The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1142  Friday, 24 June 2005

From:           Al Magary <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Friday, 24 Jun 2005 00:16:26 -0700
Subject:        Enjambment if not enjoyment

A.O. Scott in his NYTimes review of the new film "Yes":

"The first thing to say about Sally Potter's 'Yes' is that it is written
in verse--rhymed iambic pentameter, to be precise. This curious feature
may not, however, be the first thing you notice about the movie, given
Ms. Potter's knack for enjambment and her cast's impressive ability to
make highly artificial language sound like natural speech. The rhythms
of their dialogue are at once odd and familiar, and the meter gives the
picture a brisk momentum, making it feel like the expression of single,
sustained impulse. 'Yes' is not just a movie, in other words, it's a poem.

"A bad poem.  There is no denying Ms. Potter's skill at versifying--or
for that matter, at composing clear, striking visual images--but her
intricate, measured lines amount to doggerel, not art..."

The rest is at http://movies2.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/movies/24yes.html
IMDB, giving the UK film a tentative eight stars, lists other reviews at
http://imdb.com/title/tt0381717/externalreviews

While the theatrical trailer (available online at the Times, also at
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2665150) has music, no dialogue--Sony
Pictures Classics apparently wasn't brave enough--ifilm has three video
clips with dialogue plus two interviews, with director/writer Sally
Potter and stars Joan Allen and Simon Abkarian, and IMDB quotes this bit
of the verse:

And, in the end, it simply isn't worth
Your while to try and clean your life away.
You can't. For, everything you do or say
Is there, forever. It leaves evidence.
In fact it's really only common sense;
There's no such thing as nothing, not at all
It may be really very, very small
But it's still there. In fact I think I'd guess
That "no" does not exist. There's only "yes".

WS doesn't have to worry about the competition here but from the clips I
thought "Yes" sounds like plausible modern entertainment.  And it
*looks* sexy.

Cheers,
Al Magary

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