The BFI are screening a new print of a remarkable film of Hamlet with live piano accompaniment on January 27th.
I studied this 1920 silent film when I was preparing research on the performance history of Hamlet for the third Arden edition of the play. It was a complete revelation.
The main character is a woman who has been brought up as a boy so that the family's dynasty can be maintained in the aftermath of war.
Asta Nielsen, who plays Hamlet, was a role model for Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, and was one of the leading actors of her generation.
Director Sven Gade’s amazing retelling of the play also offers insights into the European psyche in the wake of Germany's defeat in the First World War.
What I find so extraordinary about Shakespeare's Hamlet is how so many people in so many different parts of the world find emotional and political resonances that speak to their own history and culture.
And that's one of the reasons Hamlet is essential reading for every screenwriter.
There's a terrific short film about a group of musicians accompanying Asta Nielsen's scenes in the film live at the Berlin Festival. Click on the link to watch it:
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Shakespeare's Indoor Theatre
When I was Leverhulme Research Fellow at Shakespeare's Globe, I was thrilled to be involved, watching the building take shape, working with the directors and actors on the first productions there. It was an immense sadness to everyone that Sam Wanamaker who worked so hard to realise his dream of recreating the Globe did not live to see the first performances.
He also planned on reconstructing an indoor Jacobean theatre on the site, and when the Globe was built, the shell of the indoor theatre was built, but we knew that this would have to be delayed until there were the resources to develop the space.
So I'm thrilled that now that is going to happen. I can't wait to see The Tempest in the indoor theatre. It was for a theatre space like this that Shakespeare wrote his wonderfully surreal masterpiece.
And that's got me thinking about film adaptations of The Tempest...
He also planned on reconstructing an indoor Jacobean theatre on the site, and when the Globe was built, the shell of the indoor theatre was built, but we knew that this would have to be delayed until there were the resources to develop the space.
So I'm thrilled that now that is going to happen. I can't wait to see The Tempest in the indoor theatre. It was for a theatre space like this that Shakespeare wrote his wonderfully surreal masterpiece.
And that's got me thinking about film adaptations of The Tempest...
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Why Every Screenplay Needs Subtext for Everything
A single image can express deep meaning, speak to the story's theme and communicate a character's inner emotions more powerfully and eloquently than words.
This is how subtext works. It's not just for dialogue. I find it really helpful to 'watch' my characters in a situation, and then wait. Wait for them to tell me what to write. It can be speech, of course, but very often I find that one simple image can express what my character is feeling without having to tell the audience.
Nuanced development of a character often means letting your visual storytelling powers take over.
That wonderful scene in La Dolce Vita at the Trevi Fountain - look how eloquent that visual subtext communicates everything we need to understand and most importantly, feel the characters' emotions.
This is how subtext works. It's not just for dialogue. I find it really helpful to 'watch' my characters in a situation, and then wait. Wait for them to tell me what to write. It can be speech, of course, but very often I find that one simple image can express what my character is feeling without having to tell the audience.
Nuanced development of a character often means letting your visual storytelling powers take over.
That wonderful scene in La Dolce Vita at the Trevi Fountain - look how eloquent that visual subtext communicates everything we need to understand and most importantly, feel the characters' emotions.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
The BAFTAS - The King's Speech has 14 Nominations. True Grit has 8
The BAFTAS 2011 List of Nominations is out.
The King's Speech has a whopping fourteen including Best Original Screenplay, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Editing.
The Coens' True Grit got zero nominations at the Golden Globes, but they're on the BAFTA list for eight including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematographer (the Coens' regular, Roger Deakins, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and Best Actress (Hailee Steinfeld)
I always find it interesting to compare the current nominees of screen awards with the winners of the previous years.
You can compare this year's BAFTA nominations with the winners from 2010 and 2009
here. Click on BAFTAS on the left hand menu:
http://www.unique-screenwriting.com
What do think of the Screenplay Nominees?
Best original screenplay
Black Swan - Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin
The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The Kids are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech - David Seidler
Best adapted screenplay
127 Hours - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt
True Grit - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
The King's Speech has a whopping fourteen including Best Original Screenplay, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Editing.
The Coens' True Grit got zero nominations at the Golden Globes, but they're on the BAFTA list for eight including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematographer (the Coens' regular, Roger Deakins, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and Best Actress (Hailee Steinfeld)
I always find it interesting to compare the current nominees of screen awards with the winners of the previous years.
You can compare this year's BAFTA nominations with the winners from 2010 and 2009
here. Click on BAFTAS on the left hand menu:
http://www.unique-screenwriting.com
What do think of the Screenplay Nominees?
Best original screenplay
Black Swan - Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin
The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The Kids are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech - David Seidler
Best adapted screenplay
127 Hours - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt
True Grit - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Sunday, 16 January 2011
How the Coen Brothers Write Their Scripts
In an interview on the WGA site, Ethan and Joel Coen are uncharacteristically fulsome in their answers about their latest filmTrue Grit and offer some fascinating insights into how they write their scripts.
If anyone has to be convinced of my repeated plea for screenwriters to stop worrying about the '3-Act structure' or building a ready-made template for their story, the Coens have done a very persuasive job for me.
They don't set out with a clear outline and then squeeze everything in. Joel says:
'It’s much more the case that there’s a discussion about what comes next extending a certain way into the script that often gets batted about verbally and then just gets written as opposed to writing it all down with one subset of A, B, C, D, and E, you know? It’s like, "Okay, this will happen, and it will lead to this, and then we don’t know what."'
Ethan agreed: 'That’s true. It’s kinda mushy. We don’t do an outline in terms of mapping out the whole thing but then, on the other hand, we don’t exactly write scene A and then stop and say, "Ok, what’s scene B?"
Joel: Yeah, it might be, "Ok, this will happen and lead to this and this and then we get here, and we’ll figure it out." If we’re writing scene B, we have some clear idea of what scene C might be and a slightly fuzzier idea of what D might be and a vague idea of what the ramifications of that might be – or maybe not. It just kind of falls off into darkness.'
True inspiration for all screenwriters!
Read the full interview with the Coens by Dylan Callaghan at http://www.wga.org/
If anyone has to be convinced of my repeated plea for screenwriters to stop worrying about the '3-Act structure' or building a ready-made template for their story, the Coens have done a very persuasive job for me.
They don't set out with a clear outline and then squeeze everything in. Joel says:
'It’s much more the case that there’s a discussion about what comes next extending a certain way into the script that often gets batted about verbally and then just gets written as opposed to writing it all down with one subset of A, B, C, D, and E, you know? It’s like, "Okay, this will happen, and it will lead to this, and then we don’t know what."'
Ethan agreed: 'That’s true. It’s kinda mushy. We don’t do an outline in terms of mapping out the whole thing but then, on the other hand, we don’t exactly write scene A and then stop and say, "Ok, what’s scene B?"
Joel: Yeah, it might be, "Ok, this will happen and lead to this and this and then we get here, and we’ll figure it out." If we’re writing scene B, we have some clear idea of what scene C might be and a slightly fuzzier idea of what D might be and a vague idea of what the ramifications of that might be – or maybe not. It just kind of falls off into darkness.'
True inspiration for all screenwriters!
Read the full interview with the Coens by Dylan Callaghan at http://www.wga.org/
Saturday, 15 January 2011
The King's Speech Ending
**SPOILERS ALERT!**
Was anyone else bothered by the last few shots of The King's Speech?
I found it sentimentalizing and trite. It wasn't necessary to cut from Colin Firth's (Bertie) face to Geoffrey Rush's (Lionel) face twice. And why on earth were we left with Lionel on the screen at the very end? This was Bertie's story.
I have to confess that I have an in-built 'punching the emotion too much' detector when I watch a film. And though Colin Firth himself never struck an inauthentic note, there were moments in the film where the director imposed a sentimentalizing dollop of syrup. These were in such stark contrast to the powerful restraint and emotional truth of Firth's performance that they felt doubly jarring.
But it's that ending which almost ruined the watching experience for me. If only they'd just left us with a close-up of Firth's admirably restrained expression.
Was anyone else bothered by the last few shots of The King's Speech?
I found it sentimentalizing and trite. It wasn't necessary to cut from Colin Firth's (Bertie) face to Geoffrey Rush's (Lionel) face twice. And why on earth were we left with Lionel on the screen at the very end? This was Bertie's story.
I have to confess that I have an in-built 'punching the emotion too much' detector when I watch a film. And though Colin Firth himself never struck an inauthentic note, there were moments in the film where the director imposed a sentimentalizing dollop of syrup. These were in such stark contrast to the powerful restraint and emotional truth of Firth's performance that they felt doubly jarring.
But it's that ending which almost ruined the watching experience for me. If only they'd just left us with a close-up of Firth's admirably restrained expression.
Golden Globes - One Day To Go! Here's Full List of Nominations
Tomorrow, Sunday 16 January, we'll know who's won the Golden Globe Awards for 2011.
Who do you think deserves Best Screenplay? The King's Speech and Social Network are hot favourites.
Here's the List:
Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Drama: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network
Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan; David Fincher, The Social Network; Tom Hooper, The King's Speech; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David O Russell, The Fighter
Musical or Comedy: Alice in Wonderland, Burlesque, The Kids Are All Right, Red, The Tourist
Actor, Drama: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network; Colin Firth, The King's Speech; James Franco, 127 Hours; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine; Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter
Actress, Drama: Halle Berry, Frankie and Alice; Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole; Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone; Natalie Portman, Black Swan; Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter; Michael Douglas, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; Jeremy Renner, The Town; Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland; Johnny Depp, The Tourist; Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version; Jake Gyllenhaal, Love and Other Drugs; Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right; Anne Hathaway, Love & Other Drugs; Angelina Jolie, The Tourist; Emma Stone, Easy A
Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter; Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech; Mila Kunis, Black Swan; Amy Adams, The Fighter; Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Foreign Language: Biutiful, The Concert, The Edge, I Am Love, In a Better World
Animated Film: Toy Story 3, The Illusionist, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, Tangled
Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech; Danny Elfman, Alice in Wonderland; A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours; Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, The Social Network; Hans Zimmer, Inception
Original Song: "Bound to You" (written by Samuel Dixon, Christina Aguilera, Sia Furler), Burlesque; "Coming Home" (written by Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges), Country Strong; "I See the Light" (written by Alan Menken, Glenn Slater), Tangled; "There's a Place for Us" (written by Carrie Underwood, David Hodges, Hillary Lindsey), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," (written by Diane Warren), Burlesque
Who do you think deserves Best Screenplay? The King's Speech and Social Network are hot favourites.
Here's the List:
Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Drama: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network
Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan; David Fincher, The Social Network; Tom Hooper, The King's Speech; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David O Russell, The Fighter
Musical or Comedy: Alice in Wonderland, Burlesque, The Kids Are All Right, Red, The Tourist
Actor, Drama: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network; Colin Firth, The King's Speech; James Franco, 127 Hours; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine; Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter
Actress, Drama: Halle Berry, Frankie and Alice; Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole; Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone; Natalie Portman, Black Swan; Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter; Michael Douglas, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; Jeremy Renner, The Town; Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland; Johnny Depp, The Tourist; Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version; Jake Gyllenhaal, Love and Other Drugs; Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right; Anne Hathaway, Love & Other Drugs; Angelina Jolie, The Tourist; Emma Stone, Easy A
Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter; Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech; Mila Kunis, Black Swan; Amy Adams, The Fighter; Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Foreign Language: Biutiful, The Concert, The Edge, I Am Love, In a Better World
Animated Film: Toy Story 3, The Illusionist, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, Tangled
Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech; Danny Elfman, Alice in Wonderland; A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours; Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, The Social Network; Hans Zimmer, Inception
Original Song: "Bound to You" (written by Samuel Dixon, Christina Aguilera, Sia Furler), Burlesque; "Coming Home" (written by Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges), Country Strong; "I See the Light" (written by Alan Menken, Glenn Slater), Tangled; "There's a Place for Us" (written by Carrie Underwood, David Hodges, Hillary Lindsey), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," (written by Diane Warren), Burlesque
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