xiphias | The Revenger's Tragedy

When we were in DC for the Marlowe plays, we went out to lunch with our friend Akiva Fox, the dramaturg for the company. Over lunch, he'd mentioned that he'd found a movie version of Thomas Middleton's (or maybe Cyril Tourneur's) play The Revenger's Tragedy. It was filmed in 2002, and put together by Alex Cox, who was the director of Sid and Nancy and Repo Man. It's set in a post-apocalyptic Liverpool, and stars Chris Eccleston as Vindici (The Revenger), Derek Jacobi as the Duke who killed Vindici's beloved, and Eddie Izzard as the Duke's son Lussurioso (The Lecher) who is trying to seduce Vindici's sister.

Okay. Let's recap. A Jacobean revenge play, set in a post-apocalyptic world, directed by Alex Cox, and starring Christopher Eccleston, Eddie Izzard, and Derek Jacobi.

It took Lis WEEKS to track down a copy in any of the libraries we are members of.

We watched it last night.

Those of you who have Netflix? Put this one on your queue. It's not one I'd watch over and over again, but it was fun, and it's definitely worth watching, at least once.

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*shree*

*that's a cross between a fangrrly squee and a shriek of glee*

My extreme reaction is based largely on the fact that the plot of my favorite novel, Pamela Dean's Tam Lin is extended by/enriched by/dependent on a production of The Revenger's Tragedy that some of the novel's characters produce.

And now I'm getting a vision of Christopher Eccleston (with bleached hair, unfortunately) as a grown-up version of the novel's romantic protagonist, who plays Vindice in the play-within-a-novel. Whoahhhh /Bill and Ted.

*zips off to start a Netflix queue*

There are some flashback scenes to his pre-revenge-driven state, where Eccleston does have long blond hair.

But for most of the film he goes around with buzzed-off hair. [YouTube has an early scene, though it's in the wrong aspect ratio]

Yeah, my immediate reaction was, "Has someone informed

pameladean?"

I knew that name sounded familiar! Wow, now I'm really curious.

Forwarded to my daughter

crankyinfrance, who ... um... may love it for a number of reasons.

Hem superat tots els límits.
S'imposa un retorn al desordre.
--Carles Hac Mor, Catalan poet

(on a T-shirt she brought me from Barcelona)

I've gotten awfully jaded about post-apocalyptic versions of Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies. I've seen several. The last one was a Macbeth. The entire cast was strong except for the Thane of Cawdor himself, which was bad enough in itself, and the sets and techno-acoutrements were really close to being too much. The phantom dagger, for instance, appeared on three TV monitors above Macbeth's head during the soliloquy, revolving constantly in shimmering red light. It sort of worked and sort of didn't.

Define "works". It was a lot of fun, and it was worth seeing. That may or may not mean that it works, though.

I think it more-or-less worked.

or laugh or groan inappropriately or want to make constant audible comments along the lines of "Aw, that ain't RIGHT"!

I mailed your book today, speaking of oddities. Under normal circumstances you'd have it the middle of next week. Considering the season, you'll have it whenever the Postal Snail gets it to you. ;)

Define "inappropriately."

From Alex Cox's website:

WHY IS IT SO SILLY?

What do you mean? REVENGERS TRAGEDY is a tight-lipped, hard-edged Noir thriller featuring a showdown between narrow-eyed, desperate hombres. Just because the characters have names like Spurio, or Ambitioso, or Supervacuo, or a mother who has sex with her own sons, or a hero who carries his late wife's head around with him, doesn't mean they're meant to be ridiculous!

I don't know that

moosl will be amused by it, but I think I'll get a kick out of it. I'll take your word for it that the setting doesn't interfere with the play, and add it to my Netflix queue. It doesn't sound as if it'd make the Evil Shakespeare Overlords List, either.

Ooh, thanks for the recommendation. I'm looking for some movies to watch over the holidays, when we won't be rehearsing, and this sounds like just my cup of tea. Especially if Derek Jacobi is involved.

Ye gods and little fishes, if I'd known neither of you had seen this, I would have pimped it ages ago.

It's really difficult to find in the US -- they never got a United States distributor. They wanted to time it for the "Eddie Izzard Conquers America" tour, but nobody picked it up, and then they got disgusted with the USA because of the war in Iraq anyway, and decided to just not bother with us.

::hugs::

That sucks. Come and live over here. We have proper cider. And beer!

. . . hmm.

Let me get back to you on that after the next US election. . . .

::grins::

Sure thing. I'll keep a seat for you in Dylan Thomas' old haunt: The No Sign Wine Bar.

You've convinced me to get a copy (used) on dvd... which tends to be how I get to see things these days (since we don't Netflix etc).

If you can find it, you ought to. If we could find a used copy, we'd probably go for it, too. It will be difficult to find, though.

There's 33 used/new on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00027JYEY/ref=dp_olp_2/104-9309189-7678336
I just bought one m'self.

I found one on Amazon.com with no problem.

FWIW, the one copy we found was in the Minuteman library network (Franklin) so you should be able to request it be sent to Cambridge Public.

Thanks for that review...
Given the recap, that one is going on the list for certain! :)

Oh, lordy. Just the idea of this film makes me very happy!

The Revenger's Tragedy

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It really works?

Re: It really works?

If it didn't make you squirm uncomfortably or want to throw peanuts, for instance

Re: If it didn't make you squirm uncomfortably or want to throw peanuts, for instance

The play itself is definitely my idea of a good time

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Theatrical porn