Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead [1990] Tom Stoppard

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Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100519/

INCLUDES INTERVIEWS WITH TOM STOPPARD, GARY OLDMAN, TIM ROTH, AND RICHARD DREYFUSS

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The action of Stoppard's play takes place mainly "in the wings" of Shakespeare's, with brief appearances of major characters from Hamlet who enact fragments of the original's scenes. Between these episodes the two protagonists voice their confusion at the progress of events of whichΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥occurring onstage without them in HamletΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥they have no direct knowledge.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a 1990 film written and directed by Tom Stoppard based on his play of the same name. It was filmed in Bre┼╛ice, Slovenia. Like the play, the film depicts two minor characters from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who find themselves on the road to Elsinore Castle at the behest of the King of Denmark. They encounter a band of players before arriving to find that they are needed to try to discern what troubles the prince Hamlet. Meanwhile, they ponder the meaning of their existence.

The film stars Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz, Tim Roth as Guildenstern and Richard Dreyfuss as the leading player. It also features Iain Glen as Prince Hamlet, Joanna Miles as Gertrude and Donald Sumpter as King Claudius. The film was shot in various locations around the former Yugoslavia. This was Stoppard's debut as a film director, and to date it remains his only film directorial credit.

Gary Oldman ... Rosencrantz
Tim Roth ... Guildenstern
Richard Dreyfuss ... The Player
Livio Badurina ... Tragedian
Tomislav Maretic ... Tragedian
Mare Mlacnik ... Tragedian
Serge Soric ... Tragedian (as Srdjan Soric)
Mladen Vasary ... Tragedian
Zeljko Vukmirica ... Tragedian
Branko Zavrsan ... Tragedian
Joanna Roth ... Ophelia
Iain Glen ... Hamlet
Donald Sumpter ... Claudius
Joanna Miles ... Gertrude
Ljubo Zecevic ... Osric

The main source of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is Shakespeare's Hamlet. Comparisons have also been drawn to Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, for the presence of two central characters who almost appear to be two halves of a single character. Many plot features are similar as well: the characters pass time by playing Questions, impersonating other characters, and interrupting each other or remaining silent for long periods of time.

The central conceit behind Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is the idea that characters in a play have a life independent of their moments before the footlights. Through this lens, Stoppard's play and film examine the nature of free will, life, and death. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to have free will, and complete lives so long as they are not on stage. They bicker, Guildenstern asks deep philosophical questions, and Rosencrantz comes within a whisker of several important scientific discoveries. Still, whenever their wanderings intersect with the other characters in Hamlet Shakespeare's will and words prevail. The two bumble about aimlessly, except when the requirements of the greater plot demand their action; then, they become purposeful and fluent, and deliver Shakespeare's dialogue crisply, even if they give the impression that they don't fully understand what they are saying. This is Stoppard's absurdist spin on the nature of life. Are we really any more free than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

Are our ideas of free will and self-awareness real, or are they merely an illusion, a rug to be yanked out from under us when fate or circumstances (or the will of an unseen Playwright) require? Do we really understand the significance of our actions? Could it be that we are mere extras, our existence and purpose as superfluous to the grand scheme as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are to Hamlet?

Stoppard further underlines the tension between perception and reality by riffing on Hamlet's play within a play that catches the conscience of the king. Dreyfuss's Player and his band of Tragedians create the hapless duo's gateway to the world of Elsinore, thereby casting doubt on the reality of everything that follows. This indeed seems very like what life must be like as a minor character in a Shakespeare play, called to life by actors at whim and condemned to repeat the same actions over and over again wherever and whenever the play is performed.

Performances, more than any other element, carry the day in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Roth's aggressive, inquisitive Guildenstern balances well with Oldman's innocent, naive Rosencrantz. However, perhaps the most interesting character and performance in the play is the Player (Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws, The Goodbye Girl, Krippendorf's Tribe). The Player exists in the original play, of course, but only in a role only slightly more important than the original Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In the hands of Stoppard and Dreyfuss the Player becomes an enigmatic presence, part guide and part heckler, deepening the two protagonists' confusion between reality and unreality.

Fantasporto

1991 Won Directors' Week Award Tom Stoppard

Independent Spirit Awards

1992 Nominated Independent Spirit Award Best Male Lead Gary Oldman

Venice Film Festival

1990 Won Golden Lion Tom Stoppard

SOUNDTRACK
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