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Author Topic: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead  (Read 3883 times)

FarfetchFilm

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Re: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
« Reply #10 on: April 18, 2010, 12:16:11 AM »
my review from listener review of Left Field Cinema.

Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the great cinematic adaptation of a Theatre of the Absurd play, with 1990’s Venice Golden Lion to credit his directorial debut, Stoppard’s tragicomedy took 24 years to get to the screen, most importantly the acting-de-force remained. Gary Oldman & Tim Roth play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, two minors character’s in Shakespeare’s Hamlet caught between this famous play and the play within Hamlet, The Murder of Gonzago, the introduction thus of Richard Dreyfuss as The Player really gets the plot rolling which has already been written, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead. Both passive, Guildenstern has more press, we side with him more, not that the coin is ever going to fall on his tail. As in Hamlet the two are used by the king to follow and plot against the Prince of Denmark. With the Players first appearance the first passing actions of Hamlet start to play, interjected are question games between the ‘leads’, the most absurd on either side of a ‘real tennis’ court.

The exploration of life and meaning is most prevalent when the two are joined by The Player on stage again and again as the inevitability of them is dress rehearsed, fitting that their clothes are the only thing separating them from the modern, as in Open Your Eyes the leads face the paradox of then their journeys passed the point of impending death and the possibility of destiny. Stoppard employs editing according to mood and dialogue, the fastest banter is one-shot to one-shot like many theatre-turned-film directors; there are some points where it seems the stock is at 30f/ps, Tim Roth jittering as in Four Rooms, not annoying however in this case. The dialogue is very matter-of-fact, repetitive, showing the disconnected limit of language, art and reality have conflicting conundrums, as part of receptive theory, audience is the reality, the object of control, one viewing of this film is all right, but the themes show that its neither here nor there if you watch this or say Mel Gibson’s Hamlet ever again.

On first arrival to the kings castle, the absurdity of Shakespearean English affects the characters, one of Stoppard’s appreciative piss takes. At 117 minutes he’s done as Baz Luhrmann and still put story first, though using diegetic sound his tale is also unique, looking at Shakespeare and 16th century literatures use of large themes to in a consequential fashion, calling Luhrmann or Stoppard picturess post modern is usually to lament them, death as an enviable is simply storytelling, drama is just life with the boring bits left out, so many critics-turned-filmmakers bring pretentious to only their works, this is actually I tirade as to why Luhrmann’s Australia is better than Douglas Sirk’s A Time to Live & A Time to Die, so it has to be made in the golden age to be a good piece of poetic, entertaining melodrama?

Stoppard is on evidence here on par with Samuel Beckett as true Theatre of the Absurd, I’ve read him, I’ve viewed simply the films of Eugene Ionesco etcetera, one is probably not alone in finding the plays hard-reads, many varying in dialogue, meta-madness and Dadaist in-joking. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot seems Stoppard’s major preset, one of the most influential 20th century tragicomedies. Martin McDonagh continues this delicious vain of trapped-tragedy with his direct for screen In Bruges, a film with much lesser a degree of difficulty still is well constructed and executed, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is simply better acted and profound, taking you to mythical post modern land and castle scape. Can/could Stoppard one day get back to his 80’s script days?

Darcy S. McCallum

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2010, 06:32:49 AM »
I saw this film when it first came out and really enjoyed it. I remember having a disagreement about the reason for the blackouts between scenes with the other person I saw the film with. I should get around to seeing this again sometime.

 

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