The Tempest (Julie Taymor, 2010)

[truepenny]

So, Julie Taymor is directing The Tempest, with Dame Helen Mirren as Prospero. (I am ignoring the change from Prospero to Prospera, because honestly (a.) not necessary, (b.) what's wrong with some good old-fashioned genderfuck?, and (c.) to me it kind of suggests we don't think Dame Helen is up to the challenge of playing Prospero, which is nonsense. But if that's the worst mistake they make--and hopefully, this is really a very carefully thought out feminist statement that will persuade me of its rightness when I see the movie--we are all so very golden.)

The Tempest is not my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, nor even my favorite of Shakespeare's late plays, but I have to tell you, the trailer goes a long way towards persuading me to rethink that opinion:

Because:
1. Helen Mirren.
2. Alfred Molina.
3. HELEN MIRREN.
4. This, seriously, is what CGI is for (check out those hellhounds, OMFG), and if there was ever a Shakespeare play that could take the bling, THIS IS THAT PLAY. I am really almost deliriously grateful to see that here, finally, is a production of The Tempest that takes Prospero's magic seriously.
5. Hard to tell from the tiny clips we get, but it looks like they're also taking Caliban seriously. Which not all productions do.
6. And did I mention, HELEN MIRREN.


glvalentine has some excellent discussion of the costuming (which is where I lifted the still from). Zippered doublets FTW.

It also looks like, from the trailer, they understand what Stephano and Trinculo are in the play for (again, not all productions do, nor do all Hollywood versions of Shakespeare understand what the clowns are for. See Much Ado About Nothing, re: Michael Keaton.). The casting of Alfred Molina, aside from rocking my socks, is a good sign.

And, in conclusion, HELEN MIRREN.

---

ETA: if anyone else would like a very simple Helen Mirren icon, you may feel free to use this one:

And don't hesitate to add text if it pleases you. Currently, my only image-editing software is, um, Paint.

Comments

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

I agreed with Helen Mirren up to number 6. and then I SAW Helen Mirren and changed my vote to AGREE WITH HELEN MIRREN. She is rocking Prospero. Also, this movie looks really cool. :D

(Although I am not sure I can take Russell Brand seriously as anything--even a joke.)

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Wow. Wow. Wow. The Tempest isn't my favorite Shakespeare either, but this looks fun. And I love Taymor's previous Shakespeare film, Titus. So, in summary, *Wow*.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was all, Oh, Helen Mirren, that's really cool, and then I saw the trailer, and became all I will now fling myself at Helen Mirren's feet.

I am in the perhaps happy position of knowing nothing whatsoever about Russell Brand, so he does not bother me. And all he has to do as Trinculo, who is not one of Shakespeare's more subtle fools, is act drunk.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Of course they're taking Caliban seriously: they hired DJIMON HOUNSOU. Mirren and Hounsou are going to set the screen on fire omg.

My own personal favorite Tempest is Césaire's Une tempête, and I suspect that Taymor's version is going to resemble it more than a little. One hopes, anyway.

[sovay]

. (I am ignoring the change from Prospero to Prospera, because honestly (a.) not necessary, (b.) what's wrong with some good old-fashioned genderfuck?, and (c.) to me it kind of suggests we don't think Dame Helen is up to the challenge of playing Prospero, which is nonsense.

I would also prefer Taymor had simply cross-cast Mirren (and have since I first heard about the project in 2008), but it did strike me while I was looking at the trailer a few weeks ago that with a female Prospero, you could maybe get some fascinating doubling with blue-eyed Sycorax.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Oh, that would be an excellent reason to make Prospero into Prospera. Here's hoping.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

::swoon::

[heresluck]

And it comes out on Dec. 10! I HOPE YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. *g*

[aerinha]

Thank you for posting this! I was unaware and now I am excited :)

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

...that's true. Perhaps it will be all right for Russell Brand.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Ooooo.
Once saw a production (Cheek by Jowl at the Donmar) which had the Duke of Naples as a Thatcherish Duchess with a mean-looking handbag and a power suit.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I was impressed the first time I watched that trailer, but on repeat viewings it does seem just a little bit worrisomely full of sound and fury.

I do not know whether it is likely to get a DVD release, but a recording of the Tempest from this year's Stratford Festival was showing in cinemas here briefly a couple of weeks back, with Christopher Plummer as Prospero, and it is outstanding.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, of course, the trailer's job is to persuade people who think Shakespeare is boring that they want to see the movie.

And--in my experience of both reading and watching it--the play itself is basically a series of set-pieces and heavy on the spectacle, so I'm not sure they'll be doing it a disservice in any event. But that's my experience of it, which may be heavily colored by my preference for the tragedies over the romances.

[jackdaniel.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing. Tempest is not my favorite but I loved Titus and this preview rocked my socks. Definitely adding to my 'must see' list.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

OH WOW WOW WOW.

[gwendolynflight.livejournal.com]

WOW. I was going to see this anyway (Helen Mirren, YES) but this trailer looks amazing!!!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I saw a cross-gender Prospero and it totally didn't work because you need not doubling but contrast. Also, Prospero is weird considered as a father but appalling to the point of child abuse considered as a mother.

[ex-kaz-maho.livejournal.com]

Trust me, as a Brit who loves Russell Brand and has seen his live stand-up comedy act, he will be a perfect Trinculo. :D

[smills47.livejournal.com]

Was this the same production I saw, with Vanessa Redgrave? It did work for me; in the event I kind of lost sight of the fact that Prospero was actually a female. (Come to think of it, the actress who played Miranda was black. Similar thing.)

I wonder if outside-the-expected casting may be easier to do -- I mean the suspension of disbelief or whatever it's called -- on the stage than on a movie screen. (No matter, I'd still stand in line to see Helen Mirren as Prospera!)

[yukis-kirausagi.livejournal.com]

That is one amazing trailer! I definitely like the gender-play going on and am excited that they kept the traditional speech. A lot of Hollywood productions of Shakespeare modernize the speech and to me that ruins the play.

It comes out December 10th in case people didn't know. Thanks for sharing this1

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

Currently, my only image-editing software is, um, Paint.

*shakes head sadly*

[papersky.livejournal.com]

No, this was in the eighties. "Lost sight", as with Fiona Shaw playing Richard II or Gwynneth Paltrow playing Romeo (or Keen playing Desdemona for that matter), isn't a problem, but making the character female really didn't work for me. It's odd that Prospero seems like a mildly neglectful father but a mother who's practically child abusing, and it says a lot about gender roles. But Prospero is all about trading one kind of power for another kind of power, neither of them kinds of power women normally have, and if you're going to write directly about that great, but if you're going to go against the grain of the text to go at it... it can come out saying something you didn't mean to say that underlines the wrong things, as in the production that I saw.

One doesn't want to see exactly why Antonio usurped the Dukedom of Milan or that he had a very good reason for doing it.

This looks AWESOME

[gadow.livejournal.com]

As for genderfuck, remember that women were not allowed to perform on the Elizabethan stage: originally all roles -- even romantic interests like Juliet -- were played by men. So I have absolutely no problem with a woman playing a man's role in a Shakespeare play. Personally, I think it would be stronger if the character were still a man: she has a dusky voice to begin with, and she certainly doesn't sound like a woman in the trailer.

I didn't see a release date yet, but I hope soon. The effects look amazing and I can tell already that I will have the DVD within hours of its release.

[smills47.livejournal.com]

I think I partially misconstrued your comment...beg pardon. I do see what you mean. Also, if Prospero becomes a woman, then you lose the suggestion of him being Caliban's father.