Richard III vs.

Looking for Richard

Title: Looking for Richard
Directed by: Al Pacino
Narration: Al Pacino, who gives his view on the play.
Genre: Docu-drama it was supposed to be the movie of the play, but there
was not enough time.
Year: 1996
Plot [imdb]: Director Al Pacino juxtaposes scenes from Richard III, scenes of
rehearsals for Richard III, and sessions where parties involved discuss the
play, the times that shaped the play and the events that happened at the time
the play is set. Interviews with mostly British actors are also included,
attempting to explain why American actors have more problems performing
Shakespearean plays than they do.
Purpose: Al Pacino wants to communicate his feelings about Richard III to
the modern audience. That is, make Shakespeare more accessible to 20 th
century.
Audience: post modern audience

The movie recontexutalises the play Richard III

It takes out the meaning, texts, in this case scenes and themes
out of the original text (Richard III) and introduces it into the new
modern context post modernism
The modern context does not understand Shakespeare, it is
seen as a barrier for most due to his language which is not used
in the present day
To make Shakespeare more accessible, and in particular Richard III, Al
Pacino modernises speech, and gives the audience modern scenarios.
Modern audience has the gap of 400 years+ between now and
Shakespeare lots of things forgotten e.g. we remember WW1
and WW2 clearly but not say Battle of the roses however,
the Shakespeare audience would have known it as a common
thought.
Shakespeare is made more accessible with the use of humour, action,
and modern themes such as romanticism and violence.
Acting has been changed to suit modern audience fluid, sinister (as
shown in Looking for Richard in the opening soliloquy of Richard the
character acts so the audience can see what he is talking about i.e. his
plan. Also cross cutting of Edward is shown to remind audience.)
Dialogue is also changed to meet purpose, e.g. things are omitted, and
said in different ways to convey their importance
In Shakespeares time, iambic pentameter would have been
commonly accepted, the actors would be familiar. However
actors now are not especially the inferiority complex
developed within American actors to perform Shakespeare.
Lady Annes encounter with Richard is moderately reformed
and rearranged even though some essentials are excluded e.g.
stichomythia between them. However as Al Pacino says, the
modern audience just needs to get the gist of what is
happening but more importantly only the main things matter
i.e. Richards wooing of Anne, his plains and his deceiving
character.
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Darshil Shah

ACT I Scene ii Richard woos Lady Anne vs. Lade Anne

Discuss how the scene you read from Richard III and the scene you viewed
from Looking for Richard are connected. In your response you should
consider the purpose, audience, form, context, characters, themes, values
and techniques of each text.
Discuss: Identify issues and provide points for and/or against
Connected: joined or linked together

So to answer the question we need to show what connection exists

between the two texts
o A connection is just how they are linked, and because it is discuss, it
means for and against, that is, how they connect even with similar
and/or different ideas.
Also, aspects of purpose, audience, form, context, characters, themes,
values and techniques need to be included

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Darshil Shah