On-screen romance

I am a sucker for on-screen romance.
For me, a good actor will make me believe that the fake chemistry on screen is absolutely real.

The following are some of my absolute favourite on-screen romantic scenes...

1. Stefan and Elena's first kiss on Vampire diaries. I stopped watching this series in the middle of season two because the story lines just stopped making sense and Elena works on my nerves. But Stefan is one of my absolute favourite fictitious characters...and let's not forget that he is smoking hot (how people can like Ian Somerhalder over Paul Wesley is beyond me).
And this scene...wow. Not smutty or disgusting.
Just...absolutely romantic.


2. Jesse and Lestat in Queen of the Damned. Now, yes, this movie will never even be considered for an Oscar. The story line was made a bit weird, and there was A LOT of bad acting. But I liked it. Because, again, I liked the chemistry between Jesse and Lestat...even though that wasn't explored a lot in this movie. My favourite scenes between them are three:

Meeting for the first time in an alley outside the Admiral's Arms

Flying through Los Angeles

When Lestat bites into Jesse at the end, she lets out this sigh...like its pleasurable and not painful.

3. Tom Hiddleston and Melanie Thierry as Henry and Kate in The Hollow Crown's Henry V. This has become one of my favourite plays and Act 5 Scene 2 has become my favourite romantic scene. What starts off as a political alliance morphs into the beginning of a beautiful relationship, and Henry, although he does not know how to 'mince it in love' woos her with his honesty. I absolutely love the fact that he takes his crown off before he kisses her.

Tom, this made me fall in love with you...

Sonnet 57

Being your slave, what should I do but tend 
Upon the hours and times of your desire? 
I have no precious time at all to spend, 
Nor services to do, till you require. 
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour 
When you have bid your servant once adieu; 
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought 
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, 
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
   So true a fool is love that in your will,
   Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill. 

Twitter friends

Twitter is without a doubt my favourite social medium. At a tense moment in my day, I can just open the Twitter app on my Blackberry and I am guaranteed to read something amusing by one of my twuddies (Twitter buddies for those who didn't catch that).

In my previous post I attributed my reintroduction to Shakespeare to my dream guy, Tom Hiddleston.
Today, I wish to pay tribute to the Twitter friend who has made Shakespeare fun!

So, @HollowCrownFans, I thank thee, from the bottom of my heart. 

My road back to Shakespeare

As a high school student, I didn't really like studying the literature they made us read. I later discovered that it was due to the fact that they chose mostly tragedies - what teenager wants to read about jealousy, death and destruction? I also had a really boring English teacher for most of my high school career.
Thankfully, we were given a new teacher in my Matric year and she made us fall in love with reading.

My love affair with books gradually grew over the last fifteen years. I do not profess to be a connoisseur of books - my tastes could be considered shallow by many. I hate books that are depressing, I don't need to read something that requires in depth analysis. Books are my escape from some of the harsher realities of life. As long as the language and plot are beautiful and I can fall in love with some character (though he/she may be fictional) or travel to beautiful places in my head, I am happy. Give me a romance (period or contemporary), fantasy or even science fiction (to a degree), and I am a happy camper.

Despite my generally fluffy taste in reading material, I am very fond of certain classic authors - Jane Austen and William Shakespeare being my two favourites. Austen satisfies my eternal romantic - the girl ALWAYS gets the right guy for her and the endings are always happy for her heroines. Shakespeare I like for his superior use of the English language.

I have discovered that one understands a Shakespearean play best when it's being performed.
During Matric, a group of actors came to enact all of the literature we were studying that year...it was the first time I had ever had a good understanding of my school literature and it was also the year I got my best English mark. Although I did not pursue English at tertiary level, I continued to read (and watch) Shakespeare when I could.

My reintroduction to Shakespeare came last year, when I discovered that Tom Hiddleston's acting CV is littered with Bard roles. I was curious, and managed to get my hands on the Hollow Crown series, which is the screen version of one of Shakespeare's historical tetralogies - Richard II, Henry IV-Part 1, Henry IV-Part 2 and Henry V.
Yes, Tom is a fox, and I get warm just thinking of him or looking at pictures of him. Does not take an iota away from the fact that the man is a bloody brilliant actor. I really enjoyed the series, but due to restrictions, many times film adaptations have to trim a lot of the actual literature and this prompted me to start investing in the books.
Thus far, I've managed to read Coriolanus...a play I had never heard of but thought I'd read in preparation to the NTLive screening of the Donmar production (in which Mr Hotness plays the lead character). To my surprise, despite it being a tragedy, I really enjoyed it (and bear in mind that I have not seen the play yet).

So, fandom led me back to Shakespeare.
I watched Much Ado About Nothing because I wanted to see Keanu Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard.
I watched Hamlet because I wanted to see Ethan Hawke and I liked Julia Stiles.
I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream because I am a Michelle Pfeiffer fan.

Is it such a travesty? No. And if brilliant actors like Kenneth Branagh, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, etc. attract people to the genre, we should be happy that there are those few, those band of brothers who keeps the Bard alive in contemporary times.