• Next message: Hardy M. Cook: "When Henry Rallied Troops for One Last Stand"
• Previous message: Hardy M. Cook: "Pop Culture: Juliet's Nurse analyzed on Guiding Light"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ]

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.2379  Tuesday, 16 December 2003

From:           D Bloom <dbloom@asms.net>
Date:           Monday, 15 Dec 2003 11:17:52 -0600
Subject: 14.2357 Renaissance Related Film and TV Shows
Comment:        RE: SHK 14.2357 Renaissance Related Film and TV Shows

Richard Burt offers something apparently from someone called "MadMaggie"
who has something to do with the BBC and who offers us a semi-coherent
review of something apparently called "Henry VIII" that appeared (I
gather) in the UK on ITV.

I won't trouble the rest of the list with ripping up this self-indulgent
effusion, but will satisfy myself with two questions:

Would anyone who saw this production recommend it to those of us on the
Left Side, so that we should try to find a way to view it?

Is anyone else bothered by free-form fantasies on the lives and
characters of historical figures that seem to have little or no relation
to those characters as we can derive them from their actions and
writings?

For example: "Helena Bonham Carter was a bewildered, beautiful and
finally, totally wronged queen." Now I believe Queen Anne was
universally regarded as beautiful in her day, and whether she was
"totally wronged" or not depends partly on certain moral preconceptions
that determine our several judgments of what she did and what happened
to her. But "bewildered" does not at all coincide with what I have read
of her. She seems to have been brilliant, not stupid, completely in
control of herself, and quite capable of manipulating the brilliant, but
utterly egotistical (and perhaps already half-demented) dictator that
she married.

Am I wrong in my impression of Anne Bullen? Is there a new historical
theory that claims she was merely a pretty fluff-head?

Alternatively, is that what this thing really presented? Or is MadMaggie
actually talking Queen Katherine? Or one of the others?

Just curious,
don

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them.

• Next message: Hardy M. Cook: "When Henry Rallied Troops for One Last Stand"
• Previous message: Hardy M. Cook: "Pop Culture: Juliet's Nurse analyzed on Guiding Light"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ]