soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2012-07-09 09:19 am
sophia_sol) wrote2012-07-09 09:19 am
Entry tags:
The Hollow Crown: Richard II
So last night Mara and I watched the new Richard II. And GOSH THAT WAS INTERESTING. I've read the play before, and of course since I'm me I read fanfic of Richard II before I had any idea what the play was even about. And now I have seen a filmed version of it! It makes a bit more sense now that I can actually SEE what's going on, and when I don't have to work so hard to keep track of people's names.
Back like TWO YEARS AGO my fandom-of-the-week was Shakespeare and I wrote fic (King Lear) and did podfic (Richard II) and watched Hamlet for the first time in my life, and if this new bbc production had come out then I would have been OVER THE MOON. This is feeling weirdly like a mini fannish revival for me, this whole business with The Hollow Crown! I JUST HAVE ALL THESE FEELS NOW, FEELS I'D FORGOTTEN.
So okay I already knew I find this play rather interesting but HUH. Particularly: RICHARD. THAT DUDE OKAY. He just -- he absolutely steals every single scene he's in, and not just for those of us watching from the other side of the screen, but for the other characters who are there with him.
Richard is... kind of alien; he looks and acts and talks like he belongs in a different play than everyone else or something. And the way the camera treats him as compared to everyone else ABSOLUTELY plays this up. It's so interesting!
Richard is very composed, except when he's not, but he's clearly always in control of his reactions. He's play-acting, almost, playing a role, and he drags everyone around into his vision of How Things Are. Take the crown-handing-over scene for example. Bolingbroke just wants Richard to acknowledge out loud in front of others that he is giving up the crown, but Richard takes the opportunity to TOTALLY MAKE A SCENE. Bolingbroke spends the entire thing with this hilarious expression on his face because RICHARD REFUSES TO SHUT UP and RICHARD CAN'T DO ANYTHING UNDRAMATICALLY. It is so great.
And okay I'd forgotten just how weird and wtf some of Richard's decisions are. Like: Bolingbroke comes back to England to be like DUDE I WANTS ME MY INHERITANCE, HOW DARE YOU TAKE THAT FROM ME, AND ALSO PLEASE UNEXILE ME, and then Richard is like I GIVE YOU WHAT YOU ASK FOR AND ALSO THE THRONE OKAY COME BE KING NOW. And I'm just like, RICHARD???? And frankly Bolingbroke seems to spend the latter part of the play all WTF as well; it is good times. Richard is such a confusing and irritating and pontificatory person and yet he has that magnetic world-bending power of charisma and Bolingbroke just doesn't know how to deal and it is great!
In shallower news this is one REALLY PRETTY MOVIE. tv show? thing? idek. Whatever it is, it is super attractive!
Also the actor playing Richard looks like he belongs in Horrible Histories. I have thought this ever since I saw the first picture of him as Richard and idek why I think this! Does he look like one of the Horrible Histories actors or something? It's not like I would know since I DON'T ACTUALLY WATCH HORRIBLE HISTORIES.
(though upon looking up Horrible Histories on wikipedia, something that has long confused me HAS BECOME CLEAR. I have distinct memories of watching a tv show called Horrible Histories when I was younger, and I know FULL WELL that it is not anything like the Horrible Histories that people keep talking about these days. But APPARENTLY in 2001-2 there was an animated tv show! THERE WE GO. All is clear.)
ANYWAYS. In conclusion I cannot help but interpret the entire play from the perspective of that first fic I read about Richard II (and its dvd commentary) -- IT INFECTED MY WORLDVIEW OKAY. (though it's weird, ever since I did that podfic of it, when I read it I hear it in my head in my own voice; that is, my voice as it sounds outside my head. Which feels very weird indeed!)
AND NOW NEXT IS HENRY IV PART 1 FEATURING TOM HIDDLESTON. Hopefully I get to watch it soon! I am excite.
Back like TWO YEARS AGO my fandom-of-the-week was Shakespeare and I wrote fic (King Lear) and did podfic (Richard II) and watched Hamlet for the first time in my life, and if this new bbc production had come out then I would have been OVER THE MOON. This is feeling weirdly like a mini fannish revival for me, this whole business with The Hollow Crown! I JUST HAVE ALL THESE FEELS NOW, FEELS I'D FORGOTTEN.
So okay I already knew I find this play rather interesting but HUH. Particularly: RICHARD. THAT DUDE OKAY. He just -- he absolutely steals every single scene he's in, and not just for those of us watching from the other side of the screen, but for the other characters who are there with him.
Richard is... kind of alien; he looks and acts and talks like he belongs in a different play than everyone else or something. And the way the camera treats him as compared to everyone else ABSOLUTELY plays this up. It's so interesting!
Richard is very composed, except when he's not, but he's clearly always in control of his reactions. He's play-acting, almost, playing a role, and he drags everyone around into his vision of How Things Are. Take the crown-handing-over scene for example. Bolingbroke just wants Richard to acknowledge out loud in front of others that he is giving up the crown, but Richard takes the opportunity to TOTALLY MAKE A SCENE. Bolingbroke spends the entire thing with this hilarious expression on his face because RICHARD REFUSES TO SHUT UP and RICHARD CAN'T DO ANYTHING UNDRAMATICALLY. It is so great.
And okay I'd forgotten just how weird and wtf some of Richard's decisions are. Like: Bolingbroke comes back to England to be like DUDE I WANTS ME MY INHERITANCE, HOW DARE YOU TAKE THAT FROM ME, AND ALSO PLEASE UNEXILE ME, and then Richard is like I GIVE YOU WHAT YOU ASK FOR AND ALSO THE THRONE OKAY COME BE KING NOW. And I'm just like, RICHARD???? And frankly Bolingbroke seems to spend the latter part of the play all WTF as well; it is good times. Richard is such a confusing and irritating and pontificatory person and yet he has that magnetic world-bending power of charisma and Bolingbroke just doesn't know how to deal and it is great!
In shallower news this is one REALLY PRETTY MOVIE. tv show? thing? idek. Whatever it is, it is super attractive!
Also the actor playing Richard looks like he belongs in Horrible Histories. I have thought this ever since I saw the first picture of him as Richard and idek why I think this! Does he look like one of the Horrible Histories actors or something? It's not like I would know since I DON'T ACTUALLY WATCH HORRIBLE HISTORIES.
(though upon looking up Horrible Histories on wikipedia, something that has long confused me HAS BECOME CLEAR. I have distinct memories of watching a tv show called Horrible Histories when I was younger, and I know FULL WELL that it is not anything like the Horrible Histories that people keep talking about these days. But APPARENTLY in 2001-2 there was an animated tv show! THERE WE GO. All is clear.)
ANYWAYS. In conclusion I cannot help but interpret the entire play from the perspective of that first fic I read about Richard II (and its dvd commentary) -- IT INFECTED MY WORLDVIEW OKAY. (though it's weird, ever since I did that podfic of it, when I read it I hear it in my head in my own voice; that is, my voice as it sounds outside my head. Which feels very weird indeed!)
AND NOW NEXT IS HENRY IV PART 1 FEATURING TOM HIDDLESTON. Hopefully I get to watch it soon! I am excite.
no subject
Hahaha... that might be the most you thing that you've ever said.
no subject
no subject
no subject