Woke up yesterday and could not tell whether it was day or night, it was so dark and grey and rainy. I was very pleased that the truly crappy weather held off for a day, and decided to lay around the house doing bugger-all all day long.

Man, it's nice to not be working on a show and having actual free time.

Mostly I hung around and watched TiVo and thought about going into the city to go to the movies, and went to the supermarket with the Radio Flyer to buy heavy things in the rain.

The rain was funny, though, because there was an awful lot of it, but the drops was really tiny, so it was what I termed to be "sprinkle-pouring". Please feel free to use at will.

Later, it was pouring-pouring, and I was thrilled to be indoors.

I decided to watch my Netflix films so that I can send them back (which is rather like watching TiVo so that I can clear space in order to record more shows).

The first one was Austin Powers--The Spy Who Shagged Me, which I specifically got so that I could see the newest one, because I never saw the second one, though I quite liked the first one. It was okay, there were sections that made me laugh out loud, particularly Rob Lowe's hilarious R.J. Wagner impression, but I wasn't mad for it.

I watched it again with the commentary rather resentfully, in fact, but I actually enjoyed it better that way! It was an extremely clever and amusing commentary and my only complaint was that it ended too early. About fifteen minutes before the end, they suddenly said, "I know what people watching this are thinking, they are thinking "Shut up! Shut up and let us watch the movie!'" which is, frankly, moronic. People watching this voluntary, alternate track are not wanting to watch the movie, they are wanting to hear the commentary, if we wanted to hear the movie without commentary, we would not turn on the commentary track. Dorks.

And then I watched part of Henry V. I remembered that it was a wonderful movie, but not just how wonderful.

So far, Kenneth Branagh really is this generation's Orson Wells, though hopefully he won't end up obscenely fat and making wine commercials, in that, though he has made some fine, even excellent films beside, nothing can touch his first film.

I think that when you are able to make a film for no money with no expectations and nobody paying attention, you cast your friends (this works best if your friends are world-class actors), you star yourself, and you do everything exactly the way you want to, if it's a big success, it'll never be that way again.

The reason this film is so great is, more than anything, the cast. Only in England can you make an all-star film and have everyone be a brilliant Shakespeare actor. In fact, I'd say that the reason this is Branagh's only perfect film is that it's the only film where he didn't cast any Americans.

I am not saying that Americans can't do Shakespeare, nearly every single person in Kate's production of Midsummer could play the hell out of Shakespeare, but I am saying that it's not such an automatic part of an actor's education here, not to mention the fact that most American movie stars have no stage experience, no education, cannot play anyone but themselves, or at least certainly cannot play period, and also aren't very bright. Not all, Charleton Heston was amazing in Branagh's Hamlet and Robert Sean Leonard was extremely good in Much Ado, but conversely Jack Lemmon was appalling, and when it comes right down to it, it doesn't matter how great the movie is otherwise, if it has Keanu Reeves in it, it's just not going to be good enough.

The other thing that I am not saying is that you have to be a great Shakesperian actor in order to be a great actor, as this is simply not so. The aforementioned Jack Lemmon being an excellent example. No-one can argue that he is not a great actor, (well, they could, but they'd be entirely wrong), but he was really quite astonishingly bad in Hamlet.

Shakespearian acting is a very specific set of skills--you can be a great athlete an yet not be particularly good at tennis because you never developed those skills. In Shakesperian acting you need to be able to make a completely unfamiliar style of language filled with words that people don't understand sound natural, and make sense to the audience. And most British actors have had these skills drummed into their head from childhood, so even the stars know how to do it.

Well, Henry not only had an all British cast, most of the actors were simply the Platonic ideal for their roles. There will never, can never be a better Chorus than Derek Jacobi, a better Mistress Quickly than Judi Dench, a better Exeter than Brian Blessed (the only man currently living who looks more natural in armour than in regular clothes), a better Fluellan than Ian Holm, a better Falstaff than Robbie Coltrane. And of course, Branagh was a fine fine Henry.

It is so beautifully cast, acted, shot, designed and directed, a pleasure to contemplate and a treat to watch. My only argument is that I would have loved a commentary, he's such a good and funny storyteller I'm certain that it would be a classic.

Today's horoscope:
Don't let inertia keep you in old, uncomfortable patterns. Seek out what you know you will enjoy and do more of it!

One year ago today:
"I saw The Others yesterday, and The Others just wishes it was this scary!"

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Last Updated Sun 25 August 21:05:09 2001