movies-msg - 3/17/08
Reviews of medieval and renaissance movies.
NOTE: See also the files: info-sources-msg, med-letters-msg, publications-msg, videos-msg, masks-msg, puppets-msg, theater-bib, theater-msg.
KEYWORDS: movie review medieval period renaissance
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From: donna at envy.kwantlen.bc.ca (Donna Hrynkiw)
Date: 3 Jan 90 18:15:00 GMT
Organization: Society for Creative Anachronism
Subject: Movie Review: Henry V
I can't believe that nobody else has posted about this yet...
Went to see the new Henry V movie on New Year's Day with some other SCA
folks (in our party of 4 there were two Laurels and two Knights - and I'm
not a peer).
Overall impression: Excellent. An SCA must-see. Don't wait for the video,
see it on the big screen.
Diverse comments:
- remembering that this is Shakespeare and not necessarily real history...
- a young welshman (who's name escapes me at the moment - d*amn!)
adapted the play for screen, directed AND starred as Harry.
Did an excellent job.
- costumes are not magnificent/opulent/glittery, but IMHO fairly accurate
and probably very close to what a nobleman would wear day-to-day. They
reminded me very much of SCA-wear. (Especially the cloaks and surcoats.)
- effective use of narrator ("Chorus").
- Too many close-ups of Henry's face during his speeches.
- good to see Henry and other nobility wearing heraldic surcoats. I wonder
if the mundanes realized the significance? Also: watch for French nobility
in their fancy-quilted gambezons.
- armour is a bit sparse, but according to the Laurel-for-Armour in our
party: "Wow! I want that!" Watch for the brass stars and trim.
- helps to know a little French. Used in two scenes: Catherine,
Princess of France in conversation with her Lady-in-Waiting and near the
end where Henry is asking Catherine for her hand. (Both scenes very
amusing, understanding French or not.)
- Agincourt battle scene: awesome. If for no other reason, you *must* see
this movie for the battle scene. Don't wait for it to come out on
video - this deserves the big screen.
- Personally, I think they placed too much emphasis on the showers of arrows
from the English longbows. But then again, it *is* an English production.
(And Knight in our party claims that the English didn't charge at
Agincourt.)
- I'm not familiar with Shakespeare's Henry V - does Part I really end
with the humorous scene of mostly English-speaking Henry asking mostly
French-speaking Catherine for her hand in marriage? I found the contrast
between the desperation, violence and gore of the battlefield with the
light love-banter a little jarring.
- Effective use of humour. In one scene, the night before the big battle,
Henry dons a cloak and goes among his men anonymously to hear what they
have to say. One soldier, in the course of his discourse, strikes the
"stranger" with a glove. His reaction when the King returns the glove
is priceless.
But after all is said and done, I want to see this movie again before it
leaves the theatre. And then I want a copy for my video library and maybe
I'll even look for the soundtrack (great welsh chorus).
Elizabeth Braidwood Donna Hrynkiw
Barony of Lions Gate, Kingdom of An Tir Kwantlen College
donna at envy.kwantlen.bc.ca Surrey, B.C.
*/ Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
-Troilus & Cressida /*
From: inmet!justin at UUNET.UU.NET (Justin du Coeur MKA Mark Waks)
Date: 4 Jan 90 15:07:16 GMT
Organization: Society for Creative Anachronism
Elizabeth Braidwood asks why no one else has posted to recommend the
new film of Henry V. Good question; I'm not sure how I overlooked doing
so myself. (I've only been telling everyone in Carolingia (at some
length) to go see it for the past two weeks!)
Well, I'll echo her recommendation: this is a *marvel* of a movie, one
of the best adaptations of Shakespeare to film I've seen yet. The director/
producer/adaptor/star is named Kenneth Branaugh, as I recall (spelling
probably mangled); his acting is quite good, the production and adaptation
are excellent, and the direction is top-notch. (The only fault in the
direction is that he isn't as good directing himself as he is the rest of
the cast.)
Lessee; little points...
The heraldry is *really* neat, and looks quite authentic to my half-
trained eye; I suspect that the heraldry used is generally historically
accurate.
Brian Blessed is marvelous playing Essex. (Granted, he's playing Essex
playing Brian Blessed, but he's always *so* entertaining...)
I have mixed feelings about the Agincourt scene. It's very ... realistic.
That is to say, it's *very* long, and *very* bloody. On the other hand,
it's quite dramatic, and seemed pretty true to what history I know about
the battle. Yes, they put quite a bit of emphasis on the archery; on the
other hand, those arrows *were* pretty important in the battle. (Of course,
I went to see it on a Carolingian Company of Bowmen field trip, so it's
a tad hard to be impartial in this matter...)
As for buying the tape when it comes out: yes, yes, yes! This is the
fourth movie I've ever decided is worth full price, *whatever* the full
price is, out of my fairly huge tape collection. (For reference, the
other three are Knightriders, Lion in Winter, and Fantasia.) Definitely
a film worth keeping for posterity...
Ah, I'm missing it already. Fortunately, I'm running another trip to
go see it tonight...
-- Justin du Coeur
Fan of good medieval cinema
From: aluko at portia.Stanford.EDU (Stephen Goldschmidt)
Date: 4 Jan 90 20:04:01 GMT
Organization: Stanford University
I saw the film in Berkeley before Christmas. The Agincourt scenes are
definitely a must-see, but I found the dialogue quite difficult to
understand, (esp. the heady dialects and French parts). Perhaps it was
partly the acoustics of the theatre.
The Herald (Montjoy) and the heraldry were extremely well done. The
St. Crispin's Day speach should be memorized by every King who ever
hopes to lead troops in battle.
Those were my impressions.
mka: STephen Goldschmidt
aka: Juls Siwaldsen
net: aluko at portia.Stanford.EDU (If your mail bounces, don't post it!)
geo: Palo Alto, California USA
phone: (415)494-1748
From: joshua at paul.rutgers.edu (Joshua Mittleman)
Date: 8 Jan 90 17:50:19 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Greetings from Arval!
My lady and I went to see Henry V last weekend, and loved it. It is
grand, splendid, spectacular, and good Shakespeare. Derek Jacobi
makes a fine chorus. The interpretation is different from Olivier's
version, but quite valid. BTW: If anyone out there HASN'T seen
Olivier's Henry V, Shame on you! Rent it & watch it. It is better.
However... Any medievalist seeing the new Henry would have some
quibbles. If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to skip the rest
of this posting. It has a few minor spoilers
Did anyone else notice the following, positive and negative?
Negative:
...The only full suit of armor in the movie was 3 or 4 hundered years
out-of-period?
...Why don't warriors in movie wear helmets in battle?
...Why did they all get off their horses to fight in the mud?
...Why didn't they show us the French charge. I know it would have
been expensive, but after that build-up, it would have been WONDERFUL!
...In the scene after the battle, did you notice that two of the dead
bodies twitched?
...Are we really supposed to believe that the King of England lives in
such Spartan surroundings?
...Phooey. They cut the scene where Fluellen makes Pistol eat a leek.
Olivier's version did that so well.
...There were only two pieces of heraldry used before the battle.
Seems odd to me.
...Where was the English herald? He's in the script, and should have
been there (Professional jealousy). And, they cut my favorite line,
when, after one of the scenes between Henry & Mountjoy, Henry tooses
him a bag of gold, saying "Here's for your troubles." :)
Positive:
...Did you notice that the treaty signed in the last scene has an
illuminated capital?
...The heraldry in the battle made up for lots of the negatives. Wow!
...Period tennis balls!!
...I love that they made all the noblemen young, just like they should
be!! A lot of the play is much more believable when Henry, the
Dauphin, etc. are in their twenties, rather than their forties.
...Was the actor who played Essex REALLY the same guy who fought Danny
kaye in the Court Jester? No, not really, but he sure looked the
same!
Awaiting your flames :)
Arval.
========================================================================
Joshua Mittleman (joshua at paul.rutgers.edu or mittle at ibm.com)
H0-E12 T.J. Watson Research Center
PO Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
From: WAXY at CORNELLA.CIT.CORNELL.EDU (Wendy Alberg)
Date: 8 Jan 90 16:57:58 GMT
Organization: Society for Creative Anachronism
William de Corbie mentions Polanski's Macbeth, which appeared here in
late '72 or early '73 and then vanished. It's a very real-feeling film,
not stagey or self-conscious; it was so real I found it terrifying. It
is a very good film nonetheless. -Gwdiauwen
Gwdiauwen ferch Gwdolwyn Wendy Alberg
Dominion of Myrkfaelinn Ithaca, NY
BITNET: WAXY at CORNELLA
Internet: waxy at cornella.cit.cornell.edu
From: trifid at agora.rain.com (Edward Fitzgerald)
Date: 22 Feb 91 08:32:24 GMT
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Mercy,mercy ME! My dear, hast thou not heard that "Henry V", new version, is
now available? And what about Ladyhawk, Dragonslayer, and Highlander?
(Admittedly the last three have a strong streak of fantasy/SF...but my friends
all have copies! :) Oh, and despite the terrible fantasy armor, Excalibur has
some good points...certainly no worse than Black Shield of Falworth!
(And to soothe the nerves of us high-strung Gaels I very strongly recommend a
little thing by Tapestry Productions/Paramount called "Portrait of Ireland" with NO dialogue...just swooping vistas of Ireland accompanied by music by Enya, James Galway, and The Chieftains. May be hard to find, but very lovely!)
For the smalls..."Castle" and "Cathedral", educational partly animated videos by the same fellow who drew the books of the same name. (Look in your local library for these last three if you're lucky enough to have one that has videos like ours does!
Oh, and in the same vein as "Portrait" is a video of "Prague Castle" with some
lovely, spooky effects as the camera plunges and swirls through the huge castle
and its many chapels, accompanied by music. Whoever the Czech film crew were,
they were true artists! Distributed in the US by Kaw Valley Films.
Happy hunting, and enjoy! :)
Elaine NicMaoilan, who hopes you are as thrilled with Henry V, Portrait, and
Prague, as she! :)
From: Colin_Hart at mindlink.UUCP (Colin Hart)
Date: 21 Feb 91 13:47:59 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
One more movie not to forget or miss is REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS, despite its
title an excellent movie on the Norse and a raid on Ireland by some Vikings and
the problems that it leads to. This is a Swedish film and really good. On the
other hand their is Lee Majors starring in the Norsemen. This should be junked
for starters! Norsemen in furry bikinis horned helms etc! It gets even better,
the leader Lee Majors often dons his armour, looks suspiciously like Italian
Renaissance Parade Armour! also the Longship has a cabin below deck with a
least at a guess a 12 foot ceiling! One of our local Norse types would like to
buy every copy in existance and destroy them! Great movie for all the
Hollywood Cliches, but definately not period!
Colin Mackay of Balmaghie, Lions Gate An Tir
From: david at twg.com (David S. Herron)
Date: 25 Feb 91 21:32:37 GMT
Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA
Jabberwocky -- humorous, yes, and at the same time rather accurate
in some more gruesome period aspects. (Monty Python)
Pathfinder -- An old Lapp legend about a kid who returns home from
hunting to see his family be murdered. Runs away &
has adventures & eventually revenges the murder. The
acters & producers & everything is by native Lapp Landers.
*GOOD*
It was circulating about the bay area last summer
Cyrano -- George Depardieu playing the ultimate fop. It's
waaaaaay out of period for me, so it wasn't so
interesting. But still very good and gave me a
good chance to practice listening to French. It
is currently circulating about the bay area.
Knight Riders -- Er.. well, it's not period. But is SCA-related ;-).
David
--
<- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david at twg.com>
<- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david at ms.uky.edu>
From: lefaivre at lclark.UUCP (Rick Lefaivre)
Date: 27 Feb 91 00:43:46 GMT
Organization: Lewis & Clark College, Portland OR
A really good movie that seems to have been overlooked is "The
Return of Martin Guerre." It is a French movie with English
subtitles and does a most fantastic job of recreating a French
medieval village and has a captivating plot line to boot. I
highly recommend this film to everyone.
-- Rick LeFaivre
From: CONS.ELF at AIDA.CSD.UU.SE (Ake Eldberg)
Date: 28 Feb 91 22:28:01 GMT
Greetings from William de Corbie!
If you aren't determined to see all films in a cinema, there is a
very good Ivanhoe on Video. It was made for television, as far as
I can see from the text on my copy, but it has the format of a
real movie theatre film. Starring James Mason, Olivia Hussey
and several other stars. Contains VERY GOOD jousting scenes
and has very good, authentic equipment (though at least parts
of it is a little later in style than the 12th century, but
nothing that sticks out as out-of-period).
I recommend this wholeheartedly if you can find it over there.
I believe it was made around 1980.
There is also a very long video film entitled "The power of
the Sword" in Swedish -- original title unknown -- which comes
on two cassettes and tells the life and times of William the
Conqueror. This has a lot of fighting and very good costuming,
but rather poor actors. Worth seeing, though.
William
From: dlc at hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Dennis Clark)
Date: 27 Feb 91 18:52:24 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
One more to add to the list is a VERY hard to find film,
*The Sword and the Dragon*
This movies had some american nonsense tacked onto the front and the end of
the film, but the middle was a very obviously dubbed slavic fairy-tale! The
movie was wonderful! Slavic may also be misleading, because as I think on it,
it seemed to be somewhat Finnish in nature also... Costuming was great, story
was charming, acting was of the "Larger than life" style that one finds in the
Kalevala or Mabinogian type of tales. My squire and I got it because it had
"cast of dozens, ten thousand horses!" on the credits, and it was correct.
The ten-thousand horses part came towards the end during what looked like a
real Mongul horse-charge! The story is kind-of an Ivanhoe sort, I can't
really explain it, I guess that I'll need to see it again!
Kevin - Outlands
From: 0002853615 at mcimail.COM (William Linden)
Date: 5 Mar 91 02:37:00 GMT
Reply-to: Alfgar the Sententious (0002853615 at MCIMAIL.COM)
In <9040005 at hpfcso.FC.HP.COM> Dennis Clark <dlc at hpfcso.fc.hp.com> writes:
>*The Sword and the Dragon*
> This movies had some american nonsense tacked onto the front and the end of
>the film, but the middle was a very obviously dubbed slavic fairy-tale! The
>movie was wonderful! Slavic may also be misleading, because as I think on it,
>it seemed to be somewhat Finnish in nature also... Costuming was great, story
No, Russian! It is a very loose adaptation of the sagas of Ilya Murometz and
the Golden Table champions of Kiev.
From: CONS.ELF at aida.csd.uu.se ("]ke Eldberg")
Date: 16 Apr 91 03:47:59 GMT
Organization: The Internet
Greetings from William de Corbie.
I just got home after seeing a really good movie which
should suit most of us SCAdians. It is Gerard Depardieu's
"Cyrano". This is 17th century, i.e. not period, but who
cares.
The story is about Cyrano de Bergerac, the fencer with
the enormous nose. It is fun, tragic, moving, beautiful.
The photography is masterly, there are great battle
scenes, wit, poetry, duels. The film is French, and
Hollywood could never have made it.
See it.
William
From:_Hollie Domiano
Subject: A great film
Date: 18 Apr 91