Our family has watched two versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream on film in the last week, one from 1935 and one from 1999.
The 1935 one has James Cagney as Bottom, a 15-year-old Mickey Rooney as Puck, and Olivia de Havilland as Hermia. It is wacky and lively and funny. Black and white, of course, it has a shimmery Art Deco look. The fairies are lovely; Oberon is mysterious and powerful. The Indian Child is played by a real 4- or 5-year-old Indian child. The gang of actors that are the "mechanicals" who perform the play within the play are very funny. Rooney plays a wild Puck who imitates other characters, shrieks, and howls, and to Maria's delight, tears a branch off a tree and rides it into the night witch-style.
The 1999 version has Rupert Everett as a sleepy Oberon, Michelle Pfeiffer as a lovely, but also sleepy Titania, Stanley Tucci as a very low-key Puck, and Calista Flockhart as spurned Helena. Even the casting of the always impressive Christian Bale as Demetrius couldn't save this one for us. Yes, it's pretty, but there is no energy, no zip. Even Olivia, who was lying sick on the couch kept yelling, "No emotion, people!" This later one has some nudity, which I was prepared to explain to the girls. Olivia was fine with it, if slightly embarrassed, but Maria found it hysterical. So we started referring to Lysander as Nakey-Bum, which would set her off laughing again.
If you are dying to see a version of this play on film, have fun with the longer but funnier one from the thirties. You'll get more laughs and more pleasure, even without the nakey-bum.
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17 comments:
Nakey-bum - love it!
I haven't seen either of these productions so can't comment on them. Your comments might make me search them out though.
Have you watched the version starring Helen Mirren as Titania? It's been a while but I thought it was a strange production that took the whimsy of the story to a bizarre level.
The best production I've seen was at NAT in Rockford a couple of years ago. I was skeptical because I usually don't like a modern setting for Shakespeare. This one was awesome though. Did you go Christine?
And it saddens me to say we ended up not being able to make it to see Olivia in the NIU production. I was very bummed (bums must be a theme today).
No problem, Insomniac. There will probably be other shows in Oliv's future.
Haven't seen the Mirren MND, and I didn't go on the field trip a few years ago to see the production you saw, but Oliv was there with Cooksin and Lydia. The man who played Puck in that version was in the Tennessee Williams world premiere of A Day on Which a Man Dies (that I saw in January) and in Taming of the Shrew at the Shakespeare Theatre in Chicago, which I saw last fall. I wish I had gone to that production now for a number of reasons, but I think I stayed home with Maria.
Oh, look, Sophia, Helen Mirren is in a version of Midsummer Night's Dream!
Sophia, please ask Chris for his favorite film version for me.
Anybody see any good movies lately?
No good movies lately, but I am going to see Harrison Ford in the upcoming Indiana Jones in May. (If he can pretend he's not aging, so can I!)
His Dark Materials fans (Danika, Don, et al): Once Upon a Time in the North, Pullman, $12.99 hardcover, no jacket, in your favorite bookstores today!
What's all this? Philip Pullman has worked on another His Dark Materials book before writing The Book of Dust, which he needs to publish RIGHT NOW?
Ha, I think my cousin was in the NAT version you guys saw--she was Helena, I think.
Yes, L. was in that show, too.
Kinda out of the blue but I just re-watched "Howl's Moving Castle". I just can't get enough of Hayao Miyazaki.
Hey Anime fans, since I like this, what else should I see?
P.S. No. More. Cast. Yeah, Baby!
Yay, Don!
See, I want to see Howl's Moving Castle, because I've heard such good things about Hayao Miyazaki, but I've read the book Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, and I don't want to see it ruined (doesn't matter how good the movie is, if it isn't exactly like the book, it counts as ruined).
What should I see by him that won't make me go into a bibliophilic rage?
What?#%@Helen in Midsummers? That hussy...anything for a Puck, eh?
Chris's version is with Diana Rigg (?), directed by Peter Hall...I'll look it up
Oy - Chris's version is the one with Helen Mirren. Imagine that! Well, whimzy and bizarre - that should have been clue enough.
I watched a Miyazaki studio film this weekend which was sweet, easy on the eyes...called "Whisper of the Heart". I know it was from his studio, but can't remember what his involvement was...Cooksin tells me the sequel is lame-o.
Don, I adore Miyazaki's work. I especially like "Kiki's Delivery Service", "Totoro", "Spirited Away", well, you know, I kind of love them all. Those skies and landscapes are what I can't get enough of. Kiki's really good for that. Cooksin should have a comment here as well - she is a big fan.
Oh my gosh. It just totally made my day to see an anime discussion on here. I'll try to keep the length of this post sane.
Don, I've seen a whole bunch of Miyazaki films, and funnily enough I think Howl's Moving Castle is the weakest. Which isn't all that weak (considering this is Miyazaki we're talking about), but when compared to some of his other films, it's not seamless. Just my opinion.
I can't say enough good things about Princess Mononoke. It's my favorite, hands down. Spirited Away is a close second, but man, San and Lady Eboshi are so extremely kick-butt females, and they kinda clinched it for me.
I'm not familiar with films outside of Miyazaki's work, so I'm no help with other movies, but as for series? Yeah, I could recommend a few, depending on what you're interested in.
Sophia, I liked Whisper of the Heart, too, but not as much as Only Yesterday. The ending of WotH was too...eh, it was too easy. Only Yesterday just blew me away; it was pared down and lovely and I cried like a schoolgirl.
I have never heard of Only Yesterday, but I totally agree with the ending to "Whisper of the Heart" -
Princess Mononoke is fantastic - it's wild. I have not seen it for a long time, as it would scare the snot out of my daughter, but I am up for another viewing.
Only Yesterday is about a 27 year-old woman named Taeko, who lives and works in Tokyo in 1982. She's beginning to feel that something is missing and isn't quite sure which direction her life will take next. The story goes back and forth between adult Taeko and memories of her childhood in 1966. It's sensitive, observant, and thoughtful without degenerating into saccharine nostalgia.
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