"O" no!

I want to continue the discussion we were having in class about Julia Stiles and her poor acting abilities in the movie "O." I love Julia as an actress but her performance in the movie "O" really disappointed me! As I thought about whether or not her character was meant to "not act" I began thinking that this was in fact probably scripted. I think Desdemona is supposed to be a "wishy washy" character and the director of "O" really wanted to emphasis this. In Othello Desdemona seems to "go with the flow." When Othello accuses her of sleeping with Cassio, she does not do much to defend herself and does as Othello pleases. She is very obedient to Othello and other characters around her. Even when Othello tells Desdemona to get to bed, she immediately obeys. Cassio asks her to plead with Othello on his side after the physical ordeal between Roderigo and himself and Desdemona again does as she is asked. I feel as if the director of "O" recognized this behavior as exemplified by Shakespeare in the play, Othello and felt it was necessary to have Julia Stiles portray Desdemona in this same perspective. Don't get me wrong, I loved Desdemona and truly felt pity and sympathy for her in the play, but her "wishy washy" behavior is something that is probably not relevant or noticeable to the reader because we are doing just that: reading. Seeing something acted out is completely different in comparison to solely reading a text. I feel the director wanted to portray Desdemona in a way most do not see her and as modernly as possible.

I am adding a link that I found interesting and one that compares and contrasts some major and minor topics in the movie "O" and the play, Othello. I especially liked the part concerning the differences between the real marriage of Othello and Desdemona in Othello and the pretend marriage of Oden and Desi in the movie. I hope everyone gets a chance to look it over!

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1235266