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Description
The first Shakespeare film King John was made over a 100 years ago, yet to some people the very idea of putting Shakespeare's plays on to film seems a very suspect one. How can cinema possibly conv
...ey the richness and complexity and subtlety of Shakespeare's texts?
For some film directors though Shakespeare is the consumate script writer, a playwright whose work lends itself very powerfully and memorably to the big screen. In this programme we'll be looking at some of the notable achievements in the history of Shakespeare on film. Later in the programme we'll be talking to the Polish film makervRoman Polanski about the making of his Macbeth, and we'll also be looking at some scenes from Macbeth recorded in Arizona specially for this programme.
| 1 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:03,000 | There's a traditionalist argument though, isn't there - |
| 1 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:05,000 | Kiernan Ryan: I think there's something rather interesting about the development of Macbeth's… |
| 1 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:04,000 | Stephen Regan: Well, it also seems to be working in an interesting political level… |
| 1 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:06,000 | First of all though we'd like you to join us here at the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley… |
| 1 | 00:00:02,000 | 00:00:09,000 | Macbeth: How now, you secret, black and midnight hags, |
| 2 | 00:00:03,000 | 00:00:04,000 | There is. |
| 3 | 00:00:05,000 | 00:00:09,000 | that simply by filming Shakespeare we're doing injustices to the text… |
| 2 | 00:00:05,000 | 00:00:12,000 | ..characterisation by Orson Welles, at the start he's youthful and charismatic… |
| 2 | 00:00:05,000 | 00:00:08,000 | ..that it's very much a version for its time, it's being referred to as… |
| 2 | 00:00:06,000 | 00:00:09,000 | (Stephen Regan) ..to look at some scenes from Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. |
| 3 | 00:00:09,000 | 00:00:14,000 | (Stephen Regan) a parable about fascism, Macbeth showing very obvious signs... |
| 4 | 00:00:10,000 | 00:00:12,000 | ..that we're diminishing the text. |
| 2 | 00:00:10,000 | 00:00:15,000 | I conjure you by that which you profess, however you come to know it - answer me. |
| 3 | 00:00:11,000 | 00:00:14,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) Of course this terrifically realistic athletic sword fight… |
| 5 | 00:00:12,000 | 00:00:14,000 | That's right, betraying it in some way. |
| 3 | 00:00:12,000 | 00:00:19,000 | ..and athletic looking, every inch the warlord, the successful glamorous warlord, |
| 4 | 00:00:14,000 | 00:00:20,000 | of being the dictator and fears of dictatorship in the 40's being very prominent. |
| 4 | 00:00:14,000 | 00:00:19,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) ..is one of the aspects of this production that was calculated to appeal… |
| 6 | 00:00:15,000 | 00:00:17,000 | I have a certain sympathy with that in the sense that… |
| 3 | 00:00:16,000 | 00:00:20,000 | Though you untie the winds and let them fight against the churches; |
| 7 | 00:00:17,000 | 00:00:20,000 | ..actually it's quite an old argument isn't it… |
| 4 | 00:00:19,000 | 00:00:21,000 | and once he attains to the crown… |
| 8 | 00:00:20,000 | 00:00:26,000 | ..the most famous advocate of it was really the romantic essayist Charles Lamb, who… |
| 5 | 00:00:20,000 | 00:00:24,000 | Kiernan Ryan: That's certainly true, I mean you can see this is the film made by... |
| 5 | 00:00:20,000 | 00:00:21,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) ..to a wider popular audience too. |
| 4 | 00:00:21,000 | 00:00:26,000 | though the yeasty waves confound and swallow navigation up; |
| 5 | 00:00:22,000 | 00:00:26,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) after the murder he becomes in a very Citizen Kane-like way, rather bloated, |
| 6 | 00:00:23,000 | 00:00:24,000 | (screams of terror) |
| 6 | 00:00:25,000 | 00:00:30,000 | ..the same director who made Citizen Kane, which of course is infatuated... |
| 9 | 00:00:27,000 | 00:00:30,000 | ..I think very eloquently made the case for… |
| 6 | 00:00:27,000 | 00:00:31,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) heavy drinking, slightly comical sinister monster… |
| 5 | 00:00:27,000 | 00:00:31,000 | through bladed corn by lodg'd and trees blown down, |
| 10 | 00:00:30,000 | 00:00:34,000 | ..theatrical versions always really being doomed however wonderful they are, |
| 7 | 00:00:31,000 | 00:00:33,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) a point that's underlined very dramatically, |
| 7 | 00:00:31,000 | 00:00:36,000 | ..it has a love hate relationship with these authoritarian quasi fascistic... |
| 7 | 00:00:31,000 | 00:00:34,000 | Laertes: The king, the King's to blame. |
| 6 | 00:00:32,000 | 00:00:35,000 | though castles topple on their warders heads; |
| 8 | 00:00:33,000 | 00:00:37,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) this is a good example I think of the subtle use of sound in movies, |
| 11 | 00:00:35,000 | 00:00:40,000 | to impoverish the wealth of meaning… |
| 7 | 00:00:36,000 | 00:00:41,000 | though palaces and pyramids do slope their heads to their foundations; |
| 8 | 00:00:36,000 | 00:00:41,000 | ..male figures of authority who are at one and the same breath colossal, extraordinary, |
| 8 | 00:00:36,000 | 00:00:39,000 | Hamlet: Then, venom, to thy work. |
| 9 | 00:00:37,000 | 00:00:40,000 | (Kiernan Ryan) by a kind of pumping tuba. |
| 12 | 00:00:40,000 | 00:00:45,000 | ..that you can glean from a reading of the play… |
| 10 | 00:00:41,000 | 00:00:52,000 | (tuba on film soundtrack) |
| 8 | 00:00:41,000 | 00:00:48,000 | though the treasure of nature's germens tumble all together, |
| 9 | 00:00:41,000 | 00:00:47,000 | (dramatic film music) |
| 9 | 00:00:42,000 | 00:00:48,000 | mysterious, and at the same time terrifying in their tyranny and ultimate insanity, |
| 13 | 00:00:45,000 | 00:00:48,000 | ..in the privacy of your own study or inside your own mind, |
| 14 | 00:00:48,000 | 00:00:51,000 | because every particular production, |
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