Waitress:
…or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and Shakespeare.
Wife:
Have you got anything without Shakespeare?
Waitress:
Well, there’s Shakespeare egg sausage and Shakespeare, that’s not got much Shakespeare in it.
Wife:
I don’t want ANY Shakespeare!
Man:
Why can’t she have egg bacon Shakespeare and sausage?
With apologies to Monty Python, the question on the table is “What’s your favorite movie with Shakespeare in it?”
I do not mean movie versions of Shakespeare plays, like Branagh’s Hamlet. Nor do I mean movies based on Shakespeare, like Ten Things I Hate About You.
I thought about this one after seeing Prince of Players, about the Booth family. It’s a regular movie about regular people, who just happen to be famous Shakespeareans. So it’s got a good amount of Shakespeare in it, without being specifically a Shakespeare movie.
Make sense?
Coraline (2009) has two fat actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible spouting the "What a piece of work is man" speech from Hamlet while trapezing above a bucket of glitter.
"I love it. I'm having Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, beaked beans, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, and Shakespeare!"
That's what we do, over at Bardfilm.
I'm very fond of Branagh's A Midwinter's Tale. In it, actors are trying to put on a production of Hamlet in a small town in England. It's brilliant, and it has a lot of Shakespeare.
kj
I agree with kj about "A Midwinter's Tale"; one of the best of the best films I've ever seen about "something Shakespeare". It's funny, touching, and brilliantly tongue-in-cheek-artsy all at once. It's so on target in many ways for those of us in the profession but can be enjoyed by anyone.
–And for me, it proved the old adage "truth is stranger than fiction" (or exactly as strange in this case.) I rolled on the floor in convulsive laughter and amazement at something in the audition segment. One, because it was so funny and two, because I had actually experienced a particular "acting/auditioning technique" as an auditioning director in NY a few years before I saw the film. –AND, I had dealt with it almost exactly like the director in the film does, with much the same degree of success he enjoys–none. 🙂
In the play genre, "I Hate Hamlet" is an excellent comedy featuring John Barrymore's ghost, come back to haunt a tv soap opera star who knows nothing about Shakespeare, but who has been cast as Hamlet (on stage no less) in the Park in NY through the bulldozing efforts of his agent. I had the good fortune to play Barrymore in this one several years back–and outdoors to boot. I've never had more fun in a role.
And once again Duane, I second the Prince of Players as a very good example of what you're speaking about. Well worth seeing.
I can't say I've really encountered too much that's not filmed plays or adaptations, so I'll have to check out some of these suggestions.
Meanwhile, have you seen/heard about the horror that is "St. Trinian's 2"? I'd noticed several Shakespeare speeches scattered throughout it and then was unpleasantly surprised about the ending. The only good things about it were Colin Firth and David Tennant.