Tema: All is True (Kenneth Branagh, 2018)

Ya se puede escuchar All Is True de Patrick Doyle. Maravillosa. Os dejo el enlace oficial, legal y gratuito de Youtube Music para que podais escucharla.

Parece que es el score completo (36 minutos), ya que el film tiene muy poca música. Sería la segunda vez que esto sucede en la carrera de Branagh tras Sleuth (2007), que contaba únicamente con 30 minutos de música original.

Se estrena hoy en UK e Irlanda.

Y el 10 de mayo se estrena en USA.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

Ya se puede escuchar All Is True de Patrick Doyle. Maravillosa. Os dejo el enlace oficial, legal y gratuito de Youtube Music para que podais escucharla.

Pues si, Doyle en su estado mas clasico, delicioso.

Saw the film yesterday. Was a lovely, quietly moving film with an electric scene between Branagh and McKellan.

Doyle's score was, like the film, quite meditative and elegiac. The 'Fear No More' melody makes a big impact each time it plays. . There are lovely liner notes from Doyle and Branagh in the booklet.




All is True is not an adaptation of a Shakespeare play (though it is the alternative title of Shakespeare's play Henry VIII), but rather tells the story of the last three years of the playwright's life. In 1613 Williams Shakespeare (played by Sir Kenneth himself, in some heavy makeup) returns to his hometown of Stratford to find that his family aren't entirely thrilled to have him back – and what's more Will Shakespeare is struggling to come to terms with the death of his young son, Hamnet.

“I said to [Patrick] 'look, I actually don't know if there's a lot of music in this, a little music or no music at all'. I do know that the film has a meditative quality, a sort of ruminative quality because it's about a man coming back to him home town. We'll have candlelight and begin to experience that total dark and total quiet that the country of that time would have provided. So there's something about silence in the movie, whether it's an illusion of silence that music somehow hints at, or actual silence.”

Many of Kenneth Branagh's films include songs, with Patrick Doyle setting texts by Shakespeare. And All is True is no exception. The film closes with a beautiful setting of the song from Cymbeline 'Fear no more the heat o'the sun'

“It's so simple but in the context of a funeral or the farewell to an individual, I find it unbearably moving, it's so beautiful and simple. Patrick seems to do both – there is both a celebration and a tender ache in the music and in what he brings out of the lyric at one and the same time.

“You you might argue that it comes back to the title of this movie – All is True – the rough and the smooth, and the good and the bad all have their necessary and vital component in our lives. That ability to strike in his music, and the songs particularly, that sort of generous summation of the beautifully messy business of being a human being, is what Patrick Doyle is supreme at.”

De Hollywood Reporter:

Though we know some things about Shakespeare himself, a good deal else is shrouded in mystery. Where did you and Ben Elton feel comfortable improvising on Shakespeare's life, and where did you draw the line?


Well, I don’t know if we did draw many lines, really. But we improvised certainly around the things that seemed to preoccupy him or literally haunt him, like the death of his son — that seemed to be key. That experience of being in The Winter's Tale was to really witness the real unrelenting obsession with the loss of the child. It's done elsewhere very directly in King John, for example, where there's that famous passage, very painful passage: "Grief fills the room up with my absent child," it begins. It's a very open, raw mission of unquantifiable grief. Twins are separated constantly in Shakespeare's plays, comically and tragically, so [there was] that possibility of a single event having haunted him, which was as much a reason to return home as the loss of income that the burnt theater might have produced. That was the biggest departure: How did Hamnet die? Why did Hamnet die? We liked the idea that the name was similar to perhaps his most famous play, Hamlet, and to turn the idea in that play where a father haunts a son on its head and have a son haunt his father. And also introduce, as that very same famous play does, the idea of what was a disputed suicide through drowning. That was somehow a liberty, but also from Shakespeare's own workshop.

By the same token, the other big leap was to suggest that the private publication of the sonnets could have, through rumor, presented itself to Anne Hathaway and could have enraged and wounded, while still not preventing the arrival of the Earl of Southampton. He didn't go [to visit Shakespeare in Stratford], but many great people did in those three years did. The evidence leads toward the idea that Ben Johnson, his colleague, did go there, and this famous merry meeting that we present in the movie did lead to his collapse. Basically, he got so drunk that it headed Shakespeare into a decline. It's with the potential relationship with Southampton and the fate of Hamnet that we took the greatest departures. I wouldn't say liberties, because I think we were doing exactly what Shakespeare does throughout — including right at the start, with this title, [which refers to] Shakespeare's outrageous suggestion that what he writes in his play The Life of Henry VIII could be described by the title All Is True.

Several reviews have noted that certain characters, such as Anne Hathaway and Henry Wriothesley, aren't necessarily played by actors whose ages correspond to the characters', but they're also veteran Shakespeare actors. How did you go about casting these parts?

Judi was always first choice to play Anne Hathaway. We'd been in a production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale just a few years previously and she'd played Paulina, often cited by actresses as their favorite Shakespeare character — she is remorseless in speaking truth to power. Anne Hathaway's voice we were going to unleash, really, for the first time in this film; it was important for her to be embodied by somebody who could have that fire in her belly. Judi was just someone who had every kind of Shakespearean knowledge, not just with the plays, but she'd worked [in Stratford] so often. And when it came to the age difference, it was meaningless because she's ageless, and we can't start getting worried 120 years into cinema or whatever, when suddenly there's a woman who's much older than the [man], meanwhile we spent 100 years with the bloke being three times the age of the woman. We're allowed that disparity.

Similarly, with Ian McKellan, I discovered that we shared the same experience of hitchhiking to Stratford when we were 16. He said, "Where did you pitch the tent?" And I told him, and he said, "That's exactly where mine was, as well." We were both drawn because we just wanted to see where he lived, what were the houses that he occupied and we wanted to see the temple of his work, the Shakespeare Memorial Theater. For me, it was like landing in a version of heaven. And it was the beginning of trying to put these things together — the place, the work, the man; how did that all go together? And this film really was the latest slice of that conversation.

In its treatment of the women in Shakespeare's life, All Is True seems particularly suited to the #MeToo era. What were the influences behind that?


Ben Elton has twins, and he has always been politically engaged and always has given voice to those who may not be appropriately represented. Here, he was initially very, very drawn by [how,] in a town of 2,500 people back then, and [Shakespeare is] the returning celebrity, it had a tremendous impact: He found that arresting and nicely complicated, and he enjoyed the idea of letting Anne Hathaway, a woman who could not read or write, and Judith, speak. And he felt also that [though] he's a very successful man, his kids are indifferent to his success: Neither literacy nor conspicuous worldly success were going to impede those women from having a say. And we also knew, because we had practiced, that we had some terrific actors. Kathryn Wilder, who plays Judith, was also in that production in The Winter's Tale. It was good that she knew Judi and had got past the intimidation factor so she could act with abandon. And Lydia Wilson, who played Susannah, was similarly ready to speak up for those girls.

Have you had your own coming-to-terms moment with the way Shakespeare treated his family, and particularly the women in his family, over the years?

There's no denying the specifics of the age and the patriarchy in full flight there. For me, I'm drawn to what I would say is the humane and complex nature of his analysis of the human condition. But it never avoids the unsavory. You could talk about how that applies in a play like The Merchant of Venice — is it anti-Semitic? Or The Taming of the Shrew — does that enshrine, record or promote misogyny? But with Shakespeare, across all of the plays, there is this elusive quality: He can't be nailed down. You can take a single play like Julius Caesar and it could be interpreted, depending on how it's directed, as about fascism, Communism or libertarianism, and I think the emphasis on that which one can draw or infer from the plays as being "Shakespearian," it's hard to quantify. So I acknowledge those gaps and those issues at the same time as being unquestionably drawn to like the largest part of what that canon of work represents.


Do you think you could have made this film five or 10 years previously, or did its timeliness play a role? Would it have resonated the same way?


That's a really interesting question, and I think possibly not. And yet, it was not even something that Ben Elton and I discussed — so in that sense, you might say that's fantastic progress, but in the other sense, you might say, that's who Ben Elton is as a writer and maybe how we attempt to approach that which we do. On one level, there's been an acceleration, but I would like to think that we would have maybe done it the same way [years ago], but I'm glad that somehow a fresh air blowing around this kind of treatment was available to us as well.


Why do you keep on being drawn to Shakespeare again and again?


The words have always moved me, from the moment when I was 17 and went to see King Lear. The quote on the program was, "When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools." I found that a chilling remark and also very moving. I didn't really understand at 17 why that moved me so much. I didn't really understand when I was 18 and I saw The Winter's Tale why that moved me so much, but it did. And so I was drawn by the emotional impact, but also by the conundrum of it: There was so much in it that I couldn't understand.

Also, I was really compelled by the idea that though I was moved by such things, the world was often indifferent, resistant or condemnatory. And if you've been through the education system, you'd be sometimes in a minority of people who might enjoy Shakespeare, [like many students might respond] to opera or classical music or modern dance or art that is challenging. So I've loved working on something where you really have to justify and prove that it still can matter. I think that's good as an artist, and I also think it's Shakespearean. He lived by the box office. He was supremely alert to the commercial realities — producer, director, writer, actor and plays on and off at the drop of a hat; popularity gone at the drop of a hat. The fickleness of fortune and the fickleness of fame were regular themes in his works, so he had to be very fleet of foot to keep up with those vagaries. And I feel as though, across my time with Shakespeare, we've had to earn our right to be heard. And that's healthy for an artist.


Do you plan to continue adapting work by Shakespeare — will you ever be finished?


I don't know is the answer. This is a business and a world right now in which you can't plan too much. In our business, it's such a changing landscape. But if I could, I would.

Branagh hace un repaso rapídisimo por varias de sus películas.

https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi796899865

Crítica de Rolling Stone:

Sir Kenneth Branagh has spent a major part of his career interpreting the works of William Shakespeare. His 1989 breakthrough in film featured Branagh as the star and director of Henry V (he won Oscar nominations for both jobs). So it only seems fair that Branagh should be the one to play the Bard in All Is True, directing a mesmerizing meditation on the last days of the greatest writer in the English language.

Such a grandiose statement may lead you to fear that Branagh and screenwriter Ben Elton mean to inflate their film into a bloated, and-then-I-wrote biopic. Nothing of the sort. Little is known for sure about the details of Shakespeare’s life. But as Shakespeare says in the film, “I never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Neither does Branagh.

The concept here is that the artist whose plays had the largest scope is now leading the smallest life. As All is True begins, in 1613, Shakespeare has returned to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon to retire after years of prodigious productivity. The catalyst is the fire that destroyed the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare’s plays were regularly performed. A spark from a stage cannon during a performance of All Is True, the original title of Henry VIII, reduced the Globe to ashes.

So now Will, as his family calls him, is done with it all. He’s no good at gardening, but gardening is what he’ll do. That and reconcile with the family he neglected for all these years. His wife Anne Hathaway (Dame Judi Dench), eight years his senior, treats him like a guest in his own house. His daughters harbor festering resentments. Susanna (Lydia Wilson), who is publicly denounced as a whore by Puritan society for cheating on her husband (Hadley Fraser), keeps her distance. And the unmarried Judith (Kathryn Wilder) believes her father holds a grudge against her for surviving her twin brother Hamnet, Shakespeare’s beloved only son, who died at 11, possibly from plague. Scholars have speculated about the connection between Hamnet to Hamlet, but Branagh’s film isn’t having it. Yet the ghost of his beloved boy is everywhere in Will’s thoughts and waking dreams.

It’s a telling irony that the women in Shakespeare’s time were never taught to read and write. Yet Dench, in a magisterial performance that never misses a trick, makes Anne a woman you trifle with at your peril. The closest All Is True comes to romance is Will’s relationship with his patron, the Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen), believed to be the inspiration for several of Will’s most famous poems and sonnets. A conversation between the two men, wittily and movingly acted by Branagh and McKellan, is a high point in a film that cinematographer Zac Nicholson bathes in the autumnal light of time remembered.

Those expecting All Is True to replicate the romp of 1998’s Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love are at the wrong movie. And Branagh is even less interested in a fawning tribute. Though screenwriter Ben Elton is best known for the farcical zest of his TV sitcom work on Blackadder and Upstart Crow — a teasing kick at the young Bard — All Is True looks with gentle humor and stirring gravity at a lion in winter, who died in 1616 at 52, at home but hardly at peace.

Branagh, who directed five other Shakespeare film adaptations — including Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing — and appeared in countless more on stage and screen, clearly holds All Is True close to his heart. Modeling his appearance on the best known painting of Shakespeare with an elongated nose accented by long hair on the sides and practically none on top, Branagh is the Bard incarnate. But his real achievement lies in capturing the internal life of an aging genius who claims that he’s so lived so long in fictional worlds of his own imagining that he’s “lost sight of what is real.” Branagh’s performance is a triumph of ferocity and feeling that shuns Shakespeare the literary rock star to find the flawed, touchingly human man inside.


Muy bien, ¿no?

Por cierto Tripley, Ben Elton (guionista) y Branagh tienen una relación y amistad de muchos años en el teatro, desde 1986. Y de hecho Elton salió en una peli de Branagh. Era el asistente de Michael Keaton en Mucho Ruido...

Pues entonces todo queda en casa.

Por cierto el film en DVD (parece que no hay edición en Blu-ray) se edita en USA en agosto, con subtítulos en spanish

https://www.amazon.com/All-True-Kenn...gateway&sr=8-1

Saludos

Iniciado por Tripley

Pues entonces todo queda en casa.

Por cierto el film en DVD (parece que no hay edición en Blu-ray) se edita en USA en agosto, con subtítulos en spanish

https://www.amazon.com/All-True-Kenn...gateway&sr=8-1

Saludos

¿DVD solo? Que cosa más rara, sobretodo siendo Sony la madre del Blu Ray y teniendo esta peli la fotografía otoñal tan esplendida que dicen que tiene. :(

Pues parece que solo se edita en DVD. Una pena. En Reino Unido ya está editado, solo en DVD y sin subtítulos (sólo inglés)

Saludos

Habla Patrick Doyle (extracto):

My relationship with Kenneth Branagh is very symbiotic. We seem to be in each other’s minds a lot. Over the years, you become far more comfortable with one another. He gives me a lot of space to find my voice and follow my instincts. He’s grown to be very trustful of me. I think his latest film, All is True, is a marvelous work, and time will prove that it is indeed a masterpiece.

Your most recent collaboration, All is True examines the adventures and pitfalls of the great William Shakespeare. What were the initial conversations surrounding the musical direction of the film and what did you hope to achieve with this score?

He [Kenneth Branagh] showed me the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which was on the wall in his office. It has Rembrandtian lighting — dark on one side, lit on the other. This painting was his inspiration in terms of how Shakespeare would look because he felt it was the most realistic image of him that exists. He then gave me the script, which I read immediately afterward. The night-time film interiors were lit entirely by candlelight. The daytime shots utilized natural light. It's such a creative concept.

Ben Elton’s script — I loved it, and I was extremely moved by it. The family drama was riveting. After the Globe Theater burns down, Shakespeare returns from London to Stratford. He enters into a domestic situation, which is a very well-oiled machine, and he finds it difficult to adapt to this sort of life after his years of career success in London. There’s a lot of tension. The film is very close to the archival evidence of his last few years. He didn't write another play after the Globe burned down. It’s a fascinating story. The actors speak in modern-day language. Of course, there are Shakespearean quotations recited at times by the actors as part of the story. Because the film uses contemporary language, I decided there should be a contemporary score. It’s not a large orchestra — it needed a chamber orchestra. It features strings, solo piano, and harp, with a touch of period instruments from time to time.

Before I began the score, I asked Ken to suggest a poem that would perhaps give me inspiration for a theme. He suggested Oberon's speech from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, "I Know A Bank,” which is read aloud by the actors in the film. Shakespeare's beautiful poetic rhythms formed a wonderful foundation for a melody, which I used in various forms throughout the picture. Inspiration can come at any time. I remember one day, I was sitting in a restaurant in France, and a local band marched into the restaurant and back out again, and I wrote on a napkin one of the themes for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire inspired by this moment.

Ken also suggested “Fear No More the Heat O' the Sun" from Cymbeline (also recited in the picture) as another musical inspiration. I composed a song set to those words and, to demonstrate it, I sent the music to my daughter Abigail, and she recorded herself singing it at the end of a very busy day, in her bed on her iPhone! She sent me her vocal, I put it together with the accompaniment, and then I sent the track to Ken – and he loved it. He was very keen to use this for the end titles. I didn’t expect him to actually use her voice; I was merely demonstrating what the sound could be like, but the recording Abi made had a very home-like, natural and calm feel to it, which was ideal for the picture. There was an innocent quality in putting down the melody very simply and quickly. That’s the same quality she recreated in the studio later on.

It's an ongoing working relationship between Ken and myself built upon trust, knowledge, and listening to each other. As he was shooting the film, I was composing music and sending ideas to him. It was like chasing a car, but it was very exciting! It was all filmed in a brief period of time, so it needed to be scored in a short time as well. There’s a lot of piano in the score, which I recorded myself. Ken said at one point, “I think you should own this picture,” so I did everything – conducting, orchestrating, and performing. It was demanding but thrilling.

It sounds like quite the family affair!


Yes! Ken said that Abigail was perfect for the song because he has known her all her life and she is part of the family, which was appropriate for the film.

Over the course of a prodigious career, you have created sophisticated, emotionally impactful music for a broad diversity of feature films, acclaimed theatrical performances, and concert works. To what do you attribute your capacity to traverse numerous styles of music successfully? Where does your aptitude for creative flexibility derive from?


I have no idea where the creative flexibility comes from. Perhaps, it’s because I have a keen interest in all genres of music. I haven’t specifically studied the latest pop trends or the current sounds of dance music, but I cock an ear to it occasionally and certainly enjoy analyzing the construct. Above all, I have a great interest in drama and music, full stop. Before I did Thor, I was perceived as a composer who would thrive on a period costume drama or perhaps a light comedy, not necessarily a large Marvel blockbuster film – although I had written the score to Harry Potter by then, but that’s got a wonderful sweeping and mystical quality — it's not necessarily a big action movie. When Thor came along, I thought I would take a rock and roll approach and fuse it with a symphony orchestra.

Other people told me they were surprised when they heard that that score came from me. It was a very challenging assignment with a lot of input from the studio because the franchise is so strong. This resulted in a lot of changes and notes. I learned very quickly to be less precious as a composer. I was prompted to be very chameleon-like and adaptable. It was a bit like being a part of a huge band. That experience of doing a big tent-pole movie at that time in my career was unexpected but ultimately very good for me.

I enjoy a challenge if the subject interests me. I enjoy going with the flow and seeing what comes along. Luckily, I haven’t been typecast or pegged as a genre-specific composer. Thank goodness! I’ve done light comedies, action movies, costume dramas, historical films — projects filled with magic and very serious pictures. I’ve composed, of course, for many Shakespeare adaptations with Ken. I wrote for Sense and Sensibility with Ang Lee. I collaborated with Alfonso Cuáron on Great Expectations and A Little Princess.

It was an extraordinary privilege to work on Gosford Park with the iconic director, Robert Altman. My daughter Abigail sang two songs in the film and co-wrote one of them with myself and the other with Robert when she was only nineteen, and I was really proud of her. I absolutely adored Robert and his wife Kathryn [Reed]. My wife, Lesley, and I became great friends with them both. We had dinner with Kathryn a few months before she died and had the most wonderful, memorable evening. She was a very sassy and amusing lady, and she said, "I always go where the action is." She made us laugh a lot — we loved her. I must say that I’ve been very lucky in my career and have met some wonderful people.

To date, what music are you most proud of?


The score for Henry V — my first film with Ken — means everything to me and my family because it was my first great opportunity. It was Ken’s first picture, the producer’s first picture, my first, and all the actors'. I’m still very good friends with many of the actors in that film, including Derek Jacobi and his partner Richard Clifford, Emma Thompson and her sister Sophie. I’ve been very lucky to work with great directors, talented actors, as well as brilliant people in every department in film.

I've written many concert pieces, and two of them I am very proud of. The first is the “Violin Romance” from As You Like It, which is dedicated to my wife, and I wouldn't be here without her. The second piece is “Corarsik,” composed for my great friend Emma Thompson's birthday and, thirdly, a Scottish Overture composed for the Glasgow Celtic Connections festival.

I was invited to the Prague Shakespeare Festival this year by my great friends Guy Roberts and Jessica Boone, who established the Prague Shakespeare Company almost ten years ago. They invited people from all over the world. It was brilliantly organized, and it was wonderful to meet all the members of these Shakespeare companies. Imagine all these Shakespeare fans, including myself, in one place for a week! Of course, I was as happy as a pig in muck. It was one long party; it was just amazing! They performed a concert of my music, which was the opening night, and they also held a special screening of All is True. Sony Pictures kindly permitted the organizers to screen the film before its release. It was such a special treat for them. The audience was beside themselves, moved to tears. It made me think of all the work with Ken and all the impact it’s made on the lives of so many. I’ve always loved the work of Shakespeare. I adored it in school, but I never thought that I’d end up being so immersed in his work. I’ve been very fortunate.

As you were saying before, it seems like your love of literature and poetry has influenced your work greatly.


Yes, I certainly love poetry and literature. I read every day. I also love factual reading and historical works, for example, biographies. I’m always studying scores and listening to music.

I was asked to be a music consultant for a wonderful novel by an amazing Scottish writer called William Boyd. The book is called Love Is Blind. He came down to my studio one day and was asking me all sorts of questions about music: "Why does this music move me here?" I would say, "Well that's the suspension. And that's a passing note, and that's a leading note. That's a modulation. That's an interrupted cadence." A lot of that musical terminology ended up in William's novel! So far, the feedback from the musical community has been tremendous. His book is a marvelous read. I cannot recommend it enough. It was such a thrill to go to the last page and see a dedication to myself and my son, Patrick [Patrick Neil Doyle], who also helped. I received so many emails, asking “Oh…is that you?”. It was such fun and a pleasant surprise to contribute to William's book, as it was such a diversification from what I normally do.

In 2017, you took on Murder On The Orient Express, a compelling rendering of the classic mystery thriller based on Agatha Christie's 1934 novel. Your score feels like a voyage in itself, pairing dramatic orchestral performances with rich use of instrumentation from far-flung corners of the world. Can you walk us through the palette you assembled and tell us about the musical experiments that took place to establish the tone of the film?


Yes! In advance of doing a film, I always create a template of various sounds. I assembled a conceptual suite inspired by oriental and occidental music and early classical music. I used various indigenous flute sounds and Turkish instruments, including the zither, the cimbalom, the ney flute, and a small amount of duduk. These timbres were chosen to give you a sense of where you are.

For the Orient Express theme, I used an ostinato motif to symbolize the movement of the train, along with rising arpeggios. For the Armstrong theme, I used delicate piano and solo cello. I had also written this song called “Night Train,” which was later used in the film as a piece for solo piano. It featured nice 1940s harmonies and used these sort-of “woo-woo” calls played by a group of saxophones, which sounded like the train horn. There were two ways I created sounds and resonance for the train. That, and the “chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga” of the string ostinato. You can hear this in the piece, "The Orient Express." I mixed the rhythm of the train with the thematic material of "Poirot's Theme". I drew a little bit of inspiration from a theme in Carlito’s Way — the train at the end, the onscreen pianist.

De los foros de Vi-Control:

In real life, I make my living writing movie press materials, essays that are given out to journalists and get posted on websites.

Recently I was hired to write notes on an upcoming Kenneth Branagh film called “All is True,” which is about the last three years in the life of Shakespeare (played by director Branagh). It was a rush job, so in a typical situation, I would only be asked to speak to a handful of people, but Michael Barker, one of the Co-Presidents of Sony Classics had a deep admiration for Patrick Doyle, so he asked me to.

The movie was still shooting when I was hired. Doyle was still in the process of writing the music. I said I didn’t want to speak to him until I could hear some of his music. When he finally sent me some cues, it was the first time I’ve ever heard music by a major film composer before I saw the film. As I had to write about a film I hadn’t seen, it really helped me to hear Doyle’s music. I felt the music told the story to me in a way that none of the other things had done. I finally understood the tone of it, the emotion.

Doyle’s music for “All is True,” is very simple, mainly solo piano (played by Doyle) and chamber strings. There’s a little bit of harp and a sprinkling of instruments that were around in Shakespeare’s time, like Virginal and Bass Recorder, but he and Branagh didn’t want the music to be too period. There is a melody that turns up now and then that ends up being a song, “Fear no more the heat o’ the Sun” (from “Cymbeline”), which is sung by Doyle’s daughter Abigail at the end. (She sang it into her phone and Doyle played it for Branagh, who loved it and insisted she re-record it for the end credits).

When I talked to him, he constantly stopped to have his assistant play me music, and he sang a lot too. He explained to me that he used computers to give Branagh an idea of what he had in mind. He played me some and I said, “that sounds like Spitfire,” and he almost dropped the phone. He thought that was hilarious. Because it was Spitfire. (I was curious about what piano he used to mock this up and he said The Grandeur.)

He said he got a lot of virtual instruments for the film, just to be sure that he would be ready to use more old instruments, but he ended up not using many. But he said it was important for a composer to keep current and add to his collection. Part of the job.

He and Branagh have many plays and 14 films together so they are pretty familiar with the way they like to work. In advance, Branagh gave Doyle two bits of poetry from Shakespeare that appear in the film: “I know a bank,” Oberon’s speech from “A Midsummer’s Dream” (only the melody Doyle wrote for these words are in the film, it’s never sung) and the “Cymbeline” song. He told me that, as a composer, he likes to have “a branch to hang my leaves on.” In other words, he takes lines from the screenplays and uses the rhythms to create music. These two themes are all over the film, but they are altered and orchestrated in so many different ways as to be unrecognizable (to me anyway). Of course, I recognized two uses of “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” in the cues he sent me because the melodies were identical.

It was quite an experience. I particularly loved all the singing he did, when he was trying to explain to me what the themes to the film were and how he changed and used them. I felt honored that he would take the time to do that for me. (Judi Dench, who plays Mrs. Shakespeare, also offered to recite “The Winter’s Tale” for me, but I am pretty sure she was joking) He had been working on it long before shooting began, ever since Branagh gave him the poems. I loved the song that his daughter sings so much that I had figured out how to play it on guitar. I understood why I was able to do that when he told me he had written it in a few hours.

But it was a huge job for him because he played all the piano parts and conducted the orchestra. He said he told the violinists not to play with vibrato. Play like lutes.

I loved the way his soft, cinematic piano sounded. He said that a little bit of echo gives you the feeling of the past and ethereal thought. It was a real piano, but it reminded me of the way I feel when I play the Malmsjo.

What I took from every word he said, was the immense joy he took in his work and the love he had for music. And for the film too. I felt that he understood what the movie was all about as well as Branagh and screenwriter Ben Elton did. I think that is the mark of a great composer as much as a great actor. To serve the work you need to be brilliant enough to appreciate the work in a deep way.

I found Doyle to be a loveable man, and I could happily have gone on talking to him for hours. But I had to stop and get back to writing. Shortly after our conversation ended, my contact at Sony called and said he needed me to turn it in a week early, that very day.

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

¿DVD solo? Que cosa más rara, sobretodo siendo Sony la madre del Blu Ray y teniendo esta peli la fotografía otoñal tan esplendida que dicen que tiene. :(

Es que en las ediciones que hace Sony (ya sea en DVD o en BD), las películas que sean de la marca Sony Pictures Classics hay que diferenciarlas, esto es así porque Sony Pictures Classics es una filial autónomas, entonces las ediciones que hacen de sus películas en vídeo físico (y en vídeo digital también) no las hacen desde Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, sino que las hace la propia filial (en base a lo que ellos estimen por diez mil factores que siendo la filial que es, se escapan) pero al ser propiedad de Sony, pues tienen los logos de Sony y, evidentemente, su distribución.

Por eso la mayoría de sus películas las sacan solo en DVD y se ha dado casos (como la última de Haneke o Una mujer fantástica) que las han sacado solo en BD.

Ya os digo, para ciertas cosas la filial Sony Pictures Classics es toda una incógnita.

Anteayer día 12 se estrenó en España exclusivamente en Plataformas Digitales y solamente en Versión Original Subtitulada*
Ya habréis visto que en España la han sacado con el título "El último acto"

Está disponible en Rakuten, iTunes, Google Play y los videoclubs de Movistar, Vodafone y Orange.

Está disponible en 4K tanto en Rakuten
https://rakuten.tv/es/movies/el-ulti...c-2b10d7bd5a3d

como en iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/es/movie/el...o/id1451255186

*Me es llamativo que Sony haya doblado esta película a idiomas como italiano, polaco y checho pero al español no la hayan doblado cuando precisamente Kenneth Branagh y Judi Dench tienen sendos actores de doblaje fijos, habituales y reconocibles.

El 13/08 salió en Blu-ray en USA.
All Is True [Blu Ray] [Blu-ray] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TPYXBVL..._ABkvDb2X8EVQ6

Iniciado por Branagh/Doyle

¿DVD solo? Que cosa más rara, sobretodo siendo Sony la madre del Blu Ray y teniendo esta peli la fotografía otoñal tan esplendida que dicen que tiene. :(

Branagh/Doyle, tal como indica llongu, sí se acaba de editar en Blu-ray (también parece que sin subtítulos de ninigún tipo).

Saludos

'El último acto': Kenneth Branagh se transforma en Shakespeare y nos deja su mejor película de los últimos años

¿Alguien la ha visto en alguna plataforma VOD?

Yo se la he comprado a Apple en 4K y Dolby Vision, viene en VOS y VOSE. No hay doblaje. A ver si sacamos tiempo para verla, tiene que lucir fantástica en 4K.

Acabo de ver el film y me ha parecido una maravilla y una grandísima demostración de lo buen director que es Branagh, lo soberbio que es como actor (sí, la escena con McKellen es eléctrica y es el centro del film) y sobre todo, es la enésima demostación de de su pasión por la obra de Shakespeare.

Vale que tal vez si no se conocen detalles de la vida del Shakespeare no se pillen todas las referencias (magistralmente engarzadas en la historia, desde lo de la segunda cama, la caza ilegal de ciervos, los problemas de autoría, la costa de Bohemia hasta los comentarios sobre escritores coetáneos), pero eso es sólo una capa de la historia, casi el barniz juguetón que sirve para dar chispa al conjunto.

Porque la base es otra muy diferente, el quid de la cuestión es que Shakespeare tiene el encargo de escribir su última historia y a ello se va a dedicar. Y el Branagh director nos lo va a mostrar de las más bella de las maneras, con una fotografía de aspecto tan natural como arriesgada para lo que se ve ahora (aquí no hay nada de miedo a los claroscuros más definidos), un cuidado perfecto en el diseño de vestuario y en el uso exquisito de los escenarios reales y, sobre todo, la forma de filmar y encuadrar estos escenarios. La puesta en escena me parece magistral con el uso de ligeros contrapicados que parecen que agrandan la escena por momentos (excelente el usado en l

Spoiler:

a salida de la iglesia de tras la boda, vmeos felicidad y tristeza al mismo tiempo)

, pero también el uso de planos generales donde la acción se concentra al fondo de los mismo (de gran emotividad la escena en el jardín donde

Spoiler:

un futuro nacimiento y una muerte presente se entrelazan)

o se distribuye en más zonas (perfectos esos tres puntos de acción que tiene la

Spoiler:

discusión tras la acusación en la iglesia, todo además, filmado desde el exterior de la estancia y usado el quicio de la puerta como marco)

y además, el uso de primerísimos planos cuando lo que importa es ver lo que reflejan las miradas de los personajes (muchas veces además iluminados por la luz natural de las velas). Por tanto, en lo formal el film me parece un verdadero triunfo, donde como siempre en Branagh Doyle tiene mucho que decir, para terminar construyendo el film otoñal en todos sus sentidos.

Respecto al Branagh intérprete, debo reconocer que su interpretación me parece sorprendente porque me parece de una solidez y sencillez apabullantes. No hay nada fuera de tono ni ninguna exageración superflua y de ahí, mediante el silencio y la mirada se cuenta muchas veces más de lo que se dice con palabras. Y si ambos elementos se combinan, el silencio, la palabra, pues se obtienen secuencias como la escena con McKellen, como se indicada más arriba en una crítica, totalmente eléctrica sin necesidad de nada más que dos rostros que hablan y miran. Y además está también por ahí Judy Dench así que el trío shakesperiano no puede ser mejor.

En definitiva, para mí una verdadera obra maestra de Branagh en todos sus aspectos que rezuma admiración y entendimiento hacia la figura de Shakespeare por los cuatro costados.

Saludos

La vimos hace dos días y no he comentado nada porque no se cómo procesar esto. Probablemente sea, y lo digo sin cachondeo ni ironía algunas, su mejor película, y además con cierto margen sobre el resto.

La dirección es asombrosa por las precisión quirurgica con la que emplea cada recurso visual para la narrativa, una puñetera masterclass de planificación visual cargada de subtexto. La fotografía es extraordinaria, de nuevo añadiendo matices al conjunto (esos claroscuros como bien comentas) . El guión, posiblemente el mejor de su carrera, con multiples capas y nula comercialidad. Su trabajo como actor, el mejor de largo de toda su carrera cinematografica. La función narrativa de la exquisita partitura de Doyle es de escuela. La dirección de actores, sublime....


En fin, que Branagh ha echado el resto en la que en el futuro quizá sea considerada su obra magna.


De verdad que me he quedado a cuadros. Me esperaba un buen film, pero esto.... esto es una de las mejores peliculas vistas en los ultimos años.



Tripley, me ha parecido leer entre lineas que a ti tambien te ha impactado, por lo mismo. Te esperabas algo bueno, incluso muy bueno, pero no esto. No así.


Es una puñetera verguenza no ya que esto no haya gozado de un estreno masivo en salas comerciales, sino que haya sido ignorado en cuanto a premios de prestigio se refiere. Podría optar a unos cuantos oscars sin despeinarse, creo yo.

Lo de que no haya ninguna exageración ni atisbo de tics o manierismos en el Branagh actor (que para mí nunca ha pasado de correcto a secas), es casi que inaudito, diría. Esta INMENSO.

Sí, a mí me ha impactado sobremanera porque estamos ante eso, la obra magna de Branagh (en sus dos vertientes de director y actor) y que para conseguir eso, se alía con (bueno, se trasmuta en) Shakespere. Ya no le vale a Branagh ser casi perfecto adaptando a Shakepeare, ahora es perfecto siendo éste.


Y sí, también sorpresa porque tal vez me esperaba más algo más irónico y juguetón, como dijimos más arriba, que parecía que Branagh se desmelenada con su autor de cabecera, y al final no es así, que es verdad que existe una capa de esto mismo con ese juego de referencias, pero eso es al final la guinda del pastel y éste no puede ser mas emotivo y humano en lo que cuenta y muestra ya que vemos eso como Branagh se hace Shakespeare y nos cuenta sus días finales.


Como indicas, una verdadera pena no poder ver esto en pantalla grande, tanto por su exquisitez formal como por su emotividad.


Y sí, lo del Branagh actor es para enmarcar. Aquí me parece que cierra un circulo, el creado con su trabajo en Enrique V y en este film.

Saludos

Yo la vi ayer a través de Orange TV gracias al chivatazo del amigo Brannagh/Doyle. Sin embargo, desde el principio me pareció percibir que el encuadre no era correcto, no estaba equilibrado. Y ya cuando me di cuenta de que había personajes que hablaban desde fuera de campo (sin haber intención dramática detrás)... Pues sí, la copia de Orange está recortada. 16/9 cuando B/D me ha confirmado que la película original es en scope... Increíble que en pleno 2019 suframos aún los efectos de aquel detestable pan&scan de los tiempos del VHS y las teles cuadradas.

Así que la película no la vi especialmente cómodo, y por desgracia no pude disfrutar plenamente del aspecto visual. Sí que se aprecia un gran trabajo de fotografía, que remite muchas veces al chiaroscuro de la época. Y pude intuir un estupendo trabajo de composición de Brannagh, aunque esto último no lo podré disfrutar plenamente hasta que vea una copia íntegra.

La película en sí me gustó, aunque quizás no con el entusiasmo de los compañeros Tripley y B/D. Me gusta mucho el tono sutil, matizado y fluido que hace que no se pueda catalogar del todo la película como dramón o comedia (y sin duda eso ha hecho su comercialización difícil), y el retrato humano de Shakespeare. Un genio que suele ser representado como un ente divino o totalmente fuera de lo normal, y que Brannagh opta por traer a la tierra y dotarle de deseos, alegrías y pesares terrenos, sin juzgarle pero sin ahorrarnos algunas de sus miserias (creo que el diálogo con McKellen precisamente profundiza en esto, cómo el Conde distingue entre el poeta y el hombre).

Convertir al hijo muerto (que además se llama Hamnet) en un fantasma que marca con su ausencia toda la película y atormenta a su padre (casi como dando la vuelta al fantasma del padre en Hamlet) me parece una gran idea. La complicada relación con Judith, la hermana melliza de Hamnet, se convierte así en la herida abierta del conflicto, que se resuelve con la revelación casi "poirotiana" (no debe de ser casual que All is true se rodara entre dos Poirots ) de lo que de verdad le pasó al niño.

La interpretación de Brannagh es fantástica, puede que la mejor de su carrera. Se nota que el personaje significa mucho para él. Quizás le sobra el maquillaje, a veces me supone una cierta "barrera". Shakespeare no es un personaje que necesite representarse con un físico concreto para resultar creíble, creo que habría sido mejor algo más natural.

En cuanto a los aspectos negativos: creo que a la película le falta algo de intensidad en algunos pasajes. Aprecio que Brannagh ha optado por la contención, pero si dicha contención hubiera estado salpicado por momentos ocasionales de mayor emotividad (aunque alguno hay), podría haber resultado mejor.
Por otro lado, el personaje de Judith tiene un cambio de actitud algo repentino (cuando decide casarse para agradar a su padre), creo que falta algo de desarrollo. El personaje de la otra hermana y su marido quedan algo desdibujados, después de que al principio pareciera que iban a tener más importancia.

Por último, decir que me llama la atención que algunos critiquen las inexactitudes históricas (al margen de la elucubración sobre aspectos desconocidos). Creo que el título de la película y lo que se explica en los títulos introductorios, junto con la conversación con el Conde, dejan claro cómo se ha tomado Brannagh este trabajo: cuando un artista narra algo desde el corazón, "todo es verdad". Esta es su verdad sobre Shakespeare, con libertades históricas y todo.