one thing I find hilarious is when Shakespeare quotes are used out of context
like, people are always saying “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” as if it’s all deep and meaningful when actually it comes from a prank letter in Twelfth Night
and “This above all: to thine own self be true” comes from Polonius in Hamlet wherein the joke is that he’s an old pompous dude giving a long and rambling speech full of contradictory pointless advice to his son
“Brevity is the soul of wit” is another joke, because again, it’s made by Polonius who will just not shut up
it’s “we are such stuff as dreams are made on” not “of “, as in, “such stuff as dreams are built on”
“wherefore art thou, Romeo” doesn’t mean “where are you, Romeo” it means “why the fuck are you called Romeo, shit, I wanted to bang you but I can’t because you’re a goddamn Montague”
all these lines have acquired a kind of dignity in text that they never had in performance or are constantly misinterpreted
It’s not necessarily bad but it is kind of funny, sometimes.
This interaction is one of the MANY reasons why I love this (Asta Nielsen’s) version of Hamlet.
So yes, that is Hamlet (left) and Horatio (right), and in this version, Hamlet is secretly a woman who was raised as a man to protect the royal family’s legacy.
The movie, in a vain and desperate attempt to avoid any implications of homosexuality, goes w the idea that Hamlet was secretly in love w Horatio (which…yea), and only pretended to love Ophelia for the sake of appearances.
And that would be all well and heterosexual, but Nielsen’s performance isn’t really that of woman pretending to be a man.
Honestly, this Hamlet feels way more gender fluid than *just* male, or *just* female. There’s flashes of both femininity and masculinity in the performance, making the whole thing waaaaay unintentionally gayer (always fun).
So, in this version, we actually get to SEE Hamlet and Horatio meet at Wittenberg.
Like, they get this whole little meet-cute scene where Horatio drops his quill and they both go to pick it up and their heads bump together, like in a romcom (I swear I’m not making this up, you can watch it on YouTube if you don’t believe me), which then leads to the part your seeing above this, where Hamlet basically just eye fucks Horatio for an entire scene.
What a piece of work is man, indeed.
Because some of you have trouble coming up with words to call people you don’t like besides ‘psycho’ and ‘messed up in the head’, have a Shakespeare Insult Kit I found on Google Images. Or if you just like to call people weird things.
It’s funny. In Jamaica (and other places) if you have white liver- you’re considered to have like an insatiable sexual appetite. So since milk is white- and you like insulting me. You’re basically calling me a slut. My husband to be won’t disagree I’m afraid.
Facts are facts.
Rude. Also- would make myself an insult but I’m way too lazy to read the list so feel free to inbox me roasts.
An adaptation of Hamlet that’s filmed like it’s an episode of like Keeping up with the Kardashians, and every soliloquy is just a character doing a talking head interview
This is actually so brilliant that when I do a filmed Hamlet adaptation I will do this, pay you for the creative direction, and give you the concept byline.
I’ll be real, this post was like 5% joke, 95% realization that the purest preservation of the soliloquy in modern culture is the reality show talking head, a confessional both private and performative and essential to understanding the emotional underpinnings of the actions being played, all in a format of direct address that we accept.
FIRST and foremost, one of the Lestat RPers who still uses JCB as a face claim, @cdf-archive (now known as @couer-de-feu, tumblr isn’t hyperlinking it OH WELL) wrote up a gr9 post about JCB as Lestat [X], excerpt under the cut.
I feel ya, I find that playing the casting game is hard bc ppl can be really dismissive of actors, pointing out what they think are physical limitations of the actors, or whatever, it’s easy to nitpick based on our own ideals of beauty.
A great performance is more than just the actor’s looks, it’s the harmony of every film crew member’s job done well, from the grips, to the sound ppl, to the costume ppl, to the director, and so on, not just the actors. But talking VC casting can be fun to see which of our choices are shared by others ❤
So YEAH, JCB was a somewhat popular FC for Lestat RPers at one time, so your opinion is/was shared by others! I’m gonna reblog a few pieces of fanart after I post this that are basically JCB as Lestat, so stay tuned 😉EDIT: I have fanart of Paul Boche as Lestat, not JCB! I’ll reblog those. But can someone send me some Lestat fanart based on JCB? I feel like I’ve seen it but can’t remember where…
^I don’t have a joke to go with this, I’d made it
aaaages ago
for @coeur-de-feu. Maybe it’s Lestat reacting to coming home to a Louis dressed only in a sheer green scarf, surrounded by piles of red roses, for Lestat’s birthday or smtg, lol.
I haven’t seen Will yet but it looks like an intriguing and snazzy take on Shakespeare! Admittedly, I have not been a huge fan of Jamie Campbell Bower, bc I haven’t seen the stuff he’s been in, I’m not a YA fan… from the pics I’ve seen of JCB he has seemed too skinny/bony for my own headcanon of Lestat (and I admit that’s based on my own ideals of beauty)-
BUT BUT BUT, these pics of him from Will are looking, actually, very #Lestatuesque to me!
^Like, maybe it’s the hair*, the lighting, the expression, etc., (a combination probably) idk what it is, but his face seems less HELLO CHEEKBONE now for some reason? He’s very Lestat here, to me. Like he’s in thrall, listening to Nicki playing violin music.
*The hair would need SOME more styling and highlights but JCB being a natural blond (I think?) should make it easier to brighten his hair up than it was for Tom, who has never been able to pull off a really bright blond in any movie I can remember (even the silver looked kinda strange in Collateral but I digress…)
[^X from @foreverjamiecampbellbower] ^Even here, yes, JCB has cheekbones you could slice your hand open on, but maybe the stubble is also just, giving that jawline and generous mouth the attention they deserve? IDK it’s working for me!
I think JCB has enough of the physical part nailed down that the rest can be built on his performance. Tom had limitations appearance-wise, too, but the acting won ppl over who don’t even like him in any other roles.
This is already a long-ish post so for more of my thoughts on him, hit up my #jamie campbell bower tag.
Also, hit the jump for a quote from @cdf-archive/@coeur-de-feu that I think is relevant here.
The fact is, we all have our own ideals of beauty and our own headcanon of these characters. It’s highly unlikely that one actor will satisfy all of our expectations, and @cdf-archive wrote up a great post about JCB as Lestat [X], excerpt below:
“There will always be inconsistencies, everywhere you look. But it’s not really even whether or not I find him perfect. It’s his imperfections that make him perfect, to me. And perhaps that’s what Magnus found in Lestat – his imperfections gave him an indescribable yet authentic beauty and Magnus wanted to immortalize those features by turning Lestat into a vampire, even though Lestat did not want it. It was okay with Magnus that Lestat had a few things here and there that weren’t completely perfect; he found him extraordinarily beautiful, regardless.”
#Eloquent eloquence
(btw you can send links like this: www(.)website(.)com/www[.]website[.]com, any variation that hides the “.”, while it won’t come through as a /clickable/ link, it’s still a link for reference)
I-want-my-IWTV 