Stoppard
Back to It
After a break of about a week to work on other
projects, survive a heat wave and deal with some
weird family issues, I'm getting back to Phillip Gold
and The Silent Goodbye. Finally.
Much of the credit for the return has to go to my sister, Janice, whose enthusiastic response to some questions I posed to her over e-mail has led to a rekindling of my own enthusiasm and a genuine belief that, with her help, I might just be able to write an entertaining, convincing trial. Janice, you see, was until recently a Crown Attorney extraordinaire and her insights into how a criminal trial would be run have been most helpful.
Janice has offered guidance on the mundane details of criminal procedure, such as who speaks first and what would the judge do in certain situations, but she has also been kind enough to share her insights into the more exciting stuff, like how the Crown would design her case, how the defence attorney could attack that case, legal and psychological gambits each might employ with the jury and such like.
The conversations themselves have been fascinating and she's been kind enough to agree to read the first draft once I've finished it and offer more guidance, more insights and more insider info. I'm quite excited at the thought.
The only problem is, I have to keep reminding her that my character, Phillip Gold, is not supposed to be a very good lawyer: I think Janice has a hard time playing down to his level, so to speak.
It is still challenging for me to sit down and work through the narrative on my own since every sentence seems to bring up another question but Janice's help does make me feel like, when all is said and done, the trial will be a realistic, exciting part of the book.
At the same time, I found out that a local library has a pretty sweet collection of films on DVD, including classic stuff and international films as well. One of the first DVDs that jumped out at me was the film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard's excellent play. The movie version, also written and directed by Stoppard, stars Tim Roth and Gary Oldman as the title characters and is a fabulous piece of cinema.
I won't try to write a review here but will offer this: if you haven't read the play or seen the play or film, do so immediately. Well, do so after you've re-read Hamlet, Shakespeare's play from which Stoppard's work spins.
What I love about Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead, apart from the sheer cleverness and entertainment value of it, is the fact that Stoppard created two different versions of the same idea, each designed to take best advantage of the medium in which it will be delivered. Stated simply, he rewrote his own highly successful play to create a screenplay that is filmic, rather than just a filmed version of the stage play. He made some major changes in writing the movie to take advantage of film as a medium, while still remaining true to the soul of the original.
It's genius. And the DVD I borrowed from the library is a two-disc set, the second disc offering indepth interviews with Stoppard himself, as well as the two main actors in the film. I'm halfway through the interview with Stoppard and it's excellent. Great insights into the play, film and the creative process itself.
I have been a huge fan of Stoppard for some time and this DVD gives me all the more reason to admire him.
There's a personal connection for me too. While working at a hotel in Toronto in the early 1990s, I had occasion to meet and actually chat with Derek Goldby, the man who directed R&D Are D in its first professional production in London in the late 1960s. He was in town directing another Stoppard play, Rough Crossing, for one of Toronto's professional theatre companies. A very exciting opportunity for me and it was neat to hear Stoppard himself talk about Goldby in the interview on the DVD.
I'm looking forward to watching the film again and to seeing the rest of the interviews. It helps that Gary Oldman, who plays Rosencrantz, also plays Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films.
Much of the credit for the return has to go to my sister, Janice, whose enthusiastic response to some questions I posed to her over e-mail has led to a rekindling of my own enthusiasm and a genuine belief that, with her help, I might just be able to write an entertaining, convincing trial. Janice, you see, was until recently a Crown Attorney extraordinaire and her insights into how a criminal trial would be run have been most helpful.
Janice has offered guidance on the mundane details of criminal procedure, such as who speaks first and what would the judge do in certain situations, but she has also been kind enough to share her insights into the more exciting stuff, like how the Crown would design her case, how the defence attorney could attack that case, legal and psychological gambits each might employ with the jury and such like.
The conversations themselves have been fascinating and she's been kind enough to agree to read the first draft once I've finished it and offer more guidance, more insights and more insider info. I'm quite excited at the thought.
The only problem is, I have to keep reminding her that my character, Phillip Gold, is not supposed to be a very good lawyer: I think Janice has a hard time playing down to his level, so to speak.
It is still challenging for me to sit down and work through the narrative on my own since every sentence seems to bring up another question but Janice's help does make me feel like, when all is said and done, the trial will be a realistic, exciting part of the book.
At the same time, I found out that a local library has a pretty sweet collection of films on DVD, including classic stuff and international films as well. One of the first DVDs that jumped out at me was the film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard's excellent play. The movie version, also written and directed by Stoppard, stars Tim Roth and Gary Oldman as the title characters and is a fabulous piece of cinema.
I won't try to write a review here but will offer this: if you haven't read the play or seen the play or film, do so immediately. Well, do so after you've re-read Hamlet, Shakespeare's play from which Stoppard's work spins.
What I love about Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead, apart from the sheer cleverness and entertainment value of it, is the fact that Stoppard created two different versions of the same idea, each designed to take best advantage of the medium in which it will be delivered. Stated simply, he rewrote his own highly successful play to create a screenplay that is filmic, rather than just a filmed version of the stage play. He made some major changes in writing the movie to take advantage of film as a medium, while still remaining true to the soul of the original.
It's genius. And the DVD I borrowed from the library is a two-disc set, the second disc offering indepth interviews with Stoppard himself, as well as the two main actors in the film. I'm halfway through the interview with Stoppard and it's excellent. Great insights into the play, film and the creative process itself.
I have been a huge fan of Stoppard for some time and this DVD gives me all the more reason to admire him.
There's a personal connection for me too. While working at a hotel in Toronto in the early 1990s, I had occasion to meet and actually chat with Derek Goldby, the man who directed R&D Are D in its first professional production in London in the late 1960s. He was in town directing another Stoppard play, Rough Crossing, for one of Toronto's professional theatre companies. A very exciting opportunity for me and it was neat to hear Stoppard himself talk about Goldby in the interview on the DVD.
I'm looking forward to watching the film again and to seeing the rest of the interviews. It helps that Gary Oldman, who plays Rosencrantz, also plays Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films.