Posted By admin on January 14, 2010

365 Movies

Movie 9

With thanks to The Peej for the inadvertent (or perhaps it was advertent) reminder.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
Rated PG
Runtime: 117 minutes
Written and directed by Tom Stoppard, with an assist from William Shakespeare
Notable peoples: Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss
Look out for: The late lamented Ian Richardson as Polonius

If you’ve ever read Hamlet or seen one of the many screen incarnations, you may remember Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s sycophantic false friends. In this re-telling, however, they are mostly clueless pawns in the game between Hamlet and Claudius.

Stoppard lets Hamlet the play unfold around our hapless heroes, but keeps the focus firmly on R & G, who are both brilliantly played by Oldman and Roth, respectively. Adding to the weirdness is Richard Dreyfuss as an itinerant actor, who shows up at seemingly random yet highly significant intervals in the lives of R & G.

The dialogue between our two protagonists is lightning-fast, witty and at times profound. While wandering about Elsinor, wondering why they’ve been “sent for,” R & G discover gravity, the steam engine, and various other importances, all the while keeping their sweet sense of puzzlement at the tragedy playing out all around them.

If you haven’t seen it, fix that now.

Yesterday’s quote was from Sliding Doors.

Today’s quote – “Shut up. You’d laugh at a Shakespeare comedy.”

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