The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #46952   Message #699474
Posted By: CapriUni
27-Apr-02 - 03:38 PM
Thread Name: BS: Movies they should make
Subject: RE: BS: Movies they should make
A movie version of Shakespeare's Cymbeline would be Fanta-a-a-astic!

Although, because it is hardly ever performed, and is probably the most obscure play he'd done, it probably never will be.

However, the very things that make it such a diffecult play to produce and understand as a stage play are the same things that make it perfect for a contemporary movie:

1) The Settings: Numurous scene shifts within each act between first century BC British court, opulant palaces in Rome and the wilderness in the mountains of Wales (think of the cinematagraphy possibilities!). On the stage, granted, these quick change shifts (often, an act is only a few lines long) make it hard to follow on the stage (when a forest must often be represented by a single, cardboard tree), but audiences have come to expect such shifts in P.O.V and scene in movies -- indeed, if a movie does not have them, it comes across as slow and boring.

2) The Plot: Shakespeare borrowed from all his great tragedies for this one -- Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet -- and managed to give them all a happy ending. He also threw in one scene with Olympian Gods, and a major battle, with lots of running around and double-dealing. The happy ending at the end is a bit rushed and contrived, but isn't that a requirement for a blockbuster movie, these days?