Fleapit of the Mind: May 2016

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

MY DVD COLLECTION 19

Howard Hawks (1896 - 1977)

I find it hard to say anything particularly interesting about Howard Hawks except to applaud his professionalism - and countless others have done that before me. Undoubtedly, many of his films are truly great works but achieved with deceptive simplicity. Hawks' world is a man's world populated by professionals who know how to get things done and in simplistic terms that, no doubt, described Hawks' no fuss attitude to story telling. He is certainly one of the Hollywood directors whose work remained consistently entertaining throughout a long career. Films in my collection: SCARFACE - SHAME OF A NATION (1932) BARBARY COAST (1935) BRINGING UP BABY (1938) ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) THE BIG SLEEP (1946) RED RIVER (1948) THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951) GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES ((1955) RIO BRAVO (1959) HATARI (1962) EL DORADO (1967) RIO LOBO (1970)

Thursday, 5 May 2016

MY DVD COLLECTION 18

William Shakespeare 1564 - 1616

This year (as if you didn't know!) is the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's death. I consider myself lucky that I was not taught Shakespeare at school. My first real experience of the bard's work was the Olivier version of RICHARD III which I saw on its original release. Although only nine, I loved the film and years later I went to see it every year at the Academy Cinema in Oxford Street when they ran their annual "Olivier in Shakespeare" season. Naturally I bought it on DVD and now have the wonderfully restored Blu-ray. It remains my favourite Shakespeare play. I enjoy the plays, particularly in their film incarnations although I have an aversion to KING LEAR and I prefer the historical plays to the comedies (with the exception of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW). I am aware that their are some important films missing from my collection. The list of films below is divided into two parts. Part one is acknowledged adaptions and the second is the films inspired by Shakespeare's plots, parodies or films that have some connection to the writer.

HENRY V (1944) RICHARD III (1955) HAMLET (1964) THE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (1965) THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1967) HAMLET (1969) THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (1971) KING LEAR (1971) JULIUS CAESAR (1979) RICHARD III (1983) MACBETH (1983) HENRY V (1989) KING LEAR (1999) THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (2004) THE TEMPEST (2010) RICHARD II (2014) HENRY IV (2014) HENRY V (2014)