growing up and dumbing down…

kenneth branagh and julie christie in "hamlet" (ca. 1997)

you know, since i’ve had the time as of late, i’ve rediscovered certain things about myself that have been dormant for quite some time.  if you’ve never known me – or even if you have – you would never know that i absolutely devour shakespeare and my favorite interpretations are those by kenneth branagh.  i finally, after waiting for seven odd years, bought hamlet and othello and have watched each in their entirety everyday since buying them.  i will say i was quite well-versed in shakespeare and could easily recite soliloquies from hamlet with ease when i was sixteen.  i’d always carry a pocket companion of the yale shakespeare series on me from the library nearly every day of my high school career.  not sure what happened when i hit college, but no matter.

kenneth branagh (right) in "valkyrie"

so since i hadn’t seen a work of branagh’s in so long – since warm springs – i decided to look him up and was literally distressed to see how much he’d aged.  i heard he would be in the upcoming film valkyrie, and jumped with glee at the chance to marry two of my favorite things in the world: my obsession with studying the politics of the third reich and kenneth branagh’s acting.  i guess it’s just strange to realize how far off my own character i’ve been.  i feel almost as if i was more intellectual when i was sixteen than i am at twenty-two.  in attempts to break this cycle, i’ve conned my best friend into getting me the complete yale shakespeare for christmas so that i may relive my childhood in the strangest sense.  in the meantime, i must make a pilgrimage to england to see branagh in ivanov.  if by some strange chance i get that far, all shall know in the finest detail.

maybe i’ll read up and provide critical analyses of hamlet…obsession’s a peculiar thing.