The Seven Ages of Man: Double Feature Theatre

All the world’s a stage…it’s only one of the gazillion or so quotes that Shakespeare is noted for. The thing is, people remember the beginning and forget that the monologue is actually about the seven ages of man. Marc of Go See Talk is hosting a blog-a-thon which has a brilliant idea – imagine yourself to be a theatre owner, what would a week of double features at our theatre look like? He’s given us the opportunity make up our own rules and so, I dedicate my seven days to Shakespeare’s seven ages of man…with a twist…each day showing a classic and a contemporary film.
             

Monday: The Second Childhood

I’ve inverted the ages so that we begin with the end. Instead of carrying the audience from beginning to end we’ll begin with the close and reverse, and what better film to kick it off with than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It’s all about the body going in one direction, and the mind in another. It’s not about second childhood in the most typical sense, but for a vast portion of the film the boyish Benjamin is trapped in an old man’s body. It will double with On Golden Pond Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda’s Oscar winning film. It’s a true ode to the beauty of growing old with someone you love.

Tuesday: The Pantaloon

What is a pantaloon, you ask – essentially he’s an aging buffoon? It’s not quite old age, but it’s getting there. This double feature features films which hinge on their men – Hopkins in a Merchant Ivory film, and Hulce and Abraham in the Forman epic. Hopkins butler isn’t quite a buffoon, but he acts it at times and Salieri ends the film well on the way to madness. The films are only a decade apart, but for me Amadeus is undoubtedly a classic and no one will do contemporary period films as well as Merchant/Ivory.

Wednesday: The Justice

The age where man bequeaths justice…Judgment from Nuremberg is a fine docudrama on the Nuremberg trials and I can’t have a day of Kate Hepburn without a day of Spencer Tracy (although it’s Maximillian Schell and Judy Garland who really floor me). I could have gone with a number of modern legal dramas, but to cheer you up after the sadness of Nuremberg we turn to My Cousin Vinny. Pesci’s barrister is unorthodox, but he and Mona Lisa Vito will fight for justice.

Thursday: The Soldier

There are so many films on war to choose from, especially since even those not about war often have it as a back-story but in the end the choices were not that difficult to make. The Messenger doesn’t take place on the battlefield, but I find it to be a provocative look at war and when paired up with From Here to Eternity it only becomes more interesting.

Friday: The Lover

It’s ridiculous for me to use Shakespeare as a paradigm and not have a Shakespearean flick, thus it’s a no-brainer that Zefferilli’s lush Romeo and Juliet is the one that I’m choosing. It’ll be paired up with the equally LUSH Bright Star and perhaps you’ll be depressed after this one-two of dying heros, but c’est la vie. My theatre, my rules.

Saturday: The Schoolboy

Perhaps, Lindsay Lohan and James Dean don’t have much in common but who can say no to a double whammy of Mean Girls and Rebel without a Cause. Both of them have protagonists dealing with new schools and both manage a knack for the zeitgeist without being overwrought.

Sunday: The Infant

For obvious reasons movies about babies are difficult to pull off…they don’t act. And I must admit when I saw that we needed three films for the final day, I got worried. But, I’m a boss at sidling out of sticky situations. I’ll begin with Rosemary’s Baby, follow it up with Children of Men and close with the guilty pleasure Look Who’s Talking. and, perhaps, only one is explicitly about infancy, but you know you want to see all

Go check out what's going on at The Mad Hatter's theatre who I first saw the blog-a-thon on....

           

Which days would you be coming to the theatre?