Saturday, April 29, 2017

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Movie version

The actual act of watching the play made it a lot less confusing for me. Because it is a play, it is meant to be seen, not to be just read. The movie seemed to add more aspects of scientific inquisition, such as the hanging pots as Newton's cradle and an apple falling from a tree. I think that this added to the visual sense of how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are lost and try to find meaning and direction in their lives. Another interesting aspect in the movie version are the papers blowing across many scenes. The papers represent the script, but it could be either the script of Hamlet or of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I think it makes more sense that it would be the script of Hamlet, because Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are obviously restricted by the original script of Shakespeare's play.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I thought the script pieces in the movie were kind of strange because it ruined part of the movie for me because it ruined the immersion and figuring things out for myself. However, I did like seeing the different settings they used in order to make their point and I like how you could see the strong friendship between Rosencratz and Guildenstern. I also liked how Hamlet was more of a background story and it focused mainly on the two characters who were formerly in the background. I think the movie added another element to an already unique play because you could actually see the action and the troubles they go through for yourself. Overall I enjoyed what we saw of the movie and liked the different aspects you couldn't really visualize through the book alone.

Unknown said...

I think the movie was a good aid, but I don't think it does the play justice. So much of the script relies upon it actually being performed on a stage that the movie somewhat detracted from it in my opinion.

Unknown said...

I agree that the movie helped to visualize things a lot better. In the Theatre of the Absurd it is a characteristic to have a vague setting. In the beginning of the play it does not give detail to where they are. Stoppard leaves a lot of the interpretation up to the reader. The movie is an interesting but helpful way to portray the play.

Unknown said...

The movie definitely helped to clarify the play, but I also thought the movie was extremely annoying. They can't doing very stupid things that were honestly pointless. The play made more sense to me once I learned the philosophy behind it, but without knowing that, the movie would have seemed pointless.