode 7

Up at the mill, Shelley is ambushed and tied up. We then have that crucial device of a clock ticking down to an explosion. Just how many times has this been used since. We find out who the killer was and he gets his just deserts. Cooper has been so much more serious in the last two episodes. But even more so in the final scene of the series when, back in his now deserted hotel, a call to his door finds him being shot. End credits.

As for the DVD, when you slip off the plastic cover, you find that the picture was only hiding the main picture on the main DVD box. Here it is.