Kenneth Branagh's Version Of AS YOU LIKE IT

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:16pm

ERGH! Who else is excited?

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:18pm

I love Branagh. Love him. But here's hoping this movie in no way resembles "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" or "Love's Labours Lost" because those were heinously bad.

[thesondhead]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:25pm

Can't wait for Kevin Kline's soliloquy.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:26pm

His Hamlet is still one of my favourite movies. I adore it.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:27pm

Bryce Dallas Howard is so beautiful, it kills me. Plus, she's an amazing actress! I'm excited!

[*brina-doll*]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:28pm

Huzzah for this!

[thesondhead]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:30pm

Ditto the Hamlet comment.
Screw Mel Gibson.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 5:31pm

I was never sure of Howard, but then I recently saw Manderlay and was highly impressed.

[Taryn]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 7:24pm

I am DEFINITELY psyched. I ADORE his versions of Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing.

[mateo]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 7:27pm

Is there a reason the poster is so Japanese?

[Funny Face]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 7:41pm

She was the best part of The Village

That poster is really beautiful.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 7:42pm

It's set in Japan.

[mateo]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 8:00pm

awwwesome.

I take it - this will be on HBO?


darn.

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 9:47pm

When does this air?

[DG]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 9:54pm

Wow - he's really not in it? Unusual for a Narcissist.

Could be interesting.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 10:01pm

How is he a narcissist?

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/10/07 at 10:25pm

when does this air??

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 7:29am

If it is going to be on HBO, I'll give it a look. Otherwise, I doubt I'll bother. Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations have always bothered me, they always have a lot of really good stuff right up with a lot of really bad stuff.

Case in point: Emma Thompson gives one of the most brilliant comic performances in movies as Beatrice in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. She's tough, funny, and wildly sexy but with a bewitching vulnerability. And in the same film we have Keanu Reeves and Michael Keaton hitting bold new lows in Bad Acting.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 12:21pm

The DVD of AS YOU LIKE IT is also avaliable for pre-order on Amazon.

What ever happened to Branagh's production of MAGIC FLUTE? Now that is something I would love to see.

And I think MUCH ADO is one of the best Shakespeare productions ever put on film. I did not care for either Keanu Reeves or Michael Keaton in that movie, but they were both within the realm of reasonable portrayals of their respective characters. And the music written for the film is some of the most delightful ever.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 7:01pm

Keen, I think that MUCH ADO is probably the best of Branagh's Shakespeare films, but I just find Reeves and especially Keaton to be absolutely unwatchable. Reeves is just plain bad, but that's nothing new, you can't get blood from a stone. But I was very surprised at Keaton. I didn't really find it reasonable that Dogberry be played as a grimy slimebag. How on earth did that incompetent mental defective with not a whit of sense get to that position of responsibility?

[Blair]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 7:50pm

I can't wait!

IMDB says August 21st is the tv premiere.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 8:36pm

Roscoe - in the two live performances I've seen of MUCH ADO, that character was played as not very bright, mainly to increase his clownishness. In one version, his ability to help the play to the proper conclusion was a matter of sheer luck, and in the other, he had one very bright young assistant who keeps whispering in his ear, which makes up for his being dumb. I don't like Keaton in the role, but I can get past how he plays it. Other than Keaton and Keanu, the rest of the cast is not only wonderful to look at but fabulous to listen to. And Branagh, responding to overhearing that he may be loved by Beatrice, is magnificent. Probably the best delivery of that speech in the history of mankind. Or something.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 9:16pm

Keen - In the four live performances I've seen of MUCH ADO, Dogberry was played as being not very bright. I think I can safely say that Dogberry is always played as being not very bright, at least partly because that is how the character is written. But there's a difference between playing Dogberry as being not very bright but with a modicum of dignity, as Brian Murray did in Central Park a couple of years ago, and playing Dogberry as flat-out idiotic, as Keaton did, twitching and gibbering, apparently narcoleptic even, basically a piece of human wreckage. And that silliness borrowed from MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, of Dogberry and his little assistant riding imaginary horses, please.

I like what Branagh does as Benedick when he isn't working so hard to be funny. I found the big eavesdropping scene to be dreadfully labored and unfunny, mainly due to his big takes. I did find myself wondering what on earth Beatrice sees in him. Ms. Thompson, on the other hand, is a delight to watch, this is probably my favorite of her performances.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 10:44pm

I thought his Much Ado was gene. (That's my new slang for genious, everybody can use it!)

[keen on kean]

Posted: 8/11/07 at 11:09pm

Namo - drop the "o" in genius and I'll agree.