But yet, I have also been watching a Shakespearean comedy, called Much Ado About Nothing, and this time have found it quite entertaining. The first time I saw it, was a loooooong time ago when my mom rented it from the video store. All I remembered was Michael Keaton riding around on an imaginary horse, a movement which I have mimiked several times in my childhood. But I recently saw it on tv, and found it boring, and difficult to understand. I caught the drift of the show, but could not stay to the end.
This time though, I followed the old English more closely and found their overly used english linguistics are actually hiding a lot of comedy in them. One of my favorite lines is of Benedick talking about Hero (Kate Beckinsale) to Claudio, when Claudio asked what Benedick's opinion of her was:
Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a highShe's too simple for elaborate praise, too ugly for beauty's praise, too lowly (as she's just a maid) for great praise...but he does say that "I can give her this praise, that if she were someone else, she would be ugly; but being that she is not someone else rather herself, I do not like her." But that's all much funnier in old english. He just means in the second part of it, that if she were someone else, she would not be herself, which is what makes her, her.
praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little
for a great praise: only this commendation I can
afford her, that were she other than she is, she
were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I
do not like her.
So if you haven't seen the movie, and can get past all the old english, you'll find that Beatrice and Benedick have a love-hate relationship with tons of great insults wrapped in fluently spoken poetic fashion, so that you would not know it were an insult.
Basically, Denzel Washington brings his men into a courtyard, for a visit. One of his men likes the owner's daughter, and Denzel woo's the daughter for his man, Claudio, to marry. After that success he gets support for a plot to bring Beatrice and Benedick together, through their hatred for each other, by speaking falsely in their presence that one loves the other, when no such case exists. The two hear of this love the other holds, and it alters their persona.
In the meantime, Keanu Reeves and his small followers, who are all also part of Denzel's men, plot to get Hero (Kate Beckinsale) to not marry Claudio. They end up staging a plot to defame Hero. Micheal Keaton rides upon Keanu's men, and hear of the plot, and hold the men prisioner.
Hero is to marry Claudio, but Claudio digresses and disgraces Hero at the wedding. So the friar suggests that she be locked away until the time is right, when Claudio's conscience gets the best of him, upon hearing a rumor that she dies.
While this time is passing Micheal Keaton brings the prisioners to the courtyard's owner to tell what the plot is, and bring the men to justice.
The owner (and father of Hero) realizes what has happened, and tells Claudio that his brother has a daughter Claudio can marry that is almost an exact copy of Hero. Marrying his "neice" would take away the revenge for disgracing his daughter, and Claudio agrees.
At the next day, the wedding for Claudio, and the neice, Claudio finds out that there is no neice, it is indeed Hero. They marry, and Benedick and Beatrice find out the truth that they were set up. They try to hide their feelings, but Claudio and Hero pull out two poems that each have written to each other, and they learn that their feelings were mutually deceived and felt. So they get married too.
And everyone lives happily ever after.
Now that is the plot outline, but there is a lot of comedy especially between Beatrice and Benedick, and also with Micheal Keaton's scenes. I'd recommend watching it, if not reading the story - which I read through the play online as they did it on the screen, and it helped with understanding some of the situations. It also showed how much of the lines the actors either forgot, skipped, or were cut out of the script.
No comments:
Post a Comment