Monday, August 14, 2006
Back so soon?
Anyone watching the reruns of I Claudius?
They're fabulous! I'd often heard tales of how good it was way back when, but was a little lukewarm at first: dodgy scenery, a lack of dramatic flourishes and very flat staging, I thought...but after a while it started to burrow inside my brain, and now I see that it doesn't need any of that stuff. It has a fine plot, expertly written and realised, and some top quality acting - from John Hurt's superbly creepy Caligula, through Brian Blessed's spectacularly non-shouty (well, mostly non-shouty: give the man some shouts or it isn't worth casting him!) Augustus, and best of all Sian Phillips' wonderfully amoral Livia. Jacobi is excellent throughout and many of the supporting turns are impressive too.
Makes HBO's lurid and tacky overacted 'Rome' look like the badly scripted lump of dirt it really is. Bah. (Though it does lack the nudity. Which is probably for the best mind you in most cases...)
They're fabulous! I'd often heard tales of how good it was way back when, but was a little lukewarm at first: dodgy scenery, a lack of dramatic flourishes and very flat staging, I thought...but after a while it started to burrow inside my brain, and now I see that it doesn't need any of that stuff. It has a fine plot, expertly written and realised, and some top quality acting - from John Hurt's superbly creepy Caligula, through Brian Blessed's spectacularly non-shouty (well, mostly non-shouty: give the man some shouts or it isn't worth casting him!) Augustus, and best of all Sian Phillips' wonderfully amoral Livia. Jacobi is excellent throughout and many of the supporting turns are impressive too.
Makes HBO's lurid and tacky overacted 'Rome' look like the badly scripted lump of dirt it really is. Bah. (Though it does lack the nudity. Which is probably for the best mind you in most cases...)
# posted by Cobardon @ 8:07 AM 
