The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.2210  Thursday, 20 November 2003

[1]     From:   Edward Pixley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 08:56:04 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia

[2]     From:   D Bloom <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 10:05:18 -0600
        Subj:   RE: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia

[3]     From:   Jay Feldman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 11:28:34 EST
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia

[4]     From:   Debra Murphy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 19:00:30 -0800
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Edward Pixley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 08:56:04 -0500
Subject: 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia

Unfortunately, I haven't watched the film in over ten years and simply
don't remember those details.  I do have access to a videotape of the
film, and, as soon as I get a chance, I'll review it and try to provide
you with more details.  Don't expect this anytime soon, but I'll save
your e-mail address so that I can get back to you -- probably after
Christmas.  It really is an amazing and irreverent movie, filmed in an
abandoned Nobel dynamite factory.

Ed Pixley

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           D Bloom <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 10:05:18 -0600
Subject: 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia
Comment:        RE: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia

Dana Wilson quotes me

>Bonham Carter said. The line is "Where is the
>beautious maiestie." I was
>so startled I actually went to the trouble of
>looking it up to see if my
>memory might have been mistook.

--and then responds:

>Don,
>
>I think this is a tacky point.  If I ask you "Where is X?", there is a
>strong presumption that I can't see X.  If I happen to be staring you
>down at the time, you can pretty well conclude, I don't identify you
>with X.
>
>My point was that HPB could have played this scene as a prelude to the
>mad scene and stared off into the vacant space as if she knew Gert to be
>queen, and could not see the queen, and I feel this would be a valid
>reading of part based on the imaginated flowers of the mad scene (which
>incidentally are ghosts the audience can't see as opposed to the ghost
>of Hamlet's father which they can see.)"

Tacky?

Oh well, there seem to be more vacant spaces here than those caused by
imaginated flowers and unseen ghosts.

Tacky?

don

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Jay Feldman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 11:28:34 EST
Subject: 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia

Dana Wilson makes the point that:

HPB could have played this scene as a prelude to the mad scene and
stared off

>into the vacant space as if she knew Gert to be
>queen, and could not see the queen, and I feel this would be a
>valid
>reading of part based on the imaginated flowers of the mad scene
>(which
>incidentally are ghosts the audience can't see as opposed to the
>ghost
>of Hamlet's father which they can see.)

Just curious to know if you have textual or other reasons to believe the
flowers presented by Ophelia are imagined or ghostlike?

Jay Feldman

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Debra Murphy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003 19:00:30 -0800
Subject: 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.2202 Helena Bonham Carter's Ophelia

There was much to like, I thought, about HBC's Ophelia, but I couldn't
help but feel that her occasional open defiance--a nod to modern
feminism, perhaps?--didn't really work with either the dialogue or
Ophelia's later madness.  To my way of thinking, a daughter who had that
much spunk wouldn't have proved quite so fragile.

Debra Murphy
http://www.bardolatry.com

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