feeling listless

Film Just watched a great little piece called The King Is Alive. It's the fourth Dogme '95 film and follows a group of tourists and businessmen who's coach gets lost in the desert and are forced to survive of tins of carrots, passing the time by putting a production of King Lear. Think Ken Branagh's In The Bleak Midwinter meets the opening sundrenched scenes in Pitch Black. As time goes on, their lives and the story from the play start to interlink. In an interview, director Kristian Levring describes the genius element which makes the film particularly interesting:

"Some find the idea amusing while others think that it is the most ridiculous thing they ever heard, and since he hasn't actually brought King Lear with him out into the desert, the play he stages is the King Lear of his memory, modified to fit with the people he has at his disposal. In that way he makes it a Dogme King Lear. The film focuses on what happens with these people when they start thinking about their characters, their roles, who they are and the art in their every day lives."

The scenes in which the characters read the lines as non-professional actors really do sent me right back to working through the plays in English Literature. Some of us really thought we could act...