Okay so what I do not understand is, How can you modernise the famous william shakespeare without modernising the language, it simply doesn't work. A 17th century tale modernised to the 21st Century has to have certain elements changed to make it work and in my eyes even though shakespears language is infamous. It's past its time and thus the story should have been fit to work with modern day language.
shareEveryone's entitled to their opinions but Romeo + Juliet (1996) is probably still one of my favorite films. You don't have to like it, but plenty of people do. I thought it worked brilliantly for them to update the setting without changing the dialogue, and it worked here too (saw it last night). It felt a little odd at first but once the story got going, it was very entertaining. Perhaps it helps that I've seen various stage versions in the past, but regardless it was very well done.
shareIn my personal opinion the dialog of that play is rather easy to understand and can be used in a modernized setting without any problem.
It can work just fine depending on two things: if the actors/actresses can actually speak and understand it instead of just reciting the lines as if they were merely students in a play.
And useless you just have a bias towards the use of Shakespearean language/dialog in a modern setting or at least one that is outside of that time period.
Also to me when you modernize the language you usually end up with a movie targeted towards the teens and often people don't even realize that they are watching a modernized Shakespearean work. Imagine the disappointment I felt when I got outright denial when I told friends that "10 Things I Hate About You" was a modernized version of "Taming of the Shrew".
Extreme "disappointation" about your whole life just from your post title alone ....
That is not possible right, just by reading your post title? Coz, you had a reasonable point to say in the actual post. Let's park that aside now.
The same way a trailer doesn't maketh a film.
Peace.
How can you modernise the famous william shakespeare without modernising the language, it simply doesn't work.
even though shakespears language is infamous
One reason could be the nature of the artistry involved in most of his work, the use of iambic pentameter and such. Shakespeare is largely very carefully constructed poetry; just start changing lines here and there and you usually find that thosing tasked with adapting can't maintain the poetic design with alternative lines very much or for very long without stumbling. And if you don't stick to the poetry, there's little point adapting Shakespeare at all, seems to be the most popular opinion. Just write something else. There's of course loads of films that throw out the language and update the stories to modern times just for the fun of it. And fun is what these adaptations are marketed as, since there's usually nothing exceptional about them. 10 Things I Hate About You is a modernisation of Taming of the Shrew, for example. Personally I'd love to see someone do both: update the story, update relevant plot or environmental issues and carefully choose moments to update how current culture is referenced while choosing words carefully to maintain the poetry; seeking only words that don't interfere while updating the meaning. People would still spit at any attempt to change Shakespeare but at least it would honor Shakespeare's love of words. It would be hard though.
Re: need for update, I guess most people consider it reasonable to just suspend disbelief that modern people in modern settings are not speaking in a modern way or referencing their modern lives. In the same way we suspend disbelief for thousands of blatently absurd plot details in films and tv that would make the writer's or director's job harder if they had to slavishly reference reality. How many stories would fall apart if or not even start if things happened in a sensible way? Maybe it would work better to imagine that all shakespearean speaking characters are shakespearean actors from the Globe who have been brought to now in a time machine and told to ignore all the strange things around them and just get on with acting out the play...
The language is timeless. That is precisely why one wouldn't change the language when modernizing Shakespeare.
shareThe language is timeless. That is precisely why one wouldn't change the language when modernizing Shakespeare.
The language is timeless. That is precisely why one wouldn't change the language when modernizing Shakespeare.
opened the thread just to ignore you for using the word disappointation. felt that it was justified after reading your post
on my way to ignoring the entire population of imdb
I confess I rather enjoyed the neologism. It's more active and thrusting than just 'disappointment'.
It's all right Andy! It's just bolognaise!
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