Happy 400th Shakespeare Day...........

Today we honor the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth and/or death with six images of theatrical productions and filmed version of his fabled plays; somehow, we didn't find any room for "Romeo and Juliet."

The six images are of: 1) The Merchant of Venice; 2) Hamlet; 3) Othello; 4) MacBeth; 5) Akira Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" (based on Shakespeare's "King Lear," the Japanese film starred Toshiro Mifune, pict) and 6) "Much Ado About Nothing."

http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/

http://www.folger.edu/

https://www.ncshakes.org/

Quotes from The Little Thinkers (1 of 16): William Shakespeare

We gather that the Bard is known as Willie Shakespeare in Johnson City, Tenn., and today our first quote in this 16-entry series with quotes from historical figures begins with a quip from William Shakespeare.

The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., is currently performing the Shakespeare play "As You Like It," which has a performance on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

And, Criterion Classics posted a promotion today for the late Japanese cinematic master Akira Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood," which is based on the Bard's "King Lear."

Here is a quote from Shakespeare:

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."


http://www.americanshakespearecenter.org

http://www.visitstaunton.com

Quote of the Week- Martin Scorsese

We thought it might actually be cooled to link this week's Quote of the Week to last week's Quote of the Week, especially since this blog is moving very slower (we should blame Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but he seems to have other concerns at the moment) than normal.

So, here is our quote from Martin Scorsese, whose brilliant cinematic letter to the late iconic film director Elia Kazan was broadcast on PBS last week:

"The term 'giant' is used too often to describe artists. But, in the case of Akira Kurosawa, we have one of the rare instances where the term fits."

SIDEBAR: For those of you following us in Armenia, Bulgaria and Paraguay, who may have been wondering, it appears we did misspell actress/Revlon spokeswoman Halle Berry's name in our previous entry. We will blame that on Mark Zuckerberg* too, regardless if we spelled his name right or not!

*- Hey, it appears we got it right. Maybe, we can go ahead and fire our interns now....

Quote of the Week_ Akira Kurosawa

This month we are featuring quotes from famous film directors, and we start with the late Japanese master Akira Kurosawa:

"Man is a genius when he is dreaming."

SIDEBAR: We will miss Tony Curtis. As mentioned in my last entry, I had just seen his 1958 film "The Vikings" earlier in the week. I did not mention that I had also seen his 1968 film "The Boston Strangler," both films were directed by the late Richard Fleischer, in which Curtis played the dubious title role. He gave an excellent performance in the later film, which also featured Henry Fonda, which surprisingly did not garner Curtis an Oscar nomination. We are certainly sad that he had died, and our thoughts go out to Jamie Lee Curtis.

SIDEBAR TWO: Our favorite high school in North Carolina, Ragsdale HS from Jamestown, NC, once again won a big game last night as they triumphed over Eastern Forsyth 10-7.

Quote of the Week- Akira Kurosawa

Today's quote of the week is from the late, freat Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998). "Rashomon," which many consider to be his best film is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Kurosawa was also known for "The Seven Samurai," "Ikiru," "Ran" and "The Throne of Blood" among many others.

We are quoting 32 people from the 32 countries in the World Cup on both of our blogs. At last report, Japan was beating Cameroon 1-0 in their game today (we are 90 percent sure they won, but we don't want to offend anyone blogging in from central Africa in case we are wrong!).

Here is the quote from Kurosawa:

"In a mad world, only the mad are sane."

Shakespeare Over Soccer?!

Yesterday afternoon, I had an interesting situation as I got tickets for a production of William Shakespeare's play "All's Well That Ends Well" before knowing that Turkey, my late father's homeland, was going to be playing the American national men's soccer team in Philadelphia which was also broadcast on ESPN-2 at the same time!

But, since America won the game 2-1 and I essentially pulled a "Benedict Arnold" by rooting for Turkey (well at least I'm not playing for another country unlike Italian-American Guiseppe Rosa from New Jersey who not plays for Italy but he scored two goals for them in a game against The United States!), I guess I could say it was perhaps for the best.

So, I thought I would list my ten favorite Shakespeare plays. I am certainly no authority on The Bard, so if you are an English professor at my alma mater Radford University in Radford, Va., or anywhere else, please pick on your own kind!

1. "Othello" (pictured)

2. "Macbeth" (love the Polanski film version too!)

3. "Hamlet"

4. "12th Night"

5. "King Lear" (wasn't that a Kurosawa film too?!)

6. "The Merchant of Venice"

7. "Richard III"

8. "Romeo and Juliet" (what's this with unhappy endings?)

9. "Rosencrantz and Guilderstein Are Dead"...........oh wait, that's a Tom Stoppard play.....make that "Taming of the Shrew"

10. "All's Well That Ends Well" (what else?!)

For more info on the production schedule of the American Shakespeare Center, one can log on to www.ASCstaunton.com or call 1-800-MUCH-ADO

My 10 Favorite Films of 1980

Many people know 1980 as the year that Ronald Reagan and the Ayatollah Khomeini both came to power- forgive the political humor (well, actually the former was inagurated in 1981 and the later overthrew the Shah in 1979).

But, it was also a year when many outstanding films came out. We are categorizing films according to their dates listed on the IMDB. "Atlantic City" actually came out in America in 1981 and "The Gods Must Be Crazy" didn't hit movie theatres in New York in 1984 (I think it actually came to my hometown of Roanoke, Va., in 1985!).

My favorite film of 1980 is Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull." Some film connosieurs prefer his earlier film "Taxi Driver," but I think this is the stronger film overall. Both films starred Robert DeNiro.

As a Sam Fuller fan, I also love "The Big Red One" which also features one of Lee Marvin's best screen performances (he was actually Reagan's co-star in "The Killers" which came out in 1964). "Atlantic City" is also an extraordinary film, and I think it is Louis Malle's most complete film (apologies to "My Dinner with Andre" fans).

"Kagemusha" which was an Akira Kurosawa epic is my favorite foreign-language film from 1980 though for some reason it is not usually mentioned as one of the Japanese master's best films. While I would certainly that films like "Rashomon" and "Ikiru" are better, this is still a great film.

Here is the list:

1. "Raging Bull" (pictured. d-Martin Scorsese)
2. "The Big Red One" (d-Sam Fuller)
3. "Atlantic City" (Canada/France. d-Louis Malle)
4. "Kagemusha" (Japan. d-Akira Kurosawa)
5. "The Elephant Man" (d-David Lynch)
6. "Tess" (d-Roman Polanski)
7. "The Shinning" (d-Stanley Kubrick)
8. "The Gods Must be Crazy" (South Africa. d-Jamie Uys)
9. "The Long Riders" (d-Walter Hill)
10. "Gloria" (d-John Cassavettes)

NOTE: Yeah, I would agree "Gloria" has its flaws, but Gena Rowlands is just amazing in it!

Honorable Mention: "Ordinary People," "Airplane!," "Breaker Morant," "The Long Good Friday," "Dressed to Kill," "Hopscotch," "Flash Gordon" and "Mad Max."

Quote of the Week_ Akira Kurosawa

This is meant to complement my quip from another film director John Ford on my other blog "The Daily Vampire."

Both quotes were supposed to run yesterday, which was Pearl Harbor Day, but perhaps it is just as well that I am posting them today.

Akira Kurosawa is considered by many to be Japan's best film director of all time though Ozu and Oshima* fans might dispute that!:

"Japan does not understand very well that one of its proudest cultural achievements is in film."

*- We believe Nagisha Oshima is the only one of these three Japanese directors mentioned here to still be alive.