Seasons of Shakespeare
DVDs:
If Shakespeare was fun to me then -- and he was -- I still never could have envisioned the innovative productions of future films, nor a time when Shakespeare on demand, courtesy of DVDs and video, would be the rule. It is in that spirit that I offer up two decidedly escapist selections for these dreary spring days.
Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing spent the summer of 1993 at the Avalon Theatre in DC, and more than once I dropped in to relive each moment, from its pastoral prologue to the joyous dance that concludes the play. Besides, Much Ado's love stories, which encompass everything from a comic battle of the sexes to truly dangerous jealousy, are universal and timeless.
Branagh has an unqualified success in moving the story from Sicily to Tuscany and employing the 15th century Villa Vignamaggio for the exteriors. The unabashedly romantic setting, with its lush countryside, lantern-lit courtyards, miniature chapel, and serene gardens, is one of the joys of the film.
As for the play itself, Branagh has kept the essentials of plot and characterization, but trimmed the dialogue considerably, to the point where Imelda Staunton (Margaret) is left with fewer lines than Keanu Reeves (Don John) -- something of a sacrilege, dramatically speaking. And Michael Keaton, playing the goofball constable Dogberry, growls his lines in a fashion which better suits The Pirates of the Caribbean and not Shakespeare's wacky malapropisms.
But I seem to recall Branagh was less interested in malapropisms than he was in the lifeblood of the story, and in that the casting played no small role. Emma Thompson, a wonderful comedienne and dramatic actress, is a fiery Beatrice and worthy foil to Branagh's motormouthed Benedick. It's when the play threatens to veer off into tragedy, however, that these two actors get some of their finest moments and let their characters' inherent vulnerability and tenderness come forth.
Denzel Washington's performance as Don Pedro is another of the film's chief pleasures. I've seen several actors play the part on stage, and it's easy for Don Pedro to get lost among the hammier, sillier, and less virtuous characters clamoring for our attention. Thanks to the intimacy of close-ups, and Mr. Washington's skillful underplaying, the prince is fleshed-out character. Watch, for example, how he and Thompson play the encounter in which the prince calls Beatrice's bluff by proposing marriage. This can be a throwaway scene in the theater, but here it has real tenderness.
Kate Beckinsale, perhaps 19 or 20 when the movie was made, provides a nice turn as Hero, Beatrice's more unassuming cousin. In some productions, Hero can come off as something of a passive little prude, but here Branagh makes her a younger counterpart to Shakespeare's resilient and forgiving heroines of the darker comedies -- Helen and Hermione, for example.
Patrick Doyle, composer of the already classic score to Henry V, is of course on this Branagh project as well. Here he gives us a traditional overture and then reworks the melodies throughout the movie -- for dances, for love scenes, for marches. It's an infectious score and one I never tire of.
Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream also relies on music to set the mood -- a drinking song to convey the liveliness of an Italian town square, an instrumental intermezzo for a love scene in the fairy kingdom. The expected Mendelssohn excerpts are used rather sparingly -- the "Wedding March," the overture -- and the real surprise is the insertion of familiar passages from Italian opera, notably from L'elisir d'amore, Cavalleria Rusticana, and even La Traviata.
Like Branagh, Hoffman dabbles with the story's setting, moving things from ancient Athens to 19th century Italy (again!) while keeping the basic plot: runaway lovers and an amateur theatrical troupe encounter supernatural beings on one extremely strange night in the forest. As in Much Ado, order is restored and love emerges triumphant, but not without many headaches in between.
The casting is all over the place, with Stanley Tucci, as the prankster Puck, playing sidekick to the otherworldly Rupert Everett, and Calista Flockhart, of all people, cast as Helena, one of the quartet of bickering lovers.
"Wait a minute," you say. "Ally McBeal does Shakespeare? Pull the other one."
Hear me out. Helena, one of the great passive-aggressive nightmares of the English language stage, is actually a pretty apt choice for Flockhart, who seems to be having fun laying various neuroses bare for the audience.
Puck can be a difficult role to cast. I was very taken with Ian Holm's rather demonic version in the 1968 film, while Mickey Rooney's performance in the 1935 movie made me wish there had been Ritalin (or at least a tranquilizer gun) on the set during filming. Tucci, on the other hand, displays considerable warmth; his Puck is fun-loving but not mean-spirited, and is just as likely to screw up as to pull off a prank.
Adding to the fun is the dynamite ensemble work of Kevin Kline, Roger Rees, Sam Rockwell, Bill Irwin, Gregory Jbara, and Max Wright as the amateur players who hope to impress the local duke (David Strathairn) with their production of Pyramus and Thisbe -- starring the hapless Rockwell in a drag turn straight out of Monty Python.
Rees in particular is pitch-perfect as the director, Peter Quince, all anxiety and good intentions as he tries to avert disaster as the play goes forward. But it's Kevin Kline who provides the most memorable performance of the film. His Nick Bottom, an ordinary man with more enthusiasm than acting talent, is all thwarted dreams and dashed hopes. Therefore it's especially poignant when, through mishaps, magic, and a bit of luck, he experiences the two most extraordinary nights of his life, along with a sort of triumph.
As it happens, both films showcase actors who are by no means strangers to DC area theater audiences. A Midsummer Night's Dream features Kline, Rees, Irwin, and of course Anna Friel (Wedekind's Lulu), and Branagh casts actor/director Richard Clifford as Conrade in Much Ado About Nothing. Indeed, Clifford has worked in four Branagh adaptations of Shakespeare, including the upcoming As You Like It.
- Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
If Shakespeare was fun to me then -- and he was -- I still never could have envisioned the innovative productions of future films, nor a time when Shakespeare on demand, courtesy of DVDs and video, would be the rule. It is in that spirit that I offer up two decidedly escapist selections for these dreary spring days.
Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing spent the summer of 1993 at the Avalon Theatre in DC, and more than once I dropped in to relive each moment, from its pastoral prologue to the joyous dance that concludes the play. Besides, Much Ado's love stories, which encompass everything from a comic battle of the sexes to truly dangerous jealousy, are universal and timeless.Branagh has an unqualified success in moving the story from Sicily to Tuscany and employing the 15th century Villa Vignamaggio for the exteriors. The unabashedly romantic setting, with its lush countryside, lantern-lit courtyards, miniature chapel, and serene gardens, is one of the joys of the film.
As for the play itself, Branagh has kept the essentials of plot and characterization, but trimmed the dialogue considerably, to the point where Imelda Staunton (Margaret) is left with fewer lines than Keanu Reeves (Don John) -- something of a sacrilege, dramatically speaking. And Michael Keaton, playing the goofball constable Dogberry, growls his lines in a fashion which better suits The Pirates of the Caribbean and not Shakespeare's wacky malapropisms.
But I seem to recall Branagh was less interested in malapropisms than he was in the lifeblood of the story, and in that the casting played no small role. Emma Thompson, a wonderful comedienne and dramatic actress, is a fiery Beatrice and worthy foil to Branagh's motormouthed Benedick. It's when the play threatens to veer off into tragedy, however, that these two actors get some of their finest moments and let their characters' inherent vulnerability and tenderness come forth.
Denzel Washington's performance as Don Pedro is another of the film's chief pleasures. I've seen several actors play the part on stage, and it's easy for Don Pedro to get lost among the hammier, sillier, and less virtuous characters clamoring for our attention. Thanks to the intimacy of close-ups, and Mr. Washington's skillful underplaying, the prince is fleshed-out character. Watch, for example, how he and Thompson play the encounter in which the prince calls Beatrice's bluff by proposing marriage. This can be a throwaway scene in the theater, but here it has real tenderness.
Kate Beckinsale, perhaps 19 or 20 when the movie was made, provides a nice turn as Hero, Beatrice's more unassuming cousin. In some productions, Hero can come off as something of a passive little prude, but here Branagh makes her a younger counterpart to Shakespeare's resilient and forgiving heroines of the darker comedies -- Helen and Hermione, for example.
Patrick Doyle, composer of the already classic score to Henry V, is of course on this Branagh project as well. Here he gives us a traditional overture and then reworks the melodies throughout the movie -- for dances, for love scenes, for marches. It's an infectious score and one I never tire of.
Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream also relies on music to set the mood -- a drinking song to convey the liveliness of an Italian town square, an instrumental intermezzo for a love scene in the fairy kingdom. The expected Mendelssohn excerpts are used rather sparingly -- the "Wedding March," the overture -- and the real surprise is the insertion of familiar passages from Italian opera, notably from L'elisir d'amore, Cavalleria Rusticana, and even La Traviata.Like Branagh, Hoffman dabbles with the story's setting, moving things from ancient Athens to 19th century Italy (again!) while keeping the basic plot: runaway lovers and an amateur theatrical troupe encounter supernatural beings on one extremely strange night in the forest. As in Much Ado, order is restored and love emerges triumphant, but not without many headaches in between.
The casting is all over the place, with Stanley Tucci, as the prankster Puck, playing sidekick to the otherworldly Rupert Everett, and Calista Flockhart, of all people, cast as Helena, one of the quartet of bickering lovers.
"Wait a minute," you say. "Ally McBeal does Shakespeare? Pull the other one."
Hear me out. Helena, one of the great passive-aggressive nightmares of the English language stage, is actually a pretty apt choice for Flockhart, who seems to be having fun laying various neuroses bare for the audience.
Puck can be a difficult role to cast. I was very taken with Ian Holm's rather demonic version in the 1968 film, while Mickey Rooney's performance in the 1935 movie made me wish there had been Ritalin (or at least a tranquilizer gun) on the set during filming. Tucci, on the other hand, displays considerable warmth; his Puck is fun-loving but not mean-spirited, and is just as likely to screw up as to pull off a prank.
Adding to the fun is the dynamite ensemble work of Kevin Kline, Roger Rees, Sam Rockwell, Bill Irwin, Gregory Jbara, and Max Wright as the amateur players who hope to impress the local duke (David Strathairn) with their production of Pyramus and Thisbe -- starring the hapless Rockwell in a drag turn straight out of Monty Python.
Rees in particular is pitch-perfect as the director, Peter Quince, all anxiety and good intentions as he tries to avert disaster as the play goes forward. But it's Kevin Kline who provides the most memorable performance of the film. His Nick Bottom, an ordinary man with more enthusiasm than acting talent, is all thwarted dreams and dashed hopes. Therefore it's especially poignant when, through mishaps, magic, and a bit of luck, he experiences the two most extraordinary nights of his life, along with a sort of triumph.
As it happens, both films showcase actors who are by no means strangers to DC area theater audiences. A Midsummer Night's Dream features Kline, Rees, Irwin, and of course Anna Friel (Wedekind's Lulu), and Branagh casts actor/director Richard Clifford as Conrade in Much Ado About Nothing. Indeed, Clifford has worked in four Branagh adaptations of Shakespeare, including the upcoming As You Like It.
0 Comments:
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home