Scripta 9_2_link_final.pdf - Uniandrade

Whitehall Palace and, probably because of its great success at the time,
opens the First Folio as the first of the Shakespearean comedies. Published
after the writer’s death, in 1623, due to the efforts of the actors John
Heminges and Henry Condell, the First Folio is the first collection of
Shakespeare’s dramatic work. Of a total of thirty-six texts in the Folio, eighteen
had not been published before.
The plot of The Tempest consists of a story of vengeance, love and
conspiracies that accompany the fate of Prospero, the Duke of Milan.
Dedicating a great deal of his time to books, especially those of magic, he
withdraws from the state affairs and has his dukedom usurped by his own
brother, Antonio, who, in his search for power, begins to persecute Prospero,
aiming at destroying him. With the help of Gonzalo, a counselor to the king
of Naples, Prospero flees to a Mediterranean island with his daughter
Miranda. Gonzalo supplies the vessel with provisions, clothes and books.
On the enchanted island, at Prospero’s service, are the slave Caliban, a
creature half-human, half-monster, and Ariel, a servile spirit, who can be
metamorphosed into water, air and fire. Prospero’s main objective is to
take revenge on his traitors. Twelve years later, Alonso, king of Naples, and
his retinue travel for the wedding of Alonso’s daughter Claribel. On their
voyage back from Tunis, a great tempest causes Alonso’s vessel to go adrift,
forcing everybody on board to abandon the boat. The shipwrecked survive
and find shelter on Prospero’s island. They do not know, however, that the
storm, caused by magic with Ariel’s aid, and the voyagers’ dispersal were
part of Prospero’s vengeance plan. Even so, instead of subjugating his
enemies, Prospero forgives them, thereby regaining his dukedom.
Peter Greenaway’s film, Prospero’s Books, is viewed by many critics
as an eccentric or extravagant adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Although Greenaway’s aesthetic artifact approaches Shakespeare’s classic
text with due respect, the images that appear on the screen do not have the
function of reproducing faithfully the succession of events in the dramatic
text. In other words, the filmmaker visually transforms certain passages of
the source text, superimposing images to actor John Gielgud’s reading of
the play’s original version. Thus, the five acts of Shakespeare’s text make
themselves literally audible.
While Greenaway’s earlier works consisted in a reflection on an
artistic form, Prospero’s Books is the first film where he brings someone else’s
argument to the cinema screen. The very choice of the film’s title points at
the procedure adopted by Greenaway in his rereading of the Shakespearean
Scripta Uniandrade, v. 9, n. 2, jul.-dez. 2011 99