Primrose Road

Via Shakespeare Geek: an astrologer blogs about Kenneth Branagh's chart and links us to another blog post that asks whether or not the character Hamlet is "Saturnian." This probably would have interested me a whole lot in my drippier days, and would have most likely inspired me to write a paper speculating about Hamlet's astrology chart. You'll notice that Branagh's Saturn is between the seventh and eighth houses. ;) Though astrology is bunk and there's no mechanism by which planets and asteroids can influence human behavior, I will offer this critique of Branagh's Hamlet film: Branagh -- probably because he casts *himself* as Hamlet -- doesn't acknowledge the possibility that our buddy the Dane has Saturn in the eighth house in his chart. :) (Explanation: the eighth house is the house of sex and death. Saturn is a planet of limitations, usually limitations imposed on oneself, but it can relate to physical limitations too.) (Also: astrology is fun mythology, but it's at best a protoscience and at worst crap.)

While posting an excerpt from Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet screenplay the other day, I couldn't help but wonder if anyone else out there was disappointed that the final Harry Potter book did not include a chapter in which Gilderoy Lockhart, Sybil Trelawney, and Bellatrix Lestrange were all in the same room.

There is something more at work in Sarah Smith's Chasing Shakespeares (which I labeled a "guilty pleasure" in an earlier post) than just the "who was Will Shakespeare?" question: Joe Roper, the main character, reads himself into Shakespeare's biography. Early on, he wants Shakespeare to be a glovemaker's son-turned-playwright not because of the facts (which are mostly absent in this novel's universe), but because he himself is a window installer's son-turned-ABD Shakespeare biographer. "Academic mysteries" like Chasing Shakespeares, Possession, and The Archivist may fictionalize certain aspects of academia for plot-related purposes, but they remind us of the points at which we slip up a bit and read ourselves into the works that we study, perform, and teach. As much as I argue that Hamlet-the-character is not meant to be sympathized with, sometimes I can't help but understand his bad decisions; last year, I inadvertently labeled Stephen Gosson an "Early Modern recovering playwright" in a seminar paper; Troilus and Cressida, an excellent example of how English Renaissance plays are often informed by choice rather than chance (or Fate), can nevertheless be heartbreaking to read or watch. Enough about my own reading and writing - let's move on to Kenneth Branagh. The following is from his Hamlet screenplay (NY and London: Norton, 1996):

HAMLET ... This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. Don't you realize what was between us? I did love you once. I don't know anymore. I hoped so. I hope so. OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. He seems to understand her confusion and berates himself. She is right. He is unworthy. He ought to end it now. ....... OPHELIA At home, my lord. [Ophelia is lying; in Branagh's production Hamlet knows she's lying.] And with that phrase their love is dead.

My thoughts on the Branagh/HBO "As You Like It": - The one truly interesting decision Branagh made here was to have Rosalind not even try to disguise herself. The Boston Herald's generally negative review did not pick up on this; early on, when she and Orlando speak, and she asks Orlando to call her Rosalind, it's apparent that he knows that she's Rosalind and that she knows that her "disguise" is hardly a disguise at all. - Bryce Dallas Howard's eyes are creepy. (And they flit around too much during close-ups.) - Was Charles the Sumo Wrestler the only reason why Branagh decided to set this film in 19th century Japan?