Murder on The Orient Express (2017)

I have seen the fracture of the human soul. So many broken lives, so much pain and anger, giving way to the poison of deep grief, until one crime became many. I have always wanted to believe that man is rational and similised. My very existence depends upon this hope, upon order and methods and the little grey cells, but now perhaps I am asked to listen instead to my heart. I have understood in this case that the scales of justice cannot always be evenly weighed and I must learn for once to live with the imbalance.

Il vagone ristorante e il bar sono uno spettacolo: con le stoviglie apparecchiate al centimetro della precisione maniacale dei grandi palazzi, i calici di cristallo tintinnanti e brillanti di champagne e i dessert deliziosi che sfilano sui tavoli facendoti venire l'acquolina in bocca, Assassinio sull'Orient Express (Murder on the Orient Express) di Kenneth Branagh introduce l'eponimo treno con tutto lo sfarzo e la raffinatezza che l'occhio vorrebbe vedere, simbolo del glamour di quell'Europa che sospesa fra le due Guerre era ancora convinta di viaggiare ben salda sui binari della civiltà e dell'ordine.

Cinderella

La mia amica di Downton Abbey Lady Edith dopo aver visto Cinderella

Sii Gentile e abbi coraggio, non lasciare che le avversità della vita distruggano il tuo spirito gioioso e vedrai che prima o poi la tua fortuna cambierà, dimentica il presente e il sogno realtà diverrà: chi aveva ancora qualche dubbio sul perchè la Disney abbia ritenuto necessario un nuovo adattamento della fiaba di Cenerentola troverà in queste parole, recitate come un mantra anche se con qualche sfumatura in meno dalla madre della Protagonista e a quest'ultima lasciate in generosa eredità, le risposte a molte delle sue domande; diretto da Kenneth Branagh con scenografie e costumi in gran spolvero e un cast che vede curiosamente Cate Banchett nel ruolo di Evil Queen e Helena Bonham Carter in quello della Fatina Buona, in qualità di versione live action dell'indimenticabile film d'animazione del 1950 Cinderella va subito ad occupare il suo posto nel lungo listino di remake incoraggiato con profitto dalla Casa di Topolino, decisa ad evitare accuratamente di correre rischi con un'idea originale e non collaudata da anni e anni di nostalgia per i classici del passato; con ben pochi spunti da offrire al presente cinematografico, Cinderella rende giustizia alle capacità del regista Shakespeariano per eccellenza con una messa in scena sfavillante, ma non si sforza nell'infondere anima ad una storia che per quanto arcinota avrebbe saputo egualmente riproporsi al pubblico come autentica e stimolante.

Because Hamlet means the World to me

To be, or not to be--that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--

No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--

To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. 

Happy Birthday Sir Kenneth.

Because Hamlet means the World to me and I owe you so much.

Macbeth

La grande stagione della Nexo Digital, in prima linea per portare finalmente nelle sale italiane l'eccellenza delle produzioni teatrali britanniche, prosegue al meglio grazie all'attesissimo allestimento del Macbeth andato in scena la scorsa estate durante il Manchester International Festival e codiretto da Rob Ashford e Kenneth Branagh, tornato in scena per l'occasione nelle vesti di assoluto protagonista dopo più di dieci anni di lontananza dalle opere del Bardo.

Happy Saint Crispin's Day!

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here 

    But one ten thousand of those men in England 

    That do no work to-day! 

  

KING. What's he that wishes so? 

    My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; 

    If we are mark'd to die, we are enow 

    To do our country loss; and if to live, 

    The fewer men, the greater share of honour. 

    God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. 

    By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, 

    Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; 

    It yearns me not if men my garments wear; 

    Such outward things dwell not in my desires. 

    But if it be a sin to covet honour, 

    I am the most offending soul alive. 

    No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. 

    God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour 

    As one man more methinks would share from me 

    For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! 

    Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, 

    That he which hath no stomach to this fight, 

    Let him depart; his passport shall be made, 

    And crowns for convoy put into his purse; 

    We would not die in that man's company 

    That fears his fellowship to die with us. 

    This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. 

    He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 

    Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 

    And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 

    He that shall live this day, and see old age, 

    Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 

    And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' 

    Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, 

    And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' 

    Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, 

    But he'll remember, with advantages, 

    What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, 

    Familiar in his mouth as household words- 

    Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, 

    Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester- 

    Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red. 

    This story shall the good man teach his son; 

    And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 

    From this day to the ending of the world, 

    But we in it shall be remembered- 

    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; 

    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, 

    This day shall gentle his condition; 

    And gentlemen in England now-a-bed 

    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, 

    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 

    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

 Agincourt, 25 October 1415

Happy Saint Crispin's Day!

Caliban's Dream

"Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open, and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked,

I cried to dream again."

Caliban -The Tempest act III

William Shakespeare

Branagh - the Isle is full of Noises- London Olympic Ceremony

For Harry, England, and Saint George!

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead!

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!"

Sorry, I can't choose between two great Kings. I must love them both.