The Hollow Crown: Richard II

I've been trying to decide what I think about The Hollow Crown: Richard II. Compared to the other two Richard IIs, the production quality is way better. It's still made for TV, but it's made for 2012 HDTVs, not 1978 "Oh, you have color?" TVs. Much better. The casting is at least as good as the best  of the other two (Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt - how can you go wrong?). The sets are more full and vivid. The costumes are entirely believable - they look like clothes people have actually worn. If you are a student of 1300s fashion or theatrical costuming, I suspect you will love this film (tell me in the comments if I'm wrong). The sound is impressive, too. Try to watch this on a TV with good bass response - you won't regret it.

Here's a clip from YouTube (the entire film might still be on PBS.com. I know you can find it in a boxed set on Amazon.com). This is the controversial Deposition Scene, which was banned for many years by the English government. Bolingbroke (played by Rory Kinnear, and usually shot so that he's tilted back and to his right - it reminds me of how the "villains lairs" on Batman were always filmed at an angle - and wearing a baffled expression) has outmaneuvered his cousin, King Richard II (played by Ben Whishaw), and while Bolingbroke is essentially king at this point, he needs Richard to go through the formality of turning over the crown.


So the production values are by far the best of the Richard IIs I've seen. Most of the shots appear to be filmed with the widest-angle lens possible, and the director, Rupert Goold, and director of photography Danny Cohen seem deeply enamored of extreme close-ups, so if you don't like the looks of Ben Whishaw's nostrils, you might find many segments difficult to watch. Also, perhaps due to their fascination with extremely small depths of field, it appears the actors have been told "OK, we have your ear in focus, now stand RIGHT THERE! DON'T MOVE FROM THAT SPOT!" Now, I get that the movie has no major battles, dance scenes, etc., but it's not just a story about people standing around talking. Or reaction shots of people staring blankly into space.

That said, the wide angles do emphasize the distance between the characters. The blank expressions could be an attempt at showing us that these characters are very serious, or perhaps that the characters are terrified of Richard's power. The long meditations on the sun dappling through leaves picks up on Shakespeare's metaphor of Richard as the sun setting as Bolingbroke's fortunes rise.

Here are a few more nitpicks:

• This play has five female characters. They cut two. Then they cut lines from Isabella and her maid. Now, in my head, I always imagine one of the maids to be Philippa Chaucer (you know, Geoffrey's wife. She was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Philippa of Hainault, Edward III's wife. Philippa Chaucer's sister was John of Gaunt's third wife, by the way, and Geoffrey held various posts under Edward III and Richard II, and his pension was continued by Henry IV, but may not have been paid. I always picture Geoffrey Chaucer in the background of John of Gaunt and Richard's scenes). Philippa probably died many years before the action of the play, but she would have been the older of the two ladies-in-waiting. They cut the part. (Here's a quick bio of Geoffrey Chaucer: http://www.poemhunter.com/geoffrey-chaucer/biography/)
• They also cut the entire scene between John of Gaunt and the Duchess of Gloucester (one of the five female characters), which explains the basic conflict of the play - that everyone thinks Richard had Thomas of Gloucester killed off by Mowbray. It may not be Shakespeare's best-written scene, but it does explain what's going on.

Enough of that.

Throughout the play, Richard compares himself to Jesus (no lack of ego there), but in this production, they've decided to draw a line from Richard to Saint Sebastian. I think it works really well, at least as far as visuals go. Richard is cut down by many faults, and Saint Sebastian was shot with so many Roman arrows that he looked like a sea urchin. The connection makes sense. Of course, Sebastian recovered and was finally martyred by being beaten to death and thrown in a privy, but you can't have everything.

I liked that they made Bushy an artist. Bagot, Bushy, and Green tend to be treated as interchangeable, and this made Bushy stand out. Bagot and Green are also surprisingly well-defined. That's the sort of thing that makes a film for me - it shows that there was thought and care put in to even the characters who barely appear. If only they'd come up with a way to do that with the Duchess of Gloucester and the second lady-in-waiting.

I ended up watching this three times, and my opinion improved each time. I think it would be my favorite version of Richard II, if it weren't for the one I'm going to write about in my next posting.

Richard II - The 1978 BBC/Time Life Version with Derek Jacobi

The 2014 Olympics are over, and I'm getting back into Shakespeare. I'll be putting up a few more posts about Richard II, then I'll be on to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I've mentioned before that Richard II is my favorite of the history plays. The 1978 version with Derek Jacobi is part of the reason why. I don't remember which semester I took a Shakespeare class up at UMaine, but I do remember that I took seriously the concept that Shakespeare's plays were written to be performed and watched, not to be read. I found that Fogler Library had the complete works on VHS, and spent many hours in the media room watching these BBC/Time Life productions. Much as I'm doing now, I would do the assigned reading, and then watch the video.

Even if you've only seen a few Shakespeare films, you're probably familiar with Derek Jacobi. His work with Kenneth Branaugh includes appearing as the Chorus in Henry V  and Claudius in Hamlet. If you're a PBS viewer, you may also have seen him in I, Claudius on Masterpiece Theatre, and Cadfael on Mystery. Of his more recent work, my favorite is his appearance as the undertaker Mr. Ween in Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee. You should check it out. He's hilarious. I think I had seen some of this before those long afternoons in the

Jacobi is great fun to watch as Richard. His voice is captivating. He's constantly twisting and turning his pitch and volume, so that even if you don't have any idea what he just said, you know that it sounded awesome. I know it's a cliche to say "I could listen to him read the phone book," but man, he would make the phone book sound amazing! This is perfect for the emotional, irrational Richard.  The problem is, that having seen Sir Derek in many many films and videos, it's hard to see him as Derek Jacobi playing Richard, instead of seeing him as Derek Jacobi as Derek Jacobi playing Richard. It feels like watching someone do a very good Derek Jacobi impression with all the lines drawn from Shakespeare.

The critical deposition scene comes out very well. It's very dark, just like the rest of the film. I don't know if it was a technological limitation (maybe the cameras they were using weren't very good, or the copies degraded over time) or an artistic choice, but the whole film is too dark. It might be they decided to save money on set dressing by putting most of the set in shadow, I don't know. Regardless, the heart of the deposition scene  is the contrast between the Bolingbroke and Richard. Bolingbroke is calm, and stoic, blandly putting up with his wildly emotional cousin. Richard is wallowing in self-pity, anger, and grief. That contrast, more than anything, makes this scene.

John Gielgud is John of Gaunt. That's really all I ought to have to say to get you to watch this.

Jon Finch makes a great Bolingbroke. He looks like a king, and is completely believable.

Charles Gray plays York. You will recognize him as the Criminologist from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Mary Morris plays the Duchess of Gloucester. You'll recognize her from the 1982 Doctor Who episode Kinda.

You probably won't recognize Jeremy Bulloch from his most famous role. He plays Hotspur in Richard II, but he played Boba Fett in Return of the Jedi.

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Thanks.

Richard II. Dir. David Giles. Perf. Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, and Jon Finch. 1978. DVD, Ambrose, 2004.