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People & Places In The News
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Kenneth Branagh’s latest bouquet could not have arrived at a more appropriate moment. For even as he was being named “greatest Shakespearean of our day”, the countdown had begun in earnest to the UK release of his typically exuberant and innovative new film version of Love’s Labour’s Lost.
Awarding him its prestigious Golden Quill, The Washington-based Shakespeare Guild praised 38-year-old Branagh for introducing the Bard to a new generation through his films, adding that in the process he had “revived the fortunes of a 435-year-old has-been and turned him into today’s hottest screenwriter.”
Though rightly thrilled by the hon- our from across-the-pond, Branagh would probably argue with some justification that Shakespeare has never ever really been away. What his films have achieved - Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet - is to make timeless theatre soar beyond the proscenium.
That’s true yet again with his 30s- style musical comedy adaptation of Love’s Labour’s Lost, the first venture from The Shakespeare Film Company, a Shepperton- based outfit whose core team comprises Branagh, producer David Barron and pro- duction designer Tim Harvey.
After the mud ‘n’ blood of King Hal, the Tuscan idyll of Much Ado and an four- hour, all-star melancholy Dane in 70mm, Branagh has rung the changes once more with his toe-tapping approach to one of Shakespeare’s least known plays.
He explained: “The play’s remarkably uncynical about love, marriage and the male-female romantic war. It’s really all about the transforming power of love. The characters find that what they thought would transform their lives - study - proves to be quite the opposite.
‘It’s love which turns them into poets and singers, making them ecstatic with pleasure, pain and anguish. The idea of it then also being a musical seemed to set very well with the music and lyics of songs by Gershwin, Porter and Berlin who were, in their own way, just as witty and eloquent about love.”
Alongside Branagh is a cross-genera- tional, cosmopolitan cast - from Hollywood’s Nathan Lane and Alicia Silverstone to home-grown favourites like Geraldine McEwan and Timothy Spall - who all had to undergo “musical comedy boot camp” before the cameras turned. After that it was time to face the music... and dance. ■ Quentin Falk
Love’s Labour’s Lost is released on March 24
Walls that echo with British film and television history now have the very newest technol- ogy with which to display this illustrious past, as well as offering a glimpse into an exciting future.
Thanks to work by British company Silicon Media Ltd, BAFTA headquarters can boast the very latest in high defini- tion digital plasma screens - with seven at the moment, and another three planned for display soon. These screens are used in conjunction with a state-of-the-art com- puter network, and hang directly on the wall in the same way as a painting might. Soon we might all have one in our homes.
“People won’t be wondering what sort of cabinet to put their television on in the future,” explains Dr Selly Saini, managing director of Bedfordshire-based Silicon Media. “Instead they’ll be asking where they can hang the TV.”
With the screens measuring only three inches in depth and 42 inches in diameter, the key advantage to this tech- nology is the sharpness of the image across the whole picture from any angle. This is due to hundreds of thousands of miniature cells that contain a gas which, when its atoms are electrically charged, undergoes a chemical reaction that caus- es it to emit red, green and blue phos- phor. From these three base colours, the television picture is formed - as it is in the pixels on a regular set.
A screen of this size produced for the traditional cathode ray tube technology would be at least two metres deep , so the increase in quality is matched by an econ- omy of size. Dr Saini admits he is thrilled to be working hand in hand with BAFTA, in an initiative that promises to keep the Academy at the forefront of computer dri- ven digital video and internet broadcast technology for some time to come.
The possible applications appear limitless, thanks to Silicon Media’s effort in creating a synergy between the com- puter system and the screens. They might be used for playing videos, accessing DVD material, displaying computer animations of Academy events, running film trailers, documentaries and items of news - and not only for members but the 40,000 visi- tors who attend corporate functions at BAFTA each year.
They also offer a practical interface for video conferencing through any or all of the screens, can be used to help con- duct virtual interactive tours of film sets, and as educational tools for learning about the world of film and television. The 21st century has arrived with the promise of even greater things to come, and two British organisations have united to lead the way. ■ Anwar Brett
www.siliconmedia.co.uk
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