What a wonderful experience, tobe! Your pics of Andrew and Roger are great! And Benedict... well, the most important thing is for you to know that you were there and he was there and that you were really, really close to him. Maybe not as close as possible, but nevertheless... pretty close.

SolarSystem wrote:

What a wonderful experience, tobe! Your pics of Andrew and Roger are great! And Benedict... well, the most important thing is for you to know that you were there and he was there and that you were really, really close to him. Maybe not as close as possible, but nevertheless... pretty close.

 
"... breathing the same air..... " (well, almost) 

Thanks Tobe, that was a great report and great pics even with shaking hands. (Sometime the pics I take from my cat lying still on the couch are worse!  )
What an adventure!

good God, Tobe...   beyond awesome,  thanks for the report and photos of your close encounter..  I'm sure your Miss C. will be hanging on to that postcard. 


A friend of mine went to the NT live local cinema showing last weekend,  and raved in general,
and was delighted with the Benedict Rosencrantz/Guildenstern scene....  Our local
theater plans a re-broadcast this next Monday.    I will be there,  looking forward to it!

And their faces at that moment!

miriel68 wrote:

I have seen Benedict's clip ah so many times and I really, really would dream to see him in the whole play. One thing I noticed and I found very amusing, is that while in the play Rosencranzt plays a kind of Forrest Gump to Guildenstern (and the same thing happens in the film, in spite of all scientific discoveries he makes) in this scene it is Rosencrantz who come as a more dominant of the two.

Hm, do you really consider Ben's Rosencrantz to be the dominant one in this scene? Okay, he has more text, he is talking and talking and talking and Guildenstern is just giving some short answers. But what is Rosencrantz talking about? I don't know the play (yet), so all I can go by is this short scene and what Benedict is doing here. But my impression is that Guildenstern is far more relaxed and cool, whereas Rosencrantz is a bit on the crazy side, really. Also a bit anxious. And it seems that lots and lots of thoughts and ideas are making him a bit confused, as if his head was spinning.

So I wouldn't call that dominant. I'd call it talking a lot about pretty weird stuff. And Benedict delivers this really great, don't get me wrong, and I guess we all tend to have thoughts like these from time to time. But Rosencrantz seems to be a bit... obsessed.

SolarSystem wrote:

Hm, do you really consider Ben's Rosencrantz to be the dominant one in this scene? Okay, he has more text, he is talking and talking and talking and Guildenstern is just giving some short answers. But what is Rosencrantz talking about?

Ok, I think I didn't use the right word here. What I mean, in the play (and in the film) Rosencrantz is kind of a endearing fool - this is the way Oldman plays him - he is really dumb and always scolded by Guildernstern/Roth, who is the leader of the duo and the one who is trying all the time to figure out what is going on. In this scene, which admittedly is one of the few in the play when it is Rosencrantz who talks more, the impression is reverse, IMO: Rosencrantz is the excentric thinker and Guildenstern is trying to follow  his train of thinking.
As for what Rosencrantz is talking about, it is very sharp and scary speech, although travested in a kind of comical form. He is pondering the fundamental question of what does it mean to be dead and notices - such a true statement - that we cannot really imagine this, because we tend to think about our being dead as if we were still alive (for example, we imagine how the people will react to our death or how will be our funeral) and not as a total no-existence and blackness without coscience. Once he (R.) understands that, he becomes more and more agitated and frightened, because he realizes that usually we prefere life - ANY life - to death. In life, we can always cling to hope, death is irreversible. However, an eternal life or an eternal conscience of death would be, in fact, both equally frightening. 

btw. the whole R & G are dead witht Oldman and Roth may be found on youtube. It is well worth watching it!

 

I've just rewatched it with my daughter and actually enjoyed it a lot better the second time.
Andrew made me cry again!