| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
A- |
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PROBABLY the best modern setting of Shakespeare
by Timothy (movies profile)
Sep 26, 2006
1
of
1 people found this review helpful
When I watch Shakespeare films, I PREFER them to be done in the PERIOD COSTUME & SETTING. Any Shakespeare film done in a modern setting will NOT be good enough to be a top favourite. I think that Shakespeare`s plays should be presented in the APPROPRIATE SETTING, with APPROPRIATE COSTUMES. If it is done in PERIOD setting, it has a BETTER chance of being one of my favourites. However, there are a few modern setting Shakespeare films that I enjoy.
This film is very good. I have certainly enjoyed it. It has a VICTORIAN setting, which is still beautiful. This film is also VERY CLEVER because of the way it is interpreted. It is clever in several ways:
- There was a little boy and his mother who went to visit the fairies in the wood. The boy and his mother had several things with them, one of which was a gramophone. The fairies did funny things with these things, because they had not come across them before. One of the fairies put the gramophone on her head because she thought it was a hat. Another fairy put her arm through a record case because it had a hole in it. The other fairies played with the objects in the river.
- When Helena was in the woods with Demetrius, she played with the horn of his bicycle. This caused the all the FROGS to CROAKING TOGETHER! This was REALLY FUNNY!
- When the actors met up for the first time in the film, Bottom tried to act out the other parts. He did this by speaking in a funny voice. When he was pretending to be a lion, it caused a dog to bark, but more importantly, it caused two young men to pour wine on him from a high building! It was then that Bottom met up with his wife at home. In the original play, Bottom does NOT have a wife. This part was put into the film to make it funny.
In my conclusion, I would like to say that this film was better than okay. But it will NEVER be good enough to be one of my favourites. This film is PROBABLY the best modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play that I`ve seen. My FAVOURITE Shakespeare films are the ones made by the BBC because they are ALWAYS done in PERIOD setting and ALWAYS use the WHOLE of the text, WITHOUT cutting any part of it. I know that this play is meant to be set in ANCIENT GREEK times (in BC). When I saw the BBC film of "A Midsummer Night`s Dream", I was SURPRISED because it was done in TUDOR SETTING (16th century). The film by the BBC is ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT, but it setting and costumes should have been Ancient Greek. My favourite film of "A Midsummer Night`s Dream" is DEFINITELY the one made by the BBC. |
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