I saw Ralph Fiennes directorial debut Coriolanus at The New Yorker Festival yesterday, and I have a couple things to say upon this experience. First, the trivial - Coriolanus might be the only one of ol' Bill Shakespeare's tragedies that I haven't read yet so I was pretty much unfamiliar with the story going in, which was nice! Unique, I mean - it's interesting, not knowing the twists and turns of a Shakespeare story as it plays out in front of you at this point. Ol' Bill's still got some surprises in him! But not so nice was the fact that every time anyone said "Coriolanus" all I could think of was this:
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Shame on me. But there it was, every time, with me tittering like a moron. Now perhaps I can spread that plague upon the rest of you.
Anyway the movie's solid - Vanessa Redgrave is indeed pretty terrific as Volumnia; I say this with no malice but she's basically aged into one of Ray Harryhausen's moving skeletons, which works fabulously well from a visual standpoint for the character. Jessica Chastain doesn't have much to do but tear up as the put-upon wife (and since all I've seen of her "2011 onslaught" is this and The Tree of Life it's all I've seen her do so far).
Gerard Butler puts the 'mo into homoerotic in his scenes with Ralph - the shaving scene has so much head stroking I thought we might get a full-on happy ending. And Ralph's very good as the soldier whose war gets taken away from him, and he shows real promise as a director. Ultimately the film works on you intellectually - it's an interesting exercise in playing with audience sympathies - but everyone's so unlikable that it's hard to get too emotionally swept up in it which is what I generally expect out of Shakespearean tragedy. But it does ask plenty of loaded questions. It's a strong first effort.
Gerard Butler puts the 'mo into homoerotic in his scenes with Ralph - the shaving scene has so much head stroking I thought we might get a full-on happy ending. And Ralph's very good as the soldier whose war gets taken away from him, and he shows real promise as a director. Ultimately the film works on you intellectually - it's an interesting exercise in playing with audience sympathies - but everyone's so unlikable that it's hard to get too emotionally swept up in it which is what I generally expect out of Shakespearean tragedy. But it does ask plenty of loaded questions. It's a strong first effort.
Fiennes was at the screening and did a Q&A after it (he flew in from London where he's playing Sexy Prospero on stage right now, fully bearded up like a mountain man or Mel Gibson) and he also read a selection from TS Eliot's "Four Quartets" - I guess he did an audio book of them - which I taped, which you can watch right here.
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Ralph Fiennes' voice gets him mad laid, yo.
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from Cole Porter's 'Kiss Me Kate'
The girls today in society
Go for classical poetry,
So to win their hearts one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides.
But the poet of them all
Who will start 'em simply ravin'
Is the poet people call
The bard of Stratford-on-Avon.
Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
[..]
With the wife of the British embessida
Try a crack out of "Troilus and Cressida,"
If she says she won't buy it or tike it
Make her tike it, what's more, "As You Like It."
If she says your behavior is heinous
Kick her right in the "Coriolanus."
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kowtow,
And they'll all kowtow,
And they'll all kowtow.
To bring it all full circle, Christopher Walken starred in 'Coriolanus' at the NY Shakespeare Festival in 1988.
Bravo, Jee Jay! Classic! :)
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