There have been many great Shakespeare drama adaptations, but Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night is outstanding even among the greatest. It is wonderful how sensitively and excitingly he handles the issue of identity (girl disguising herself as a boy) and identification (male-female twins)problems.
The major character is Viola, who after losing her twin brother (played by Stephen Mackintosh very convincingly), is forced to disguise herself as a boy to survive in a strange and hostile land (namely Illyria which is at war with her home county, Messaline). The introductory scenes (not included in the drama) showing how brother and sister, sharing a strong bond of affection, lose each other, how dangerous it is for a citizen of Messaline to set foot in Illiyra and how Viola is transformed into a boy give the story a very good frame. The scenes where Viola is being transformed are great, showing how sensitive this girl is, how difficult it is for her to pretend, yet she musters all her courage to hide her pain over the supposed death of her brother. But struggles are not over as she also has to hide her passionate love from Orsino, the Duke of Illyira whom she serves.
Her position is twofold difficult: she soon becomes Orsino's confident, they get really close to each other so she finds more and more difficult to hide her feelings from him; but to ease Orsino's sufferings, she undertakes to act as a "courier" for pursuing his hopeless love, the Countess Olivia.
Then comes another Shakespearean turn of the screw: Olivia, who won't hear of Orsino's passion, falls for Cesario/Viola. In the meantime, Sebastian, thinking her beloved sister, Viola is dead, sets for Illyria as well ...
As it is a comedy all things messed up will sort themselves out at the end, however, this is not a light comedy, the shadow of the tragic is hovering over the whole drama shaped in one of the subplots. The whole film seems to balance at the very narrow edge of tragedy and comedy all the time despite the many hilarious moments.
The most wonderful scenes are the ones of Cesario/Viola and the Duke Orsino (a very sexy Toby Stephens)being together. Nunn is actually showing the emotional and subtle sexual attraction the Duke feels for his "manservant". Absolutely brilliant!
Imogen Stubbs personificates Viola superbly: an upright woman, who, despite the disguise she is forced to wear, is the most honest of all, especially compared to the characters of Orsino and Oliva, both of whom are deluding themselves by imaginary feelings.
The whole cast is wonderful from Helena Bonham-Carter to Ben Kingsley. Music and costume all fit in amazingly with the whole atmosphere of the drama.
Shakespeare 101
An easy to follow play with a delightful cast of characters. A very good introduction to Shakespeare for the uninitiated.
An Amazing Adaptation
I was thrilled to recieve my copy of Twelfth Night after over a year of waiting for it to come out in America on DVD. The film itself is wonderfully shot and sports a talented and knowlegable cast. Imogen Stubbs, who I had only seen previously in Sense and Sensiblity, as Viola seems made for the role. You can truly believe that Olivia, played by the always "on" Helena Bonham Carter, would fall in love with her. Toby Stephens is a revelation as Orsino. He managed to make Orsino very noble and sexy while most actors tend to play him a little too whiney for my taste. It was a bit of a shock to see Ben Kingsley playing the Fool but I fell in love with him with in 10 minutes. All in all this film has taken the title of favorite in my home. I watch it every time I can and always find something new to enjoy. The DVD is seriously lacking in any extras. The "behind the scenes" feature is literally just that. Someone set up a camara about 100 yard from the set and left it there. No voice over or editing. Very disappointing. But one can expect such things from a movie that was not made in the DVD era. GO OUT AND BUY IT.
Rarely has The Merchant of Venice, one of Shakespeare's most complex plays, looked as ravishingly sumptuous as in this adaptation, directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino). In a decadent version of renaissance Venice, a young nobleman named Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love) seeks to woo the lovely Portia (newcomer Lynn Collins), but lacks the money to travel to her estate. He seeks support from his friend, the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune); Antonio's fortune is tied up in sea ventures, so the merchant offers to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender, Shylock (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon). But Shylock holds a grudge against Antonio, who has routinely treated the Jew with contempt, and demands that if the debt is not... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Al Pacino - Jeremy Irons - Joseph Fiennes - Lynn Collins Director(s): Michael Radford DVD Release Date: Released the 10 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This was originally a stage production, and it seems to have been "adapted" for TV by simply filming the actors on the single unchanging stage set and perhaps adding some fake snow. If you take it as such, it's not bad, but if you're expecting something along the lines of Branagh's "Henry V" or "Much Ado about Nothing", you may be disappointed. The Trevor Nunn version is much more cinematic and uses a gorgeous country manor house in Cornwall as the set.
My main problem with this production was the casting of two of the leads. Christopher Ravenscroft seems rather sheepish as Orsino, but much worse was Frances Barber (Viola/Cesario), whose facial expressions, as Dorothy Parker said of Katharine Hepburn, "ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." Moreover, Barber is so... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kenneth Branagh - Paul Kafno DVD Release Date: Released the 30 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Kenneth Branagh's 1993 production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a vigorous and imaginative work, cheerful and accessible for everyone. Largely the story of Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson)--adversaries who come to believe each is trying to woo the other--the film veers from arched wit to ironic romps, and the two leads don't mind looking a little silly at times. But the plot is also layered with darker matters that concern the ease with which men and women fall into mutual distrust. Branagh has rounded up a mixed cast of stage vets and Hollywood stars, among the latter Denzel Washington and Michael Keaton, the latter playing a rather seedy, Beetlejuice-like version of Dogberry, king of malapropisms. The DVD release has optional full-screen and widescreen... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kate Beckinsale - Keanu Reeves - Emma Thompson DVD Release Date: Released the 07 January 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Two of England's greatest actors, Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench, electrify in this lean, stripped-down production of Shakespeare's darkest tragedy. In the wake of a battle, the Scottish warrior Macbeth (McKellen, Gods and Monsters, Lord of the Rings) receives a prophecy from a trio of witches: He shall be king. When fate doesn't unfold quickly enough, Macbeth and his even more ambitious wife (Dench, Shakespeare in Love, Iris) decide to give it a push. McKellen sweats anxiously and oozes a creeping lust for power, while Dench is hypnotically vicious from her first moment. For audiences used to their film careers, this grand pair will seem young as pups (this TV movie is from 1979, adapted from an acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Philip Casson DVD Release Date: Released the 16 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Very few films come close to the brilliance Kenneth Branagh achieved with his first foray into screenwriting and direction. Henry V qualifies as a masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence Olivier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules. Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an antiwar story. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and close-ups of himself as Henry, his hardened mouth and willful eyes revealing much about this land war. Not that the director-star doesn't provide lighter moments. His scenes introducing the French Princess Katherine (Emma Thompson) are toothsome. Bubbly, funny, enhanced by lovely... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kenneth Branagh - Derek Jacobi Director(s): Kenneth Branagh DVD Release Date: Released the 18 July 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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