A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1999 fantasy romantic comedy film written, directed and co-produced by Michael Hoffman, based on the 1600 play of the same name by William Shakespeare. The ensemble cast features Kevin Kline as Bottom, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett as Titania and Oberon, Stanley Tucci as Puck, and Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, and Dominic West as the four lovers.
Plot
In 1890s Monte Athena, in the Kingdom of Italy, as Thesius and Hippolyta's wedding banquet preparations are under way, young Hermia's father Egeus approaches him. He requests the duke support his promise of his daughter's hand to Demetrius, at threat of her death if she does not comply. Thesius gives the young woman four days to choose to marry him, join a convent or die.
As the lovers Lysander and Hermia are forbidden to marry, the pair make plans to flee to the forest to escape the arrangement. They confide in Helena, as she is in anguish over Demetrius because she's desperately in love with him after they'd had an affair.
Meanwhile, theatre director Peter Quince assigns parts to his upcoming production based on the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe. After the townspeople make a mockery of actor Nick Bottoms, the acting troupe decide to take rehearsals to the forest.
Young Helena makes Demetrius aware of Hermia and Lysander's plan, then follows him into the woods like a lovesick puppy. He tries to disuade her, but she persists as her love is more of an obsession. Once in the forest, they wander into the fairy world, ruled by Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the fairies.
Oberon observes them and he and his servant sprite Puck cause mayhem using a potion made of a special flower. It, when applied to the eyes, makes the person fall in love with the first person they see. Oberon puts it on Titania's eyes.
Puck uses the magic potion on Lysander while he sleeps, and Helena wakes him, fearing him dead. He suddenly forgets about Hermia, chasing Helena through the woods.
Oberon then bewitches Titania with the same potion, to get her to come back to him. Meanwhile the acting troupe, preparing the play for the entertainment of the Duke, rehearse in the forest. The mischievous Puck magically enchants Bottom with the head of an ass and he is then seen by the bewitched Titania. She woos him in her bower, attended by fairies.
Upon Oberon's orders, Puck uses the magic potion on the sleeping Demetrius. He also falls in love with Helena, leading to a rift between all four that culminates in a mud-wrestling scene.
Oberon tires of the sport and puts all to rights, pairing Lysander back with Hermia using another flower to undo the spell. Demetrius is let be with Helena, and he reconciles with his own queen Titania with the second flower.
Thesius and Hippolyta's riding party comes across the couples sleeping, half-naked in a field. As the couples declare their love, Demetrius with Helena and Lysander with Hermia, the duke and future bride invite the other couples to also wed in their ceremony, much to Egeus' chagrin.
Bottom also wakes in a field, transformed back into fully human form. What happened with the fairy seems a dream. However, he is left a gold ring that has a woodland appearance.
In the final part, Bottom and his troupe of "rude Mechanicals" perform their amateur play. They do so before Duke Theseus, his wife Hippolyta, the other two couples and the court at the wedding celebration, unintentionally producing a tragedy that turns into a comedy.
Cast
Production
A Midsummer Night's Dream was filmed on location in Lazio and Tuscany, and at Cinecittà Studios, Rome, Italy. The action of the play was transported from Athens, Greece, to a fictional Monte Athena, located in the Tuscan region of Italy, although all textual mentions of Athens were retained.
The film made use of Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for an 1843 stage production (including the famous Wedding March), alongside operatic works from Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Gioacchino Rossini and Pietro Mascagni.
Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on November 30, 1999.
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 79 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critics' consensus reads, "Faultless production and shining performances display the Bard's talent propitiously." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Many critics singled out Kevin Kline and Stanley Tucci for particular praise.
In The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote:
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote:
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack wrote:
In Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston wrote:
{{blockquote|A strangely uneven adaptation of the Bard's most famous comedy, Michael Hoffman's Dream is, if nothing else, admirable for its lack of a contrived gimmick. Yes, the story has been transplanted to Tuscany in the 1890s, and the cast is packed with big names, but Hoffman rightly treats the text as the real star of the show. The film soars when actors who remember that Shakespeare was primarily an entertainer carry the ball, but things get pretty turgid when the focus is on those who seem cowed by appearing in an adaptation of a Major Literary Classic.<ref>Time Out New York, May 13–19, 1999, p. 100.</ref>}}
In The Washington Post, Jane Horwitz wrote:
Also in the Washington Post, Desson Howe wrote:
In Variety, Emanuel Levy described the film as a "whimsical, intermittently enjoyable but decidedly unmagical version of the playwright's wild romantic comedy ... There is not much chemistry between Pfeiffer and Everett, nor between Pfeiffer and Kline, particularly in their big love scene. Kline overacts physically and emotionally, Flockhart is entertaining in a broad manner, and Pfeiffer renders a strenuously theatrical performance. Overall, the Brits give more coherent and resonant performances, especially Friel and West as the romantic couple, a restrained Everett as Oberon, and Rees as the theatrical manager."Time Out wrote that "this Dream'' is middlebrow and unashamed of it. Injecting the film with fun and pathos, Kline makes a superb Bottom; it's his play and he acts it to the hilt."
See also
List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations
References
Notes
Further reading
External links
A Midsummer Night's Dream at the British Film Institute
1999 films
1999 fantasy films
1999 multilingual films
1999 romantic comedy films
1990s American films
1990s British films
1990s fantasy comedy films
1990s English-language films
1990s Italian films
1990s Italian-language films
1990s romantic fantasy films
American fantasy comedy films
American multilingual films
American romantic comedy films
American romantic fantasy films
British fantasy comedy films
British multilingual films
British romantic comedy films
British romantic fantasy films
English-language Italian films
Films about fairies and sprites
Films based on A Midsummer Night's Dream
Films directed by Michael Hoffman
Films scored by Simon Boswell
Films set in the 1890s
Films set in Italy
Films shot at Cinecittà Studios
Films shot in Tuscany
Fox Searchlight Pictures films
Italian fantasy comedy films
Italian multilingual films
Italian romantic comedy films
Italian-language American films
Regency Enterprises films