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/lit/ - Literature

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12251733 No.12251733 [Reply] [Original]

Richard Burton's Hamlet is gorgeous. Anybody have any recommendations re: preferred renditions of other plays of Shakespeare's, especially Macbeth and King Lear?

>> No.12251746
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12251746

My favourite recorded Macbeth is the one with McKellen, Dench, Bob Peck, plus based Sheev as the porter

>> No.12251793

Marlon Brando as Marc Antony

>> No.12251852

the best lear i ever saw was welles, it was staged by peter brook & i really don't like any of his shakespeare interpretations but welles was lovely. also i've heard records of barrymore, i think he is the greatest hamlet & richard iii of the century.

>> No.12251940

>>12251733

Orson Welles was the ultimate Falstaff

>> No.12251953

>>12251940
it's the part he was born to play, really

>> No.12251958

>>12251940
My Hamlet had a Bloom essay in the back that essentially discussed Hamlet and Falstaff as Shakespeare's best and/or most significant characters. I'm new to being able to enjoy Shakespeare and I don't remember ever hearing of Falstaff before. What's the lowdown on him? Why does he stand out?

>> No.12251972

>>12251958
in all of shakespeare, he's the only good man. i think he's the only great imaginary character who is truly good.

>> No.12252321

>>12251972
Why?

>> No.12252352

>>12251972
>coward
>drunkard
>whoremonger
>liar
>cheat
>sponge
>sends weak men into battle to be made "food for powder" unless they pay him
Behold, a good man.

>> No.12252357

>>12252352
This. Falstaff is not a good man, however charismatic, and half the emotional impact of the play is Henry realising this and realising he needs to move on and grow up

>> No.12252417

>>12252321
could be that shakespeare understood him better than the other characters he created, because falstaff was obliged to sing for his supper. he had to earn everything he ate by making people laugh.

>>12252352
he's the only great character in dramatic literature who is also good (auden likened him to a christ figure). he's a christmas tree decorated with vices. the tree itself is total innocence and love.

>sends weak men into battle to be made "food for powder" unless they pay him
this was all acceptable in elizabethan context. this scene is simply a terrible and funny joke. i don't think it shows him to be a bad man. in fact, it doesn't show anything except that he is an engaging rascal. on the english stage, it would never have been performed as anything other than a comedy. it's a scene which makes the audience laugh, after a long moment, because it comes after an interminable chain of civil wars. he is certainly a swindler, but there are good swindlers.

his faults are so minor. no one is perfect, and he's filled with imperfections, physical and moral defects, but the essential part of his nature is his goodness. that's the theme of all the plays he appears in.

>> No.12252452

>>12252357
shakespeare justified hal, he couldn't really do otherwise. prince hal is an official patriotic hero. but he makes him extremely ambiguous. he loves falstaff, but he prepared a betrayal necessary from a machiavellian point of view (the necessity to be a great king).

>> No.12252527

>>12252452
I think Shakespeare is very much on the side that being a great king, and a mature adult, a balanced human being etc is more important than frolics, so Hal is not so much betraying Falstaff as growing up and choosing the better path. He explores the same ideas in Measure for Measure, the importance of 'needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds' rather than wasting your potential in drink and flesh

>> No.12252536

>>12252452
>>12252527
Given the heavy influence of Hamlet on Infinite Jest, is there any merit to the thought that DFW's Hal may be an echo of Prince Hal in addition to being an echo of Prince Hamlet?

>> No.12252557

>>12251733
Fassbender's Macbeth.

>> No.12252761

>>12252527
well it was from the point of view of state (with a capital s) rationality. how could he have forced the respect of the english court and the people if he had kept vulgar acolytes as his playmates. but this kind of betrayal is still an infamy.

>> No.12252995

>>12251733
Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet

>> No.12253109

https://youtu.be/p3v2ZU1mFxg

Holy fuck this is the best rendition ive ever seen, thanks OP. Branagh and Gibson and dare i say even olivier are completely melodramatic compared to this. This is natural af

>inb4 shakespeare is SUPPOSED to be melo

>> No.12253118

>>12251972
quoting welles without attribution

>> No.12253123

>>12251733
These are my favorite performances OP

>Laurence Olivier in Richard III
https://youtu.be/cDxnXgYPnKg

>Marc Singer and Fredi Olster in Taming Of The Shrew
https://youtu.be/k8ckmPMMWBM

Watch both and enjoy, i really liked that hamlet clip with Burton

>> No.12253137

>>12252995
Absolutely. He’s perfect

>> No.12253954

What are some other kino plays

>> No.12254128

>>12252417
There is no innocence and love in that man. A more cynical debauched narcissist can never be found in dramatic art. His charisma blinds you as it did to all he cheated.

>> No.12254135

Some Mark Rylance as Richard ii boys:

https://youtu.be/-rAYmmIYCGQ

>> No.12254437

>>12252995
Watching now, will report back (although maybe tomorrow given that it's 4 hours long).