Movies + Books

I was late for the 4:30 PM Sunday Mass yesterday at our Parish (because of the heavy traffic caused by the diaspora of new students/dormers - and theirkutsons - to the UPLB campus) so I decided to while away the time at the mall in front of the church and wait for the next, 6:00 PM mass. 

I went to the bargain books shop (not Booksale) at the ground level and I came across these books. I was suppose to buy Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon only but since was placed in the ‘buy one, take one’ shelf, I grabbed William Shakespeare in the Movies as the other half of the purchase.

And believe it or not, I bought these two books for just ninety-nine (99) pesos:

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

I came across the idea six degrees of separation last year after watching the trailer of the movie, Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay. “Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, ‘a friend of a friend’ statements can be made, on average, to connect any two people in six steps or fewer.” [source] (Though I am familiar with the game of connecting one people to another by means of relationship, I do not know that there is a term for that until last year.)

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a game based on the concept of the small world phenomenon and rests on the assumption that any individual involved in the Hollywood, California film industry can be linked through his or her roles to actor Kevin Bacon.

This is a trivia/game book that measures one’s BQ (or Bacon IQ). It contains 118 items that ranges from Hollywood’s greatest actors and actresses and television stars to the most obscure monsters and fictional characters. I have already browsed and read some of the items written and I was amazed at how the seemingly irrelevant names and things can be related to Kevin Bacon - in less than six steps. Kevin Bacon is indeed, ‘the center of Hollywood universe’.

Unfortunately, the book was published in 1996 during the height of the game’s popularity and Kevin Bacon has made more films since then. How about I update it personally? Not a bad idea but I think I should watch his previous movies first before doing such an ambitious dream.

Shakespeare in the Movies: From the Silent Era to Today

Honestly, I am not fond of reading the works of William Shakespeare (even though some of them were required readings during my Literature classes back in High School and College). But I am a big fan of the movie and theater adaptations of his works.

I first watched the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet starring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey when I was in third year high school and it became one of my all-time favorites (well, probably because of Olivia Hussey’s big heart - if you know what I mean). During the course of my years as a student, I have watched the movie adaptations of some of his works (including the fictional Shakespeare in Love) and when I was a freshman in college, I had the chance to watch The Taming of the Shrew by Repertory Philippines. 

“Shakespeare in the Movies is a comprehensive and entertaining study of the many memorable film versions of Shakespeare’s timeless plays. Arranged in the order the plays were written, this extremely readable guide allows readers to follow Shakespeare’s development as a playwright (and screenwriter), and to compare the filmed versions of the play side by side.” [source] 

I love the movie adaptations of Shakespeare’s works so I thought this book will be a perfect companion to know him better. But after reading some of the book reviews online, I was disappointed to know that this book contains errors and there’s even a request that this book be pulled out of the bookshelves. Well, at least, I have a good place to start and it is up to me to find out what those errors are.

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Movies and books are two of my favorite past times and form of intellectual procrastination (Nuks!). I guess after reading these books, I have to dig at the archives (read: torrent files) of some of these classic, great movies.

Now if you may excuse me, I am saying goodbye to my social life for now. Because epistemologically speaking, books are necessary evil.

Au revoir!