Comments on Go Into The Story: 14 Screenplays -- Day 1: Shakespeare In Love

Sorry I'm so late at weighing into your 14 day scr...

2008-10-16T16:23:38.665-04:00

Sorry I'm so late at weighing into your 14 day script challenge. You've picked quite a selection. I'm madly reading to catch up.

What a creative way to address Shakespeare and his work. I loved the way he intertwined fiction with history to produce this great story.

Thanks for working with us Scott - I agree with Judy, it's like being in class again. :)

Julie

Yeah, Luzid, I'm feeling ya pain. I like to conso...

2008-10-15T02:48:34.922-04:00

Yeah, Luzid, I'm feeling ya pain. I like to console myself with a theory/fantasy that Will never gets off that seat until he's finished Twelfth Night. Just Ben Affleck popping in now and then to provide supplies of food and ink...and check that Orsino is still alive.

So the pain is worthwhile.

luzid, the ending of the script is so strong. Wil...

2008-10-14T20:18:11.509-04:00

luzid, the ending of the script is so strong. Will needed a muse - and he found it in Viola. Viola wanted poetry, adventure and love - and she found it in Will. They share an incredibly intense time together, not only falling in love, but creating great art. But fate requires them to separate. Yet that separation, the pain, the reality of it for Will drives him deeply into himself - and presumably the memory of Viola forever - so that now he is a great writer. It's sublime, sad, and beautiful, all at the same time.

I cried.At work.That's powerful writing!

2008-10-14T19:53:57.715-04:00

I cried.

At work.

That's powerful writing!

Great analysis, Judy. A number of callbacks in th...

2008-10-14T16:41:30.534-04:00

Great analysis, Judy. A number of callbacks in the movie, here's another: "How's it turn out? / I don't know. It's a mystery." Hard to see how it isn't almost a perfect screenplay.

Oops. I’m late. I’m interrupting “14 scripts Part ...

2008-10-14T15:58:39.167-04:00

Oops. I’m late. I’m interrupting “14 scripts Part 1” to switch over to “14 scripts Part II” to be on the same page as everybody else. It feels like class. How much fun!

Here is my tuppence worth.

This script wins bonus points for adherence to Billy Wilder’s No. 1 rule: “Grab 'em by the throat and never let go.”

I can only imagine the belly laughs of everyone who read this script. In addition to the inventive origins of highly recognizable plots, actions and lines of Shakespeare’s later work, there’s this huge pile of spot-on inside jokes. The so-loathsome-it’s-funny business of money grubbing and money lending. The wannabe-actor waiters and pub habitués. The everyone’s a critic/everyone’s a writer Boatman. The vagaries of the “business of show.” The writer references, from “he’s no one, he’s the author” to call-back observations like “good name” and “good title.” The Story World of this piece is hysterical, yet it’s also very recognizable and real today in the Universal Truth sense.

Ditto BW’s Rule No. 2: “Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.”

Will’s pressurized situation and dicey future as a writer-for-hire is intro’d immediately by Henslowe’s precarious opening plight. Will’s own financial “want” is flat-out stated on p. 6, when he hits up Henslowe for 50 pounds to buy a partnership in the rival troupe at the Curtain. And that “want” drives his A Story motivation cleanly through to the climax of Act 3, where he loses in love but wins in artistic growth, emotional depth and future prospects, including the partnership his 50-pound purse can buy and the potential greatness that Queen E’s favor extends to him.

I love this script and the film. Lots to learn from it, but these points struck me because they fulfill two of the great Mr. BW’s keys.

I did not know Stoppard co-wrote that.Probably why...

2008-10-13T19:44:39.727-04:00

I did not know Stoppard co-wrote that.

Probably why it was so English and witty.

Agreed, kiwichick, re economy in the script. Amaz...

2008-10-13T18:32:29.684-04:00

Agreed, kiwichick, re economy in the script. Amazing with all that happens in the plot, all that dialogue, and, as you note, a period piece to boot, the script clocks in at under 120 pages. Meanwhile, tomorrow's script Pulp Fiction is 155 pages.

I don't think I could've put my hand up in class a...

2008-10-13T17:25:08.413-04:00

I don't think I could've put my hand up in class and rattled off that analysis - so many thanks, Scott.

Being a period piece, I, wrongly, assumed that it would be loaded with direction. You know, telling the art department how to do their job etc. But, no. It was minimal - stopping every now and then to give some detail that marks a character's world/personality.

Love the economy of dialogue (compared to those huge monologues in Pulp Fiction. But this is where style comes in, right.) Love how each line pushes the scene along. Always a sense of urgency...which is probably driven by those constant needs - I need to get away from this person, I need to write a scene, I need to kiss her or I'll explode etc. The needs were big.

Was very aware that they made every line count - including the 'extras', like the Boatman etc. Loved that.

An extremely easy read.

I think it might just be faultless.