Reviews of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead 1991
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Hamlet's a prick.
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Tim Roth and Gary Oldman are lively and energetic as the title characters of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, wherein two minor roles from Hamlet are given center stage for absurdist musings on...well, everything. They're certainly livelier and more energetic than the film itself, adapted by Tom Stoppard from his own play. This is, to date, Stoppard's only directorial effort, and it's easy to see why: he treats his camera as if it's beyond the point. And in a way, it…
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Tom Stoppard is one of the most brilliant playwrights in history. This movie is based on his play of the same name. It's basically a retelling of Shakespeare's
"Hamlet" from the point of view of two minor characters in the play, named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are buddies who aren't really sure where they are or what they are supposed to be doing. They interpret clues and memory fragments to figure out they are supposed to figure out…
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The fantastic concept of the play translates well to the screen, with Oldman and Roth perfectly cast as the everyman savants of the title. Some bits are still a little stagey and a couple of times it does threaten to disappear up its' own arse but there are more than enough great ideas and moments to keep it interesting and irreverant.
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An unusual little gem I discovered whilst having a Tim Roth-othon, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is quite unlike anything I've seen before. The originality of this film prompted me to give it extra star, as there is something both incredibly indulging, yet alienating about the narrative and style of storytelling. The profound philosophical questions raised by the two main characters, who often speak of life, death and the significance of one's self, also amount to some truly wonderful bits of…
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Publiqué el 24/01/2010:
"Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go, when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get"...
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Stoppard, 1990)
www.facebook.com/iskramexico/posts/267942514874 -
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A meditative but fascinating existential journey through Hamlet as seen by two minor characters. Slow in the beginning, but dreamlike and engrossing if you let yourself enjoy it.
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Play, Drama, Tragedy
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Roth and Oldman Are Famous.
As far as Stoppard's sole film-directing effort goes, it succeeds in the most important areas: subtle characterization and a brilliant realization of the play's absurdist imagery. On the other hand, it's not a full adaptation, and Stoppard left out nifty errata from the original play that developed the titular characters even further. He replaces this stuff quite easily—read: Guildenstern nearly inventing the hamburger—but some sequences suffer from languid pacing more so than others. In a…
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I had high hopes for this, but in the end it was rather tame. Very, very good start and end, though.
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The play is INFINITELY better - as usual, but this adaptation would have been better itself if the cast had slowed down their speech a bit. Sometimes it's almost incoherent.