All Headline News – Young People Play Cupid With The Internet – February 8, 2006: Score one for our favorite playwright this Valentine’s Day. A poll sponsored by AT&T lists the following movies as apparently the most romantic: Love Actually, Shakespeare in Love, Much Ado About Nothing, Ten Things I Hate About You, and Unfaithful.
Much Ado About Nothing is obviously Shakespeare, as of course is Shakespeare in Love (though not in the “He wrote it” sense of the word). But I wonder if everybody on the poll realizes that Ten Things I Hate About You is actually supposed to be a version of Taming of the Shrew? It’s obvious when you look at it — the characters are named Bianca and Kat (Kate?) and the male lead is Patrick (Petruchio). The last names are Stratford and Verona, and they go to Padua high school.
3 out of 5’s not bad. I’m keeping an eye out for Shakespeare references in Love, Actually (which takes place in London, and one of the characters is named Juliet). No clue what “Unfaithful” is doing on a Valentine’s Day movie list, though.
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BTW, speaking of “Ten Things” have you heard about the upcoming teen flick “She’s the Man”?If not, takea look at the summary on the movie poster (trailer’s availble online in various places as well).I’m thinking it might be fun (or painful) to wait for it on video and run a marathon of that, “Ten Things” and “O” (none of which I’ve yet seen). Whaddaya think?
10 Things was cute in a teen movie sort of a way, and I give it an extra point for the Shakespeare connection. Looks like ‘Shes the Man’ was made by the exact same people, given the way it is being positioned. But I looked up all the credits and did not see a connection. As a matter of fact that writers have only that credit to their names, which makes me wonder if they saw the former and said “Hey we can do that.” So you may be in for a bit of a “Didn’t we just see this?” experience.
As for “O”, that’s a completely different movie, apparently pretty dark and violent. It did not get many good reviews at all, from what I remember. I did not see it.
Throw in Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet — I don’t think he’s still a teenager but he skews younger than Kenneth Brannagh and Mel Gibson. 🙂
Honestly, I’ve been interested in Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to renting it.BTW, for Shakespeare fluff, you might be amused by this thread by Elizabeth Bear, comparing the varieties of rose named for Shakespeare and his contemporaries…