Coriolanus

Today we actually follow through with watching a movie we said we'd watch in the previous post. That movie is Coriolanus, a modernized version of the Shakespeare play, starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, and Brian Cox. It is the story of a military prodigy who is elected consul of Rome, only to be banished by the people for hating them so much. At least, that's about all the politics I managed to extract from the classical dialogue.

Netflix: Si
Pick: Gaius Markus Coriolanus

Dylan: Have you read Coriolanus the play?

Mark: I haven’t actually.  I’ve read plenty of Shakespeare, but never had the opportunity to read this one before.  However, after seeing this, I’ve essentially read it.

Dylan: Yea. I was just wondering. I haven’t read it either. And since I'm by no means well-versed in the Bard's work, I didn’t even realize it was one of his plays until you told me. Looking back, I wish you hadn’t, just so I could see how long it would’ve taken me to figure it out (not very long, I predict).

Mark:  When I first heard that this was a modern interpretation of one of his plays, I assumed that it might be rewritten in more modern language as well.  I assumed incorrectly, as this is more in line with a Kenneth Branagh rendition, in which the dialogue is taken verbatim from the text.being basically lifted from the play word for word.

Dylan: Well I hope that was a pleasant surprise for you. Because it was for me. It is amazing how powerful and relevant his words still are, especially when delivered by great actors. Although -- and we may as well make this our first topic of conversation -- the acting was a bit one-sided. I thought Ralph Fiennes was incredible. On top of that he had some really fantastic lines/insults that he delivered so fluidly and believably, I was kind of envious.

“You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate

As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize

As the dead carcasses of unburied men

That do corrupt my air, I banish you”

I know some people I would like to throw that one at and see what they're response is. "Yea, well uh...fuck you." "Yea, good one." Anyways, it’s funny because he was kind of the same way in In Bruges, but with less poetic ferocity. But on the other side of the acting spectrum, you have Gerard Butler, who isn't necessarily bad, but he sort of just mumbles his lines and doesn't really attempt to deliver them with the passion that Fiennes exuded.

Mark: Yeah, Shakespeare’s words have a surprising amount of weight when brought into the modern world and played against very real and pressing issues nowadays.  And with this modern interpretation, one of the things I liked the most was that he doesn't change it from Rome and Volsci to nations that exist now.  He left them as modern versions, just updated to our military hardware.  Which created this interesting sense of distance but connection to everything that was going on.  It didn’t have to rely on feelings we already had for real events or places, but create just as engaging ones using Rome and Volsci.

And as for the acting, I think that’s one of the major strengths of this film.  Fiennes is brilliant as Coriolanus, bringing at one point subdued passion and the next he lets fly with his words, as deadly as the bullets.  And I also really liked Brian Cox as Menenius, his political advisor.  He played the straight man to Coriolanus’ intensity, and he did it well.  And I’ll agree, while I thought Butler was good, he couldn’t hold a candle to Fiennes and it hurts him more since most of his scenes required him to work off of Fiennes.  And just one more, if I can keep talking about how great the acting is, has to be Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia, Coriolanus’ mother.  The same intensity as Fiennes’ character, just more controlled.

Dylan: The whole thing with the mother is an indication to me that you could probably dissect the shit out of this story, as you can with any of Shakespeare’s works. Luckily, this isn’t English class, so we don’t have to do that. As far as the movie goes, the other thing I wanted to comment on is how freaking excellently the dialogue was brought to a modern setting. Fantastic writing and directing right there. What was lacking in the outdated speech was made up for with powerful silences and actions that really made the characters fit into this world, and not seem like silly performers on a stage, which is how big screen adaptations of Shakespeare usually feel. I'm thinking, in comparison, of Leo DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet. They tried to adapt the story to gangs in L.A., but it was so flashy and annoying, it just didn't work for me.

And the great ways the dialogue was delivered, not just from people standing around, but from news reporters on television, and thoughts in people's heads. Settings and maneuvers that obviously weren’t written in Shakespeare's play, but were added very smoothly and craftily to the movie. Very well done.

Mark:  Jesus, I’ve never seen you this way.  So happy and excited for a movie.  It’s a tad unnerving.  

Dylan: Yea. Hard to believe you picked it...

Mark: Really.  Cause I thought you wouldn’t be as into it.  Or you’d hate it.  Really glad I was wrong.  And I thought, this being Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut, there were parts that showed how well he can do with the camera, and others that felt a little lacking.  One of the lacking for me is that he almost entirely relied on shaky-cam for the action/battle sequence.  That works some of the time to bring you into the moment, but I felt that it took me out because things became disoriented.  He didn’t seem to have complete control of it.  However, there were a few scenes that were absolutely brilliant.  One in which Coriolanus was waiting outside the council, listening to them praise his many achievements, and when he comes back in, there is an immense bloom of light that envelopes him slowly as his body blurs out.  This to me was an excellent blending of cinematography and story, as we’re actually watching the shining and highly respected image of Coriolanus envelope and hide the man, leaving what he is, not who he is.  He did this in several parts of the movie, which just lifted it up further than I expected going into this.

And yes, he did do a good job blending the modern with the Shakespearian.  The cuts to scenes of the war on TV screens and reporters were great.

Dylan: To be fair, it actually took me three sittings to get through the whole thing. Especially since the climax seemed to take place in the first 25 minutes, when Fiennes and Butler had their first fight to the death. What can I say? Watching Shakespeare in any form takes concentration. It’s like watching a foreign film. But anyways, I know what you’re saying about the shaky-cam. I think he was just experimenting with a bunch of different things. That same scene you cited has a lot of strange blurriness and camera whirling, which is usually reserved for scenes involving drug use or shell shock. And at the very end, there is just silence for the final minutes. We get this perfect image of Aufidius kneeling over Coriolanus' body, and you figure the credits are coming. But the very final image is Coriolanus' body being tossed into a truck with a thump.

(Sorry if that comes off as a spoiler. But if you know anything about Shakespearean tragedy, it’s that somebody has to die at the end. So back off.)

Mark: I loved the use of silence in that scene.  Having the emotional effect of the scene not rely on the sound of violence, but rather the action and then the emotion on their faces.  You watch as Aufidius (Butler) holds Coriolanus until his last breath.  No sound.  Just watching the action.  And it was a cold ending.  Just the final scene and then cut to black.  Credits roll.  But it went well with the tone of the film.  And the character’s life.  Coriolanus did what needed to be done for no other reason than it had to be done for Rome.  And the ending just ends with him.  No extra bit to show the rest of the characters.  No more to the story.  It worked very well.

And yeah, I think the one thing people just have to realize when they come into this movie is that you have to pay attention.  The dialogue is great and very well done, but if you don’t listen or you doze off, you’ll miss a lot.  But once you tune yourself into the Shakespearian dialogue, it’s amazing.

Dylan: Which I find annoying, since again, I had never heard of this play. I would have much rather read this than Julius Caesar. And thank you, Netflix, for suggesting Patrick Stewart’s MacBeth and Ian McKellen's King Lear, because now I want to watch those as well.

Mark:  Haha, yeah I already instant queued that Macbeth.  Saw it right after I was done and was in the Shakespeare mood.  So don’t be alarmed if that comes up in a later review.  Or the next review.  Cause we could all use a little Patrick Stewart in our lives.

Dylan: Also, I guess we should point out that Jessica Chastain is in this movie. In case there's any fans out there. But, she really doesn’t do anything for me, or the movie. I’ve decided she is a mix between Keira Knightley and Anne Hathaway, in that, I don’t find her as attractive or talented as everyone else. And she and Hathaway also have a knack for ruining Tom Hardy characters. But anyways...trivia?

Mark: I agree, she didn’t really bring anything to the movie.  But interestingly, apparently, when Ralph Fiennes showed the rough cut of the movie to Kathryn Bigelow, she decided to offer Chastain a role in Zero Dark Thirty.  So what the fuck do we know?  And that also doubles as my trivia, as there isn’t much for this.

Dylan: I see. Well, I have a question for you. Has Ralph Fiennes directed/is he in the process of directing anything else?

Mark:  He is in the process of directing his second film, The Invisible Woman.  With a short synopsis of “At the height of his career, Charles Dickens meets a younger woman who becomes his secret lover until his death.”  With Fiennes playing Dickens.

Dylan: Meh. Believe it or not, Dickens is a harder sell for me than Shakespeare. We'll see.

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There. We watched a movie and talked about it. Now the spiders crawling under my skin can sleep a little longer, and I won't have to cut them out with a box cutter again. Just kidding. I don't even own a box cutter.

Anyways, "I feel like a, like a slice of butter...melting on top of a big ol' pile of flapjacks...yeah". I guess to make that quote relevant I have to offer a piece of movie/TV news: Bill Hader is leaving SNL, hopefully in pursuit of something that's actually funny. Our next movie is going to be Shotgun Stories, which I picked because of Michael Shannon. He's the villain in the upcoming Man of Steel, he was in Revolutionary Road for a few minutes, and he's a regular on Boardwalk Empire, but I really want to see him in something of his own. Hopefully this little indie film quenches my thirst.