Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Anonymous
Alas, this is not a documentary about the hackitivist group 'Anonymous' and their attacks on Ye Olde Internette. It is instead a film that asks a very controversial question, was Shakespeare a fraud? I've just finished a semester of Shakespeare at uni and I've been dying to see this film.
Frequent planet destroyer and Whitehouse blower-up-er-er, Roland Emmerich (2010, Independence Day) has this time turned his destructiveness towards the most celebrated playwright the world has ever known directing a film written by his partner in crime, John Orloff (A Mighty Heart) who deliciously mixes fact with fiction in this incredible political/historical tragedy.
The film opens with one of the best Shakespearean actors of our time, no, not Captain Picard... Derek Jacobi (Hamlet), as he addresses an audience from a stage. Before you can throw popcorn at the screen and yell 'Blasphemer!' Jacobi tells a few facts about William Shakespeare which makes you question from the very beginning, how did this person write all these wondrous plays?
Rewind to Elizabethan England. Lots of mud, plague and bad teeth. At a play, Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans - The Boat That Rocked), realises how the theatre has the power to persuade public opinion. His beloved Queen, Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave - The Whistleblower) is getting old and has no heir. In order to protect their property and social standing, father and son team William (David Thewlis - Harry Potter 1) and Robert Cecil (Edward Hogg - Misfits) are rooting for James VI of Scotland to become their new King. Others are looking for one of Elizabeth's bastard children to become their new heir to retain the Tudor line.
Oxford is a bit of a poet, but no one is allowed to know it. (See what I did there?) So he makes a deal with playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto - Bright Star). Oxford will give Jonson his plays if Jonson will put his name on them. Jonson, thinking the plays will be crap, declines the offer and instead recruits his friend William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall - Desperate Romantics) to take up the deal. Hungry for cash and fame, Will, a semi-illiterate Ac-tor does just that.
The plays are nothing short of genius (as we all know). The theatre is packed performance after performance. Oxford manipulates the audience with each play and during a performance of The Tragedy of Richard the Third (whom Oxford bases on the hunch-backed Robert Cecil) the crowd storm out on to the street to protest against Cecil.
The film spans forty years, and during the early reign of Elizabeth I, then played by Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson (The Tudors), we learn about the relationship between Her Majesty and the young Earl of Oxford (Jamie Campbell Bower - Camelot), and events that may have changed the course of history.
I can't wait to see this again. It looked gorgeous, the costumes and sets were divine, the special effects used to recreate London during the turn of the 17th century were amazing. Performances all round were top notch, especially Rhys Ifans. The story is indeed a tragedy of Greek proportions (in a good way).
I listened to an interview with screenwriter John Orloff today and before you start debating the whole authorship question, have a listen - the man knows his stuff and even gets a bit defensive with some of the questions interviewer Jeff Goldsmith poses. However, there is one point I do agree with, Goldsmith commented on how William Shakespeare was portrayed in the film. Granted, this film questions whether or not he wrote the plays period, but the film seems to go out of its way to show him as a buffoon which is a bit harsh.
Plot-wise there was a lot going on, it really does help to know your English history. I'm glad I watched four seasons of The Tudors, Simon Schama's The History of Britain, and a bunch of other history documentaries while studying Shakespeare this past semester, anything to give me an advantage at uni!
Things I learnt: Rhys Ifans should wear eyeliner all the time; Roland Emmerich can add my mind to the list of things he has blown up; I'm going to hug my toothbrush tonight.
A most rare vision : )
Nine out of ten.
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