A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)

We have watched one or two films based on Shakespeare plays in the past and liked them very much. So when I saw the 1999 film version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at a church sale, it was an easy decision to buy it. We noticed a few well-known actors and actresses listed, and finally watched it yesterday evening.

Rather than being set in the 15th and 16th centuries, the film is set at the start of the 19th century, in Italy. So the clothes and some of the settings are rather more modern than would be expected, in particular several bicycles. But the language is Shakespeare’s.

I don’t know how true to the original play the script is; there may have been additions or deletions, but I certainly recognised many of the more famous speeches or dialogues, and it felt authentic. And as when seeing any Shakespeare production, the text was easy to understand after the first few minutes, once my ears were attuned to the style.

The cast have a slightly odd mixture of English and American accents that jarred a little at first, but we gradually got used to it. The story is well-known, set both in the real world of autocratic fathers and unrequited love, and also the woodland full of fairies and sprites. Two young men, Demetrius (Christian Bale) and Lysander (Dominic West), are both in love with a girl called Hermia (Anna Freil). She loves one, but her father wants her to marry the other. And he threatens her with death or a convent if she fails to do his bidding.

Hermia’s friend Helena (Calista Flockhart) is in love with Demetrius, but he ignores her. And while I found Hermia quite believable, Helena’s histrionics felt exaggerated and fake at times. Perhaps it’s in keeping with a Shakespeare comedy - there’s certainly plenty of exaggeration later - but I didn’t much like Helena. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away into the forest, and their friends follow… only to be caught up in the fairyland world, in particular the mischievous sprite Puck, brilliantly played by Stanley Tucci. I had thought of Puck as a much younger lad, but could almost believe in this one.

Michelle Pfeiffer is excellent as the slighted queen of the fairies, Titania, who is bewitched to fall in love with the weaver known as Bottom (Kevin Kline). Rupert Everett makes a good Oberon too. The real and fairyland worlds weave together very well, fairies shown as mischievous, liking drink and dancing and various kinds of carousing.

The scenery, the magical effects and the acting and directing were all excellent, we thought, even if there was rather more implied intimacy than I had ever seen before in productions of this play. While there’s nothing untoward shown, there are several scenes where it’s obvious that couples are naked, and in at least one of them it is very clear what is about to happen.

Shakespeare’s plays are full of innuendoes and bawdiness, but it was rather more overt in this production than in the live theatre I have seen previously. So I was a little surprised that it was only rated PG, at least in the UK. The US has rated it PG-13 and I feel that would be more appropriate.

That apart, I would recommend this very highly, if you don’t mind a rather different style of production. It was very amusing in places, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews