The Oscar Project #71: Shakespeare in Love (1998)

by Chris Marshall:

Poor Colin Firth. Shakespeare in Love marked the second time in three years that one of the Brothers Fiennes stole his wife (or fiancée) away in a Best Picture winner. In The English Patient, he played Geoffrey Clifton, and his wife had an affair with Count Laszlo, played by Ralph Fiennes. Here, his fiancée Viola, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, falls in love with the Bard, who is played by Ralph’s younger brother Joseph.

It was a rough couple of years for Colin, but he’ll bounce back in a big way in a little over a decade when he gets to be a king. Being a king is cool, even if you do have a stuttering problem.

Joseph has not achieved the same level of fame that his older brother has, but he’s still got a very solid list of acting credits. Most impressive is that Shakespeare in Love was only his second screen credit—not a bad start to his career[1]. Paltrow, who I normally don’t like at all, even came across as very likeable here. I worried that my feelings about her in general would cloud my judgment about her performance, but I thought she was quite good.

The Oscar Project #21: Hamlet (1948)

by Chris Marshall:

"I don't see why people admire that play so. It is nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together."

I have a confession to make. I taught 8^th grade English for a while. I took an entire class on Shakespeare. I’ve been alive for almost 27 years. And yet this was the first time I have ever seen/read/absorbed any version of Hamlet. Of course I knew the story, but it was learned entirely through osmosis. I think The Simpsons did a version of it. In any event, I’d never seen it.

The quote at the beginning of the post comes from Isaac Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare (though he was quoting somebody else at the time), and it’s easy to see why somebody might think that way. It seems like every line is a famous quotation or phrase that has become commonplace in the English language. To thine own self be true. Brevity is the soul of wit. Murder most foul. The primrose path. Mind’s eye. And the entire “to be or not to be” soliloquy. It all came from Hamlet.