Word: maddens
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Sandy comes with strong responses to the material," notes John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love, which speculates fancifully about the Bard's inspiration for Romeo and Juliet. "She comes armed with instinct." Among Madden's favorite creations for the film were the costumes she made for the staged production of Romeo and Juliet. He loved the way in which the lavishness of the players' dress contrasted with the shabby browns worn by the commoners in the audience. "At first we thought it looked bizarre," says Madden, "but what was so brilliant was how she captured in costume how extraordinarily...
...Fiennes, struggling with writer's block and a script called Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter, until he falls in love with Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), who becomes his Juliet. Fact weaves with fantasy, verse with demotic dialect, low comedy with high passion; and as director John Madden puts it, "Who dares put words in Shakespeare's mouth and get away with it?" The answer is Stoppard, who says, "It never occurred to me to worry about Shakespeare's language butting up against mine. It's not a competition...
...cheers. With barely 10 minutes onscreen, she makes her terrifyingly omniscient Elizabeth pivotal to the film, with players and viewers alike perched breathlessly on her every word. Dench attributes this potency not to her own skill but to the deference the film's other characters show her. John Madden, who directed her in both Mrs. Brown and Shakespeare, knows better. "She has this amazing accessibility," he says. "She could make Attila the Hun seem sympathetic...
That's a start, anyway--football as text. Papers for future discussion: "The Huddle: Gemeinschaft or Gesellschaft?" "The Snap from Center: A Buried Semiotics of Homoeroticism?" "From Cosell to Madden: Pedants and Blowhards in the Booth...
...Romeo and Juliet. It peoples the London of 1593 with the usual suspects--Christopher Marlowe (crafty Rupert Everett), Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench, a sly dominatrix)--and some ageless show-biz types: the poverty-pleading producer (Geoffrey Rush), the backer with a lust for limelight (Tom Wilkinson). Director John Madden works in jokes about profit sharing and credit hogging, and a climax in which the real star steps in for an indisposed leading lady...