Michael Radford decided to populate the almost-devoid-of-color scenes with busyness and ambient chit-chat, while directing Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes to whisper their lines - probably in an attempt to avoid traditional histrionics, though both these men are quite capable of doing so and still revealing emotion. Add to that their few asides, which would have been spoken loudly to the audience from the stage, are barely audible - as if muttering.
Oh! Antonio and Bassanio say their lines smoothly enough but without much, if any, passion. Whereas Ms. Collins lives her Portia. The lines roll off her tongue as if she spoke this way every day to all who could hear and with perfect expression and body language. She must have had her own, uncredited director.
Pacino's Shylock struggles with his clearly memorized lines, like a fifth grader - happy to get the speech over with and not having understood it all. In counterpoint, both Fiennes and Irons at least know how to make the language seem natural (if blandly inaudible;-) Back to the direction and the necessity to deal with changing mores across the centuries - lest we forget, this is one of Shakespeare's comedies! What he might possibly have had in mind when writing, staging, and directing this piece in the Globe, I've no idea. Surely his audience then had a different bias (or were less fearful to express it?) and found humor in this farce, in which all the Christians, save Antonio, are simply goldbricks. And even Shylock's daughter is a common thief and, as such, abandons Judaism for Christianity to be among her own kind. Shylock, a symbol of the biblical money changers, on the threshold of avenging himself is dashed by a female wit (which was supposed to be coyly tongue in cheek, I'd venture) and stripped of his wealth and religion only to be granted a modest clemency by his almost victim. A comedy with tragic relief - who else could have written it, eh? But where did this director go with the material? Not trusting the movie going audience to understand the plot, we're even told in writing why Shylock wears a red hat, bigotry having been commonplace then - whereas its obvious cure in recent times renders us numb to the concept, I suppose ;-)
If you haven't seen Ms. Collins perform, I highly recommend the film. Regardless of the negatives I've mentioned, it's also a wonderful piece to see for a discussion group - it provides hours and hours of debatable material.
BJ
Oh! Antonio and Bassanio say their lines smoothly enough but without much, if any, passion. Whereas Ms. Collins lives her Portia. The lines roll off her tongue as if she spoke this way every day to all who could hear and with perfect expression and body language. She must have had her own, uncredited director.
Pacino's Shylock struggles with his clearly memorized lines, like a fifth grader - happy to get the speech over with and not having understood it all. In counterpoint, both Fiennes and Irons at least know how to make the language seem natural (if blandly inaudible;-) Back to the direction and the necessity to deal with changing mores across the centuries - lest we forget, this is one of Shakespeare's comedies! What he might possibly have had in mind when writing, staging, and directing this piece in the Globe, I've no idea. Surely his audience then had a different bias (or were less fearful to express it?) and found humor in this farce, in which all the Christians, save Antonio, are simply goldbricks. And even Shylock's daughter is a common thief and, as such, abandons Judaism for Christianity to be among her own kind. Shylock, a symbol of the biblical money changers, on the threshold of avenging himself is dashed by a female wit (which was supposed to be coyly tongue in cheek, I'd venture) and stripped of his wealth and religion only to be granted a modest clemency by his almost victim. A comedy with tragic relief - who else could have written it, eh? But where did this director go with the material? Not trusting the movie going audience to understand the plot, we're even told in writing why Shylock wears a red hat, bigotry having been commonplace then - whereas its obvious cure in recent times renders us numb to the concept, I suppose ;-)
If you haven't seen Ms. Collins perform, I highly recommend the film. Regardless of the negatives I've mentioned, it's also a wonderful piece to see for a discussion group - it provides hours and hours of debatable material.
BJ