1953 Julius Caesar live blog #5

As opposed to Cassius' previous monologue, in Brutus' first monologue his eyes look everywhere but  the camera. I think this makes him look more thoughtful and less intense. He seems less determined than Cassius, and more just thinking out loud. More like Hamlet, I would say.

1953 Julius Caesar live blog #4

So when it comes to all the calamities and atrocities that occur under "this disturbed sky," the movie doesn't actually show any of them, other than the thunder and lightning. Rather, the movie relies on Casca's description of the events. Is that sort of like Act V Scene II of The Winter's Tale, when the apparent climax of the play is not seen but only described? Or did the movie just not have the budget or technology to produce all those special effects?

(And I thought I remembered "the ides of March" happening later in the play. Maybe my memory is correct, and what's happening right now isn't the ides of March. Or maybe Mankiewicz moved that part way up to the beginning of the movie. I guess I'll figure it out when I hit play again.)

1953 Julius Caesar live blog #3

So here's Cassius' first monologue. It was interesting what the director decided to do with this scene. Cassius is in a large, courtyard space, but the camera is zoomed in pretty close to him. And at one point, it seems as though Cassius is looking directly into the camera. But before you really notice, he starts across the courtyard and you're asking yourself, "Was he just looking at me?"

That, plus the soothsayer's sudden recoil earlier, show there is definitely some danger afoot.

Oh, and John Gielgud is really good. Really Gielgud, if you ask me. (Hyuk hyuk.)

1953 Julius Caesar live blog #2

Well, Marlon Brando certainly looks the part. He looks just like a statue from the Roman Empire. I still hear a little bit of that dockworker voice in him.

And, how cool that James Mason is in this movie. I think I've only seen him in North by Northwest. But from what I know of him, he always seems like a very slick, mysterious man. He has sort of a Vincent Price quality about him.

Did you see that when Julius Caesar leaves behind the blind soothsayer in the crowd, and the soothsayer touches Brutus to try and recognize him...after he touches his face, he shudders in shock? That seems like some major foreshadowing to me. I'm guessing that the soothsayer "saw" Brutus in a vision, instantly recognized him, and knew he was trouble.

1953 Julius Caesar live blog #1

Opening credits:

Oh, I didn't know Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed this movie. I've seen two other movies by him: All About Eve and Guys and Dolls. Guys and Dolls also has Marlon Brando in it, as a talk-singing gambler, two years later. So Mankiewicz must have gotten to know Brando through Julius Caesar, and somehow thought Mark Antony would make for a perfect Skye Masterson. Interesting.

And All About Eve is one of my favorite movies. I think it has the best screenplay writing I've ever seen in a movie. If you've never seen it, definitely check it out.

What's interesting to me is that both these movies have a sort of feminine theme to them. Guys and Dolls is about guys more than about dolls. But it's a musical, which makes it not very manly. And All About Eve is like the original Nancy Meyers movie. I love 'em, and it's smart writing, but it doesn't exactly increase my macho factor.

I wonder if Julius Caesar is going to be connected to that theme in any way.

Out of Order

So, I'm doing things a little out of the order I had in mind.

Here it is, the night before I'm supposed to read Julius Caesar and watch a movie version, and I've done neither. : / I went to the LRC to check out a movie so I would be ready to watch it sometime tomorrow, and I would read the play tonight. However, the gal at the LRC desk told me this was only a four-hour checkout! I guess I could have waited until tomorrow to check it out, but I just felt like getting it done.

So, I'm watching the movie before I read the play. Which isn't really what I had planned on. And I hope it doesn't compromise the experience of reading the play to watch the movie first. (Sorry, Averill and Professor Burton!)

But, in a way, maybe be a good preparation for reading the play. Watching Shakespeare is always easier than reading it. Maybe when I get to a passage that is difficult to understand, it won't be difficult to understand because I will have already seen it.

Something else I'm going to do is "live blog" the movie. Usually when I watch a movie, I like to sit silently and not get up to get popcorn or use the bathroom. So it might be hard to "talk" while I watch the movie. But I'll give it a try.

Anyway, here it is: the 1953 movie, Julius Caesar.

Love/Hate's Labour's Lost

One of the main topics of discussion in our group has been its juvenile nature, with regards to the male characters and to the play itself. But I think I found another way that this play is childish.

Mean Girls

First, we talked about the whole idea of "swearing off women" as being naive and unrealistic. The king and his lords last barely three acts before giving up on their oath. And, the way they show their love to the Princess of France and her ladies, like passing "check yes or no" notes in class, seems like playground behavior. It seems like not only are these the first women they've interacted with since swearing their oath, they're the first women they've ever interacted with. (We compared the king and his lords to awkward returned missionaries who don't know what to do in the presence of a girl.)

Gossip Girl

Also, we've talked about Shakespeare's immaturity in writing the play. The common opinion seems to be that the main motivation for writing Love's Labour's Lost was the opportunity to craft clever wordplay. And we agreed that was definitely at the expense of everything else. Where are the complex characters like Hamlet? Where is the substantial plot? Why does everything happen so conveniently? So the characters just magically fall in love in an instant? And the king and his lords just happen to cross paths in the forest? A more modern play, or even another Shakespeare play would present some sort of reason for each character to be at that place at that time. But, in Love's Labour's Lost, nothing.

What I discovered by reading Act V was that it's not just the male characters or Shakespeare who have some growing up to do. It's the females too. In Act V, all the women do is make fun of the men.

Rosaline: ... Nay, I have verses too, I think Biron:

The numbers true; and, were the numbering too,

I were the fairest goddess on the ground:

I am compared to twenty thousand fairs.

O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!

Princess of France: Any thing like?

Rosaline: Much in the letters; nothing in the praise.

Princess of France: Beauteous as ink; a good conclusion.

Katharine: Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

...

Princess of France: But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair Dumain?

Katharine: Madam, this glove.

Princess of France: Did he not send you twain?

Ricky after Lucy tricks him yet again

Katharine: Yes, madam, and moreover

Some thousand verses of a faithful lover,

A huge translation of hypocrisy,

Vilely compiled, profound simplicity

Maria: This and these pearls to me sent Longaville: 

The letter is too long by half a mile.

Princess of France: I think no less. Dost thou not wish in heart

The chain were longer and the letter short?

Maria: Ay, or I would these hands might never part.

Princess of France: We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.

Rosaline: They are worse fools to purchase mocking so.

That same Biron I'll torture ere I go:

O that I knew he were but in by the week!

How I would make him fawn and beg and seek

And wait the season and observe the times 

And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes

And shape his service wholly to my hests

And make him proud to make me proud that jests!

So perttaunt-like would I o'ersway his state

That he should be my fool and I his fate.

"Pick A Little, Talk A Little" from The Music Man

And later, after the lords have come dressed as Russians and the ladies mess with them by wearing masks, Rosaline says, "Let's, mock them still."

These women are totally taking advantage of the men, and putting them through torture for their entertainment. They're making the men jump through all these hoops.

Is that a sign of immaturity? Aren't the women acting like girls on the playground too?