Posts
Alfa Romeo Giulietta
http://www.prestigeway.com.au/news/Uma_Thurman_to_star_in_Shakespeare_s_Romeo_and_Giulietta-1328
Took me a second to figure out what this was all about when I saw a headline that said “Uma Thurman to star in Romeo and Giulietta” (which is the fancy way of saying Juliet, for those not getting it). New movie? Foreign?
Even weirder. Seems that the car manufacturer Alfa Romeo is debuting a new model called the Giulietta! Uma Thurman is a major part of the new ad campaign, playing five different roles in the commercial.
The substance of the new Giulietta is further confirmed by the pay-off which counterbalances the Shakespeare quote: "Without heart we are only machines".
I’m sorry, where’d Shakespeare say that?
6 comments:
"Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET."
I believe that phrase was translated into French, then into German, and finally into Italian. The result was the quote you mention: "Without heart we are only machines."
kj
In the commercial it is the phrase "we are such stuff that dreams are made of" which is, correctly, quoted from Shakespeare: http://www.google.it/search?q=we+are+such+stuff+that+dreams+are+made+of&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
NOT without heart we are only machines, as incorrectly reported in:
http://www.mibz.com/tag/uma-thurman-alfa-giulietta-commercial
Lorenzo
Thanks lburti - but in the article I linked, both those "quotes" are cited. So it's not a case of confusing the two.
I think it's just bad copy written by a marketer, not a literary scholar:
The substance of the new Giulietta is further confirmed by the pay-off which counterbalances the Shakespeare quote: "Without heart we are only machines". In brief, the new Alfa Romeo is a dream that becomes reality and it is a machine with a real soul and heart.
The writer meant to say the company's slogan "Without heart, we are only machines" is a counterbalance to the line from the Tempest, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."
Ah! I think you're right, Miss P. Not "counter balances the following quote", but rather "the following counterbalances the previous thing, which was a Shakespeare quote."
I suppose that's my bad for reading that wrong.
Well, I wondered what on earth was going on too, I couldn't remember a single instance where Shakespeare had written that. And I don't think people have been reading it incorrectly, it's just been written badly.
Much as I love Alfa's city cars, they're not allowed to interfere with Shakespeare. :P
Post a Comment