Thanks to the Sonnet Project films I have been reading the text of the sonnets before approaching each film, and it pleases me when I understand the basic meaning quite quickly and just have to go back for more (and information from the series' website) to help understand the detail. Of course there are other sonnets which remind me why Shakespeare is seen as not totally accessible to all. Sonnet 24 is one of these because it seems to wrap around itself with its text, talking about the eyes of the writer creating this image in the heart, which then acts as a frame for the subject to see, which in turns brightens the writer by virtue of being loved and having this love, but it isn't much cop anyway because the eyes only catch the image, not the real heart of the person. I think I get the point but it is a very roundabout way of saying it- usually reading the sonnet once helps the second reading as you know where it ends which helps establish where it is at the start – but for me I struggled with this one.
As is pleasingly often with these films, this one gave me a view of the text in a way that added context and understanding; okay it is probably not the absolute way in which it was intended or would be interpreted by scholars, but it makes the text more open and accessible to me as a layperson, which seems like a good thing. In the film the sonnet is presented as a sort of daydream where the eyes of our man makes a brief connection with those of a cute young woman, and from there he wanders in his mind through perhaps more than just a fleeting glance. This continues through the sonnet but the nicest touch is the delivery of the final lines, which bring the sonneteer back to a sort of reality, accepting that there is nothing here but his vision – no substance or meaning. Perhaps the on screen delivery of this could have been better but in the narration it works and thus it gets across to the viewer.
I appreciated this because when I read the text, I can't always get the tone of the words, so to have this in this way reminds me that there is a tone at all, but also fills me in on what it could be. The short deals well the unfortunate weather and, although the sonnet is done as narration in a separate audio from the video, it works well in this case. An effective short film that helped me get a better foothold into the text that just reading it had not.
As is pleasingly often with these films, this one gave me a view of the text in a way that added context and understanding; okay it is probably not the absolute way in which it was intended or would be interpreted by scholars, but it makes the text more open and accessible to me as a layperson, which seems like a good thing. In the film the sonnet is presented as a sort of daydream where the eyes of our man makes a brief connection with those of a cute young woman, and from there he wanders in his mind through perhaps more than just a fleeting glance. This continues through the sonnet but the nicest touch is the delivery of the final lines, which bring the sonneteer back to a sort of reality, accepting that there is nothing here but his vision – no substance or meaning. Perhaps the on screen delivery of this could have been better but in the narration it works and thus it gets across to the viewer.
I appreciated this because when I read the text, I can't always get the tone of the words, so to have this in this way reminds me that there is a tone at all, but also fills me in on what it could be. The short deals well the unfortunate weather and, although the sonnet is done as narration in a separate audio from the video, it works well in this case. An effective short film that helped me get a better foothold into the text that just reading it had not.