Screened: March 7, 2008
Format: DVD - Korean Import
Selected By: Andy
If Hamlet is the greatest English drama in history, British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard can claim without challenge the mantle of the genre’s foremost absurdist bastard. His 1966 tragicomical play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is likely the most familiar and successful English work to employ the Bard as its direct source. The play follows two tertiary characters from Hamlet, here recast as existential clowns, as they wander aimlessly through the grim events that afflict Denmark’s royal household. Yet what Stoppard constructs is not a hodgepodge of obscure Shakespearean references, assembled for the dry amusement of intellectuals. The enduring power and appeal of Rosencrantz lies in how it transcends its venerable source material to comment on fate, knowledge, and language in a distinctly modern voice.
Stoppard both exemplifies and subverts the conventional conception of a modern luminary of the British theater. Born in Czechoslovakia to Jewish parents and raised in Singapore, India, and England, he never attended university. Rosencrantz’s opening at the Vic Theater in 1967 catapulted Stoppard from a productive yet little known playwright to overnight sensation. His works for the stage, television, and film frequently employ witty wordplay and absurdism to probe modern philosophical problems. Stoppard approaches such ambitious themes with an effortless touch, and Rosencrantz in particular demonstrates his skill at wrapping profound material in amusing garb
Stoppard’s 1990 film version of his play is his only feature film directing credit, notable primarily for its unusual place in his body of work. Here we witness a celebrated playwright transporting one of his most lauded works into a gritty setting that is alternately realistic and fantastic. Of course, there is also the pleasure of watching two captivating, fearless British performers —Gary Oldman and Tim Roth—at the dawn of their film careers. Oldman had recently begun working in American film following his breakout role in 1986’s Sid and Nancy, and Roth was still two years from Reservoir Dogs. This Rosencrantz also benefits from Richard Dreyfuss’ manic presence and gorgeous shooting locations in the former Yugoslavia. However, the play’s the thing, and Stoppard’s humor and insight are indisputably crucial to this film version’s charms.