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The
Changeling,
directed by Jay Stern, is adapted from a 1622 play by
Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.
Beatrice-Johanna
is engaged to Alonzo, but can't stand the thought of marrying
him, although he is not a bad man. She is instead enamored
with Alsemero; De Flores, her father's servant, is desperately
in love with Beatrice, despite the fact that she detests
him. Knowing of his love for her, Beatrice gets him to
kill Alonzo for her, so that she can eventually marry
Alsemero. But after it is done, De Flores refuses her
offers of money for the murder, and tells her his terms:
she will be his lover, or he will reveal her role in the
plot. To protect her reputation, Beatrice gives in to
him.
This
blackmail affair continues after she becomes engaged to
Alsemero. In order that her soon-to-be husband does not
discover on their wedding night that she is not a virgin,
Beatrice convinces Diaphanta, her maidservant, to take
her place in disguise. But that night, Diaphanta, enjoying
her role, stays too long with Alsemero, thus further endangering
the deception. In a panic, Beatrice begs De Flores to
do something to save her, to which he arranges an "accident"
in which Diaphanta is killed.
By
this time, Beatrice has fallen in love with De Flores,
because of the lengths he is willing to go to in order
to show his love and devotion to her. Alsemero, suspecting
that something is amiss, corners them and eventually wrangles
a confession out of them. However, before they can be
brought to justice, they kill themselves, bringing their
cycle of lies and murder to an end.
Content
I will say first of all, that the language is kept true
to the original writing period (Shakespearean English),
which is not that easy to speak. It's especially difficult
to deliver such verbose passages in a way that a modern
audience can understand what is going on; since the viewer
has to essentially "translate" what's being
said, actors must pay special attention to their gestures,
inflection, and tone. (For a great example of this, see
Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing.) Hats
off to the actors for doing a great job with their deliveries,
especially Clyde Baldo's portrayal of De Flores. Even
if you couldn't catch everything he said specifically,
it was easy to understand what he was saying by how he
said it. The story is paced in the five-act format typical
of the plays of that era, and is broken up nicely in the
film by a single simple shot that indicates "Act
I", "Act II", etc. This helps make it easier
to follow the progression of the plot.
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