THE DAILY TELEGIRAFFE
Kenneth Branagh winks entering the Castro Theater in San Francisco.
My Weekend with Roger Federer
Jonny bowing for "Pyramid Song", Santa Barbara Bowl: it was raining but we forgot that . . .
The band have also chosen "The Amazing Sounds of Orgy", a live premiere. "It was my pleasure. It will be my pleasure. It is going to be my pleasure," quipped Thom Yorke. "These Are My Twisted Words" and older songs include "Myxomatosis", "Airbag", and any of "In Rainbows". Solidly recurring are brand new songs, "Identikit" and "Cut A Hole". Encores rotate "Paranoid Android" with "Karma Police" and "You And Whose Army?"
Radiohead - The Zen Album
The King of Limbs: Explore, Expand, Embrace
By Renie Pickman-Thoon
March 7, 2011
Click here for our in-depth review of The King of Limbs.
Radiohead - From the Basement 2011 - The King Of Limbs - photos and quickie review at What's Up Music.
What's Up STAGE Alan Rickman's Life Lessons in "Seminar"
Radiohead setlist in NYC. The band kicked off The King of Limbs Tour in New York at Roseland on September 28 and 29. They will tour in 2012, and Thom Yorke's sideband Atoms for Peace has a full new release of songs in the works, to pick up where "The Eraser" left off.
Kenneth Branagh has been highly visible (and highly regarded) for his work as Sir Laurence Olivier in "My Week with Marilyn". Fans of detective poet Kurt Wallander are pleased that filming has wrapped, and eagerly await a bounty of three films (a set of two adaptations - The Dogs of Riga and The White Lioness - and one screenplay based on a short story about the character) starring the Swedish philosopher hero doing the best he can in what Branagh calls an "arena for introspection".
A chorus of critiques from physicists soon followed. Among other possible errors, some suggested that the neutrinos generated at CERN were smeared into bunches too wide to measure precisely. So in recent weeks, the OPERA team tightened the packets of neutrinos that CERN sent sailing toward Italy. Such tightening removed some uncertainty in the neutrinos’ speed. In the second experiment, the detector still saw neutrinos moving faster than light. AP news.
The Damage from the War in Iraq: Consequences are Local, Familial, Global and Never Collateral
An excerpt from an interview with Kenneth Branagh by the Telegraph follows, where the actor/director discusses what makes him go.
'Not that I feel I need to justify it or explain it, but I know it wasn’t about, “Hey, look at me”,’ Branagh says evenly of his early working life. 'It was about absolute enjoyment of what I was doing. I did not expect to be allowed to be an actor, to be allowed to eventually direct things.
'So really, frankly, for many, many years after that, there’s still a kind of “pinch me I can’t believe this is happening” thrill to it. There was an ebullience; there was an effusion. A sheer enjoyment of doing it. Maybe the work ethic was to do with justifying that one was worthy of that.’
But often, he adds, it was about fairness. If he ran his own theatre company, he could pay everyone the same money. If he made his own films and turned a profit, he could split it equally. 'Not rocket science,’ he notes, 'but things I believed in.’ He talks about In the Bleak Midwinter, his 1995 comedy, shot in black and white, about a small theatre company’s attempt to put on Hamlet at Christmas. 'One of the greatest pleasures I had was when we had a screening on a Sunday morning in the West End. And most of the crew and cast came, including Joan Collins. I’d paid for the film myself with the money I made from Frankenstein, and we sold it at a profit. The books were completely open. And as they left the cinema that morning, we had all the envelopes laid out and we gave everybody a cheque – including Joan Collins, who nearly fell over. She said, “I’ve been in the businessÖ for a quite a long time, and this has never happened.” She opened it and she said, “F***ing hell!” Because it was not inconsiderable.’
By now we have moved back to the Yellow Bird HQ and, sitting in the dining area, Branagh is drinking tea.
'I remember telling my dad about that and he thought that was bloody good. Because he used to tell me about Friday nights, Crown Pub, in Belfast, opposite the Europa [Hotel], in one of those booths – they’d finish work at three or four o’clock and he would be doling out the cash. It reminded me of that. So I was proud of that. I thought that was fair and that was sharing it out. And because I’d paid for that, I was able to protect the film. It didn’t get snaffled up by all the ways and many means you can be shafted in our business.
'And there you go,’ he concludes. 'It doesn’t make me Saint Ken. But [the motives] can be as straight as that.’
Straightness, fairness and camaraderie: these are things that matter to Branagh. Also in the context of In the Bleak Midwinter he mentions the writer and director Richard Curtis: he was 'a big fan of my little comedy. When he need not have been, Richard was somebody who encouraged and was simply kind and enthusiastic. And smart and funny. That’s one of those things in this business that you remember.’ Thus, when I ask Branagh why exactly he had undertaken a comic cameo last year in Curtis’s slight The Boat That Rocked, he replies that he was returning the favour. 'If Richard Curtis had asked me to walk off a plank into the ocean I’d have done so.’
'Ken genuinely loves the idea of everyone together in a team,’ Curtis says. 'That egalitarian spirit, I think, is why he wanted to get on so much when he was young – just for the crack of it. He rang me up right before we began shooting The Boat That Rocked, and he said, “As a director,
I know how scary the first day is – you’ve to get to know your costume person and your cameraman. So I want you to ignore me completely.” He was on set for four days and he wasn’t remotely precious or grand, just completely humble. And like a lot of English classical actors, such as Michael Gambon, Ian McKellen and Simon Russell Beale, he is very good at comedy.’
For Branagh, support and encouragement must go both ways. Daniel Radcliffe credits Branagh with pushing him in the direction of Equus: Branagh had the original idea for Radcliffe to star in the much-praised 2007 West End revival of Peter Shaffer’s play. 'Ken was great because he was always looking out for possibilities of stuff we could be doing together,’ Radcliffe recalls, adding that he originally suggested they do Rattigan’s The Browning Version. Branagh oversaw early workshops for Equus. Meanwhile, Branagh has cast his Wallander co-star, Tom Hiddleston, in his next directorial project, Thor, starring Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins. It’s another intriguing left turn in a consistently adventurous career, but at this early stage of production (filming begins in Los Angeles in the next few weeks) Branagh is contractually prevented from speaking about what, one imagines, will be a CGI-heavy Hollywood blockbuster comic-book adaptation. But he has been using his time in Sweden to research Viking mythology and visit Norway on fact-finding trips. So serious is he about the project that, last year, he handed over to Michael Grandage his planned directing of Jude Law in Hamlet – a huge theatrical undertaking that he had been preparing a year.
'I tried for a long time to see if I could do both [Hamlet and Thor],’ he says, 'and I couldn’t. And then I said to Michael and Jude, “What do you think?” You know, it was a difficult moment. You don’t want to let anybody down. But honesty’s the best policy.’ For Branagh the prospect of making a Marvel superhero movie 'is just such an extra-ordinary adventure to go on. It doesn’t happen every two minutes. And Michael and Jude said, “On your way, and enjoy it . . . ’’’
Back outside Ystad’s swimming-pool, Wallander is slumping down the road. On the director’s instruction Branagh does it three, four, five times. On each occasion, he stops beneath a tree. On one take he exhales heavily. Another, he stares up at the branches, eyes closed. Another, he seems almost catatonically numb.
These are the closing scenes of The Man Who Smiled. 'It’s Wallander walking away from his job, basically,’ Branagh explained. 'He’s constantly been in turmoil about whether he wants to continue to be a policeman. And he appears to have decided not to be.’ Over the three new adaptations 'he goes on an interesting journey, which is to really deeply question why he’s a policeman and the price he pays, the personal price, in relation to death . . . ’
For Branagh, too, the work is important, but not if it means losing yourself. 'I’d say that’s from my parents. It’s a basic Irish working-class thing.
I was working with a huge star not long before my father died, and he said, [in a broad Ulster accent], “You wanna watch him, I think he’s forgot himself . . . ”
'Now,’ Branagh says with a smile, 'that’s a cardinal sin for them. It’s about simply remembering yourself and remembering what you’re doing and to be in the here and now. And know who your friends are, and know the value of money – in as much as it isn’t going to make you happy. Your health is really the greatest blessing you can ever have, and after that friends and family.
'And all of those things contain complexities and sophistications and plenty of stuff to keep your life interesting. But if it’s about the spurious pursuit of the glittering prizes, you’ll find that they won’t give you a hug late at night.’
Atoms for Peace consists of musicians Beck drummer Joey Waronker, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich,
Michael Grandage directs Jude Law in the Broadway transfer of Hamlet.
The Bard's New Profile Pic - March 9, 2009
Forget the Chandos portrait, and get ready to welcome instead "The Cobbe oil painting of William Shakespeare". According to Professor Stanley Wells, whose scholarly books related to Shakespeare are perhaps in their 524th editions, this newly-identified portrait (below) is as genuine as it gets. Visual and scientific dating evidence appear to affirm that Shakespeare had a handsome and intelligent face, and looked younger than his 46 years.
On March 9, 2009, at the unveiling at Dartmouth House, in London's Mayfair, Professor Wells (on the right, above), the chairman of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, declared himself 90% certain the portrait is authentic as "the only lifetime portrait of Shakespeare".
Investigations were carried out by Professor Rupert Featherstone, director of the Hamilton Kerr Institute at Cambridge University which focuses on conservation of easel paintings, Hamburg University where they dated the oak panelling of the painting and Tager Stonor Richardson, which carried out infrared imaging. Mark Broch, curator of the Cobbe Collection also carried out painstaking research.
The painting will go on display at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, Shakespeare's birthday.
Compare this rendering, proven to have been contemporaneously created during Shakespeare's lifetime.
Anthony Minghella--A brief tribute.
Excerpt from an interview with Kenneth Branagh in the Mainichi Weekly Online
Q: According to your biography, you left Belfast when you were 9 to
escape the Troubles. Do you think your experience of the conflict there
influences your battle scenes?
A: I think it makes me aware of how easy it is for people to hate,
rather than to love. I think it's a very exciting time in Northern
Ireland right now. Politically, a massive, massive shift has occurred,
and ancient hatreds have been put aside. I think an awareness of conflict
and the need to resolve, the need for peace was very much part of my
background. And this film [The Magic Flute, directed by Branagh] certainly
is about the need for peace.
Q: What is your motto in life?
A: A good question. A hard question. It sounds like a cliche, but there
is a line from Hamlet, at the end, where he says, "The readiness is all."
In that context, it's probably about being ready for death, but I think
it's a motto for me and it's about trying to be open in life, be open to
experience, be open to situations and to people. And be ready, be ready to
be surprised, sometimes be ready to be disappointed, be ready to be excited
and be ready for anything. But be ready for things to change. Be active and
positive. I suppose another way of saying the same thing would be: 'Anything
can happen, enjoy it.'"
Kenneth's Branagh's Hamlet on DVD, complete with a commentary by the director and long-time consultant and Shakespeare scholar Russell Jackson. With a never better Kate Winslet, and oh, the flashbacks.
For more background on Branagh's film version of Hamlet, try The Readiness is All -- The Filming of Hamlet.
Kenneth Branagh, Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes and others on the compact disc of Shakespeare's Sonnets
Offsite Offerings
Need Shakespeare? Check here for outside Shakespeare links.
Need a Shax monologue? Try the Monologue Archive.
Read Shakespeare here, at the Literature Network online.
Voices and Verses in Film: What are those poems and who wrote them?
Recent Theatre Highlights: Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman on Stage
California Shakespeare Theatre's 2003 season included Julius Caesar and The Winter's Tale.
Go to Page 2 of the Front Page
Go to Page 3 of the Front Page
Go to Page 4 of the Front Page
Features of the Daily Telegiraffe
What's Up: BOOKS Sarah Hatchuel, "Branagh and The Bard: A Companion to the
Shakespearean Films of Kenneth Branagh"
What's Up: FILM Waking Will Divinely: Shakespeare in Love
What's Up: STAGE Ralph Fiennes Finds Richard II and Coriolanus
Back Issues:
What's Up STAGE Rufus Sewell Takes on Macbeth
__________________________________________________________________________________
NEW YORK - "Hamlet" was chosen as the greatest poem
of the millenium in the New York Times Magazine millenium review!
LONDON (Reuters) - William Shakespeare was picked as Britain's "Man of the
Millennium" by a poll of BBC radio listeners!
ENJOY . . . Chosen as the greatest poem of the millenium, Hamlet endures.
ENJOY . . . Who is the "Greatest Fictional Character in World Literature and Legend" - - one guess.
ENJOY . . . Back issues of our features, indexed by subject on the front page, and on current feature pages.
ENJOY . . . Programme notes from the NFT's Branagh Retrospective, now added off of the Hamlet page.
ENJOY . . . Gertrude and Claudius,
a book by John Updike, explores the new King and Queen.
ENJOY . . .
Shakespeare in Less Than 10 Minutes Review of a video of restorations of the
earliest surviving silent Shakespeare films from 1899-1911. Also, can you
choose your five favourite Shakespeare films? Check your picks against Kenneth Branagh's
choices.
ENJOY . . . Director Michael Almereyda's film "collage" of a knit-hatted Ethan Hawke as a Gen-X slacker. Our review of his Hamlet is here.
Almereyda does Denmark as a corporate prison.
From the New York Times: Two Fortinbrases and the Ghosts of Hamlets Past. The last
stage Hamlet of 1999 in New York becomes a photo album of Hamlets past, including
Branagh, Olivier, and Gibson.
Added: The New York Post muses
on performing Hamlet.
ENJOY . . . Woody Allen, C'est Moi A
French interview with Kenneth Branagh about working with Woody Allen.
ENJOY . . . ABC: Woody Allen, Kenneth Branagh, and Celebrity
ENJOY . . . Behind Celebrity's Curtain:
An unabashedly editorial film review from the front office.
ENJOY . . . Glimpses of genius. In praise of HAMLET: Kenneth Branagh's film version captures the soul of Hamlet.
Also find on the Hamlet Page an interview with Kenneth Branagh (now with photograph)
and an account of the London benefit screening of Hamlet, at which Branagh appeared.
ENJOY . . . The New York Times review of "Discovering Hamlet" a short film which documents Branagh's
early take on the stage role under the direction of Sir Derek Jacobi.
ENJOY . . . Kenneth Branagh's interview at his NFT Retrospective, as conducted by the Guardian newspaper. Complete text, and complete
Questions and Answers now available.
ENJOY . . .
Billy Crystal does DeNiro working on Branagh's Hamlet, and
a bit of his version of the Woodman doing the Dane. All we need now is the audioclip!
ENJOY . . . Alan Rickman plays A. Dane in a science-fiction comedy/parody
of the Star Trek universe, in Galaxy Quest.
Click here for a transcription of Rickman's appearance on "Late Night
with Conan O'Brien" promoting the film.
ENJOY . . . The films "
Onegin" and
"The End of the Affair" open with reviews, interviews, and photographs. Fiennes has been
searching for Pushkin's anti-hero for some time now. His article, with a link to Empire Magazine's review
of Onegin
USING THE DAILY TELEGIRAFFE
Safari works best.
Bookmark us, or find us in .08 seconds under "Telegiraffe" using
Google
or just search the web.
© 1998--2012 Daily Telegiraffe
The Daily Telegiraffe is a non-daily non-dairy publication, where Mel Brooks meets Jane Austen,
WARNING!!!: Reading these articles has been known
This publication is for entertainment only. Pages which contain our Big Ben icon
All proprietary and legal rights reserved. On the other hand, you've read this far,
The Daily Telegiraffe also brings you "real deal" news and items, which can be found off of this front page.
Send e-mail, comments, additions
to reniept@hotmail.com or click here.
From the Front Office: September 30, 2011. "An Unwelcome Gardener"
Refuse to passively tolerate the asphyxiation of our planet and our future. 
Not just "reduce, reuse, recycle." Rethink.
percussionist Forro in the Dark lead Mauro Refosco, and bassist Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The band wrapped a five-stop US tour in April 2010. 
From the Front Office: The Copenhagen Accord: "A Hollow Victory"
Reviewed in What's Up Stage.
William Shakespeare, at 46, in a portrait painted in his lifetime. The latest in the search to discover the true likeness of the greatest Western writer in history. Shakespeare died in 1616, only 6 years after the portrait was completed. 
20 July 2007
For extensive links on Branagh's Hamlet, check Virginia's
Kenneth Branagh in David Mamet's "Edmond". Reviews and photos of Branagh at the National Theatre. 
Young new actors thank Ken-Friends and their generous support. 
"When Love Speaks". Produced by the late Michael Kamen.
Escape 
Kenneth Branagh as Richard III was both revelation and reminder.
Alan Rickman as Elyot in a true-to-life Private Lives.
What's Up: BOOKS Harold Bloom, "Shakespeare: The Invention
of the Human"
With the Austen lover's link. 
FRONT PAGE
News/
The Good BitsSHAKESPEARE in PERFORMANCE
THE HAMLET PAGE
links/LINKS
What's Up: STAGE
What's Up: BOOKS
What's Up: MUSIC
What's Up: FILM
Fictional Characters
What's Up:
ARTToday's Special
Sure We
Thank You
Woody Allen meets Thomas Hardy,and everybody loves Shakespeare.
to induce mild amusement and may become habit-forming.
contain parody and fabrications intended as humourous commentary and witty jocularity.
Such page(s) may also include irreverent sarcasm, elements of irony, and assume a level
of intelligence on the part of the reader. We apologize for any inconvenience.
and the Daily Telegiraffe believes that tenacity should be rewarded. Accordingly,
permission is hereby given to reprint, reproduce, and otherwise distribute any original
articles which appear herein, as long as the name of this publication is cited.
The copyright for those items remain with the original creator(s) and no infringement is intended.