Brilliantly re-created - if these eyes could weep!...rather strong on metaphor, mind you. No criticism - only a matter of taste.
Main Info
IMDB - if it ain't on here, it probably ain't worth knowing.
Allmovie - a nice alternitive film-database site.
It's Wikipedia - what can I say?
Script - Thank you Megan for doing a
transcript of the film.
Relationship to play: Tom Stoppard wrote the play, then rewrote it as a movie. So while it's basically the same creature, obviously some bits had to go (I particularly miss Guildenstern's autumnal speech, and the comment about the unicorns...) But curiously enough, he's added some stuff too - for example, Rosencrantz's various inventions (the biplane, the burger, the feather experiment) are missing from the original play, presumably because they'd never have worked on the stage in quite the same way. Here's the most interesting site found about the play vs film.
Music: that strange but oh-so-suitable song at the beginning is an instrumental version of Seamus by Pink Floyd. The first sound heard, however, is a crystal-drop noise, which is from the song Echoes (more Floyd, both songs are from their album Meddle). You hear it again when the Player sniffs poison on the rapier. Stanley Myers and Brian Gulland wrote the rest of the original music, with Nick Glennie-Smith playing the synths. You can listen to all of the above on the sounds page.
Awards: controversially beat Goodfellas to a Golden Lion award at the 1990 Venice Film Festival. Tom Stoppard won a Fantasporto Director's Week award, and Gary Oldman was nominated (somewhat unfairly, I think, in a film which relies so heavily on a double act) for an Independent Spirit Award (and beaten by River Phoenix for My Own Private Idaho)
Locations: imdb helpfully informs me that it was filmed in Brezice in Slovenia, Croatia and Yugoslavia - which seems a tad unlikely for a small film with so few locations, but there you go...though most of the cast/crew on IMDB seem to be based in Yugoslavia, it doesn't help because Yugoslavia doesn't actually exist any more. It's the country Stoppard himself mentioned when interviewed.
I have tracked down at least two exact and easily-visitable locations: The main hall in Elsinore, where R+G first appear, was shot in the "Knights Hall", Brezice Museum in Slovenia. Here's a picture, and another, and another just in case you don't believe me. And here’s a fun panorama way to explore it yourself (the main page also lets you look around the hall from some different angles)
The second is the staircase from the “elephantine conversation” – again, in that same museum. Explore it here. I could just do this all day…How much of the rest of the film was shot there, I've no idea. Unfortunately, my resources don't stretch to an investigative pilgrimage...
Trivia:
~ Originally, the two leads (who appropriately spend the movie mixing up their own names) were cast the other way around. Makes me head hurt just thinking about it...
~ One of the best things about the film is the chemistry between the lead pair. According both, they liked the script so much that they practiced it endlessly for the fun of it - even when they were just hanging out, even if they'd already done shooting a particular scene. I just think this is cute...
~ After filming had ended, the pair considered a) doing it on stage b) doing Waiting for Godot on stage or c) auditioning for Mel Gibson's Hamlet, and insisting on keeping the same costumes. Alas, none of these happened...
~ the pieces if paper which flutter around the castle, get turned into biplanes etc. are reputedly the script of Hamlet. I say reputedly because everyone who's ever seen the film (myself included) has somehow assumed this is the case - but I've never seen any concrete proof. Makes sense, though, doesn't it?
~ John Boorman was interested in directing it. I strongly reccomend Excalibur to anyone who wants a good idea how the film could have turned out - it would certainly have been different, not necessarily worse...just different. Eventually, Tom Stoppard directed it himself, because he realised he was the only one who'd be happy to take liberties with the original text!
DVD special features – man, these are extensive. When I'm brave enough to sit through them again (belive me I haven't got 4 hours free right now), I'll let you know...In the meantime, you can view Gary Oldman's contribution here, and Tim Roth's in four parts on youtube: Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~
Part 4
Fanlistings
Life in a Box – the fanlisting for the movie. It's a fanlisting; what can I say?
Stark Raving Sane – in case you're wondering, the fanlisting is nothing to do with me, and they took the name first. By the time I found out they'd taken it, I'd already made a banner, a forum and not to mention getting rather fond of the name. And every time I tried to think of a new one, I got awfully depressed and uninspired, and got nothing else done. Consiquently, I have decided to retain the name even though it's already taken. I'm the first to accept this is unreasonable of me
yes, they were called Stark Raving Sane before me, nope I didn’t intentionally steal it. Yes I’m really very sorry about this, but sorry nope I don’t really have any intention of changing my name, which is probably very unreasonable of me. Surely we can co-exist? Anyway, this is the wonderful fanlisting for the relationship between the interchangeable sweeties.
Find a copy
ebay
UK Amazon video
UK Amazon dvd
US Amazon dvd+video
~available on several online rental stores
~copies are quite tricky to come by. If your library has a video section, it may have a copy you can borrow...
Reviews
Rotten Tomatoes - These chaps collect the overall rating from a ton of critics, and make my gathering of reviews below kinda redundant...you can add your own user vote and review here, so I hope you'll be voting positively :)
customers on Amazon UK
customers on Amazon USA
peeps on IMDB
Positive
Empire
John Doe - All these lovely nice reviews!
Mutant Reviewers - These reviews are fantastic and the ones I always quote when trying to pursuade other people to watch it.
Deseret News - we are the "cult of others"
Crushed by Inertia
Cinecism - my own, incoherent fangirl review
review
Catherine
Two nice reviews here and here
Cornponeflicks
Negative
Roger Ebert - Do not on any account pay attention to this man! Overly harsh, I think. We can argue forever about the relative merits of book vs film, but at the end of the day they should be judged as different mediums. I actually agree with him that it probably shouldn’t have been turned into a film, that as a play about the stage it should have stayed there. But having been adapted, he needs to give it a bit more credit. I think.
Channel 4 - despite all the nasty in the review, the user vote section (which I hope you'll be adding to...) gives it 4.6/5
DVD verdict - Well, whatever. Fair points I suppose...
DVD journal - so many negatives...
Not sure...
The Tech - "Both actors are good in their roles: They resemble one another". They do?!
Comments? Love? Relentless squeeing? Tracked down any other locations? Found a review I've missed? Fancy producing an accurate transcript? Email me, or just pop a comment here:
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