On Screen

I acquired the movie version on Blu-Ray of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead quite some time back but failed to sit down and watch the film all the way through until today. I think my failure to watch it upon purchase was down to the fact that I was uncomfortable with the opening sequences which seemed to me to lack something of the power of the stage version. Not that I've ever seen it on stage, to be honest; I'm referring to the imagined version I play in the the theatre of my mind when reading it.

Funnily enough, I don't think I realised that Stoppard himself directed the movie on my first failed viewing, even though his name is prominent enough in the credits at the outset. That may have made a bit of difference in terms of my readiness to give the whole enterprise the benefit of the doubt today and watch the full two hours, given the sense of some kind of creative authenticity. And I did enjoy the experience, though it's quite different from the original play and, in my opinion, doesn't work so well - despite the fact that Tim Roth and Gary Oldham are excellent as Guil & Ros respectively.

Stoppard rightly makes full use of the vocabulary of film in the screen version and this adds a sort of alternative layer of both meaning & comedy, with lots of emphasis on the physical presence of the players, for example. Actually the costumes alone make the viewing experience rich & captivating. And the various locations add considerably to the visual pleasure. But it all comes, understandably, I guess, at the expense of a fair amount of text being cut. So, yes it's good, but different, and given a choice I'd vote for the unadorned theatrical experience.