BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'

Subject: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 11:36 AM

I don't pay much attention to movies, so when my sister-in-law came to visit and told me that Joss Whedon has done Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' in black and white, all filmed in his own home, it was news to me.

We went to the art movie theatre and saw it two days sgo. I recommend it.

It was my kind of movie: no explosions, no shooting, and lots of male eye candy. the scene where Benedick 'overhears' the other men talking about how Beatrice is in love with him is worth the entire price of admission.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 11:47 AM

Cool. I'll watch for it.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: ranger1
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 12:57 PM

I'll watch pretty much anything Joss Whedon has had a hand in. The man is brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: alanabit
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 02:55 PM

I haven't heard of it before, so I shall have to watch out to see if it gets shown over here. There was a very good BBC version some years ago, in which I believe Robert Lindsay (as Benedict) brought some excellent sexual chemistry with his Beatrix.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 06:40 PM

The play is well done, and of course there's the intrigue of seeing how a rich director lives. I was pleased to see the window seat with many pillows and a guitar in each corner. I grew up in a family where sometime in the course of any party, somebody would pick up a guitar and play it quietly. Just as a character did in this movie.

Also, I was tickled to see that Joss Whedon has another kitchen inspired by the kitchen in the movie 'Something's gotta give.'

http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/05/04/the-beach-house-in-somethings-gotta-give/

Scroll down.

That movie was a dud, but many people who saw it took DVD's of it into contractors and decorators and said, "I want a kitchen like that.' I think it's because the kitchen is tranquil.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: GUEST,Chris Murray
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 06:41 PM

I've seen it in the UK - Wolverhampton, to be precise. Very good!

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 09:30 AM

I'm glad you liked it, Chris.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 11:01 AM

Yeah, the movie is a nice change from current trends. I just read on The Onion that somebody named Michael Bay is directing a movie where the explosions themselves fall in love.

Why waste money or time on human actors when most customers just want explosions?

One thing I liked about Whedon's 'Much Ado' - I could tell the characters apart, even the females. Have you noticed how many directors select actresses of a conventional prettiness so bland that after a while, you can't tell who's who? In this movie, I liked it that there were so many interesting faces.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: jacqui.c
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 05:05 PM

I'm watching out to see if this one comes to our corner of the world, or if I'll have to hope to catch the DVD. I saw a little bit when Nathan Filion was interviewed by Letterman - it looks good!

Alanabit - I think the Robert Lindsay/Cheri Lunghi version is my favourite - just found it on Amazon and bought it!

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 09:45 PM

"Why waste money or time on human actors when most customers just want explosions?"

Indeed! Watch any Roland Emmerich film and you will see the absolute last word in such stupidity.

However, I don't think it's because the public started out stupid. Hardly! Rather, they have been taught to become stupid by an industry that would rather feed them predictable garbage than bother offering them better fare. People slowly become brutalized by being offered a steady diet of brutality, and then they want more of it, and they don't know why. It becomes a self-replicating thing, and that's what the marketers want...just like they want us to become addicted to all the other moronic stuff they sell.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 04 Jul 13 - 04:41 PM

I mostly agree, LH, but I do think most people outgrow that stuff after a while.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Jul 13 - 09:20 AM

While munching a thoughtful piece of cracked-wheat toast this morning, I had an insight about 'Much Ado about Nothing.' (I assume everybody here knows the play.)

There are two plots: Beatrice vs Bendick and Claudio vs Hero. B & B are at each other's throats. Claudio is jealous and vengeful, while Hero is sweet, forgiving and faithful. For me, the story of Claudio's jealousy is predictable and tiresome, written only to make the play long enough.

This morning it occurred to me that that plot is not Claudio's story, it's Hero's story. And in it, Beatrice shows what she really is: she's bold (standing up to the fighting men around her to defend Hero) and she's faithful (sticking by her through the entire ordeal.) Shakespeare wanted to show that Beatrice is not just a crabby, damaged person. She's a strong person with a prickly exterior.

Beatrice and Benedick are worthy of each other. But to me, a modern person, Claudio is not worthy of Hero. I want to say to Hero, "Don't do it, sugar! A jealous male has a bottomless pit where his pride ought to be, and if you marry him, you will be sucked into it and destroyed."

Once recently, the advice columnist Dear Abby asked women to tell her what men a woman should never marry. She got thousands of responses, and the answers were clear. Based on thousands of painful experiences, one should never marry:

a problem drinker
a jealous man
a mama's boy.

None of them will ever change.

Subject: RE: BS: new 'Much Ado about Nothing'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jul 13 - 10:00 AM

Yes, crazy little woman, we do mostly become wiser as we get older, and we start to see through that stuff, as you say. The dumber "action" movies and other such fare are aimed at a younger audience.