Shakespeare’s tragedy Cymbeline gets the modern treatment as a
biker gang versus dirty cop war set in Manhattan. Ed Harris is the
titular drug dealer who leads his soldiers into deadly territory facing off with the corrupt police
chief Caius Lucius (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and his band of men. Cymbeline’s
merciless fervour and explosive temper instil rightful fear in all who
might cross him, and he is backed by well-armed followers. Ethan Hawke
is the tricky Iachimo who recklessly complicates people’s lives, and
Penn Badgley and Dakota Johnson are Posthumus and Imogen, lovers on
opposite sides of the fence whose despair leads to an unexpected
outcome. Cymbeline is interpreted as an ultra-violent “fairy tale” by
filmmaker Michael Almereyda whose earlier modern riff on Shakespeare’s
Hamlet also starred Hawke. We spoke with Almereyda from New York.
I was thinking how incredibly violent the film is but it is taken from the play. We have not changed much in 400 years.Michael Almereyda: It’s
not unusual for Shakespeare’s stories to have physical violence and
emotional violence. It’s like a fairy tale – they tend to be violent but
are about redemption and the great spirit of forgiveness that ties it
together. I found it moving and the antidote to the violence. The evil
people collapse and die and the noble people survive and endure against
all odds and people reunite and reclaim their lives and there is
something moving about it. It mitigates violence.
Ethan Hawke seems to have a real capacity for delivering that beautiful language without forcing it.
Michael Almereyda: Between
Hamlet and the present moment he’s been very busy and he’s gone out of
his way to do Shakespeare onstage. He just played Hotspur in Henry IV
while he was prepping Macbeth and shooting Cymbeline. He has developed a
facility for Shakespeare. He played a double role in Winter’s Tale.
It’s a hard won facility but he is fluid and confident and he has
traveled a certain distance beyond for it. He was the first person I
cast.
Dakota Johnson is really impressive. She handled the language and stood up to those veterans well.
Michael Almereyda: It
was an instinct to cast her and that was before Fifty Shades of Gray.
I’d seen some of her other films and liked them. We sat down and talked
and I saw in her rawness and instinct. She wanted to do it and was
passionate. During filming she was cast for Fifty Shades and that was
the first time I’d ever had to deal with paparazzi on a set. She came
through. Fifty Shades was a juggernaut no matter what and I’m happy for
her and I look forward to seeing what she will do in the future.
Shakespeare is occasionally retooled for film but why Cymbeline, the “problem” play?
Michael Almereyda: I
don’t think there is a better writer in the history of the world, he
elevates and challenges us, there is meat on the bone and he brings more
intensity and more poetry to it. All of the actors had a passion for it
and I think it was worthwhile. There was no pay, no money but it was
an exciting challenge for them.
Are you on a mission to reintroduce Shakespeare the way Kenneth Branagh was?
Michael Almereyda: No,
there is no mission. Kenneth Branagh is more of a Shakespearean scholar
and not a clumsy American. We sing the song our own way, we’re more
amateurish perhaps but have the same passion. That’s not the same as
having a mission. I would like to do more but it really is a bunch of
people in an abandoned mine playing music. It’s not standard but there
is no wrong way, and we make it our own way.
Adapting Shakespeare is a risky business because the purists will be looking closely.
Michael Almereyda: There
are fewer purists than you might imagine. I had been very careful to
avoid English people while making it. I stayed away from them. Only the
location manager was English. And the upshot of all that is that there
is a tradition; the purists would say you can only perform Shakespeare
with young boys playing women’s parts. There are many ways to do
Shakespeare that are acceptable and familiar and we were distilling the
play in a way that was respectful. I’m showing it to the Shakespeare
Society tonight (in New York) and they will love it. They will know the
layers. People who grumble are probably rigid about most things in life.
I described it to kids in inner city schools, and they asked how you
can do Shakespeare if you don’t have a British accent? The great English
actors have the conviction and play it from the gut and there is no
wrong way.
Source
Via DJLife
No comments:
Post a Comment