Shakespeare in Love
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| Shakespeare in Love | |
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| Directed by | John Madden |
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| Produced by | David Parfitt Donna Gigliotti Harvey Weinstein Edward Zwick Marc Norman |
| Written by | Marc Norman Tom Stoppard |
| Starring | Gwyneth Paltrow Joseph Fiennes Colin Firth Ben Affleck Geoffrey Rush Judi Dench Tom Wilkinson Imelda Staunton Rupert Everett Martin Clunes |
| Music by | Stephen Warbeck |
| Cinematography | Richard Greatrex |
| Editing by | David Gamble |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films (USA) Alliance Atlantis (Canada) Universal Pictures (non-USA/Canada) |
| Release date(s) |  December 3, 1998 (premiere) 11 December 1998 (New York City; Los Angeles) 25 December 1998 (nation wide) 8 January 1999 29 January 1999 11 February 1999 25 February 1999 |
| Running time | 123 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $289,317,794 (worldwide) |
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 romantic comedy film. The film was directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard. Stoppard's first major success was with the Shakespeare-influenced play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
The film is largely fictional, although several of the characters are based on real people. In addition, many of the characters, lines, and plot devices are references to Shakespeare's plays.
Shakespeare in Love won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (for Gwyneth Paltrow) and Best Supporting Actress (for Judi Dench). It was the first comedy to win the Best Picture award since Annie Hall (1977).
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[edit] Synopsis
The film centres around the forbidden love of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), the daughter of a wealthy merchant.
As the film begins, theatre manager Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) finds himself in debt to loan shark Hugh Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson). Henslowe offers Fennyman a partnership in the upcoming production of Shakespeare's newest comedy — Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter — promising that it will be a hit. However, after learning that his love was cheating on him with his patron, he burns the original play and tries to start anew. This play will later be renamed Romeo and Juliet and be reworked into a tragedy (but with some comical undertones with a few characters, like the Nurse).
Will Shakespeare is suffering from writer's block and has not completed the play, but begins auditions for Romeo. A boy named Thomas Kent is cast in the role after impressing Shakespeare with his performance and his love of Shakespeare's previous work. Unknown to Shakespeare and the rest of the theatre company, Kent is young Viola de Lesseps, whose dream is to act, but as women are barred from the stage, she must disguise herself as a young man in order to fulfill her dream.
After Shakespeare discovers his star's true identity, he and Viola begin a passionate secret affair. There are strong parallels between the pair's romance and the romance in Romeo and Juliet, including the ballroom scene from Act 2 and the balcony scene immediately following it. The element of forbidden love forms the basis of Shakespeare's inspiration, and many of their conversations later show up as some of the most famous quotes in the play.
Inspired by Viola, Shakespeare begins writing feverishly. His work in progress also benefits from the off-hand advice of playwright and friendly rival Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe (Rupert Everett). Yet Shakespeare and de Lesseps know that their romance is doomed. Shakespeare is married, albeit long separated from his wife, and Viola’s parents would never permit her to marry a commoner such as Shakespeare. In fact, Viola's father has privately arranged a betrothal for her to Lord Wessex (Colin Firth).
Viola is called to the court of Queen Elizabeth I (Judi Dench), and Shakespeare dons a woman's disguise to accompany her. At court, Shakespeare manages to goad Wessex into betting fifty pounds that a play cannot capture the nature of true love. If Romeo and Juliet is a success, Shakespeare as playwright will win the money. The Queen, who enjoys Shakespeare's plays, agrees to be a witness to the wager. The true purpose of the meeting is revealed when Wessex announces his intent to marry Viola.
The Master of the Revels, the Queen's official in charge of the theatres, learns that there is a woman in the theatre company at the Rose playhouse. He orders the theatre closed for this violation of morality and the law. Left without a stage or lead actor, it seems that Romeo and Juliet must close before it even opens. Shakespeare is offered one last chance by the owner of a competing theatre, the Curtain, who offers his theatre to Shakespeare. Shakespeare will take the role of Romeo himself, with a boy actor playing Juliet.
Viola learns that the play will be performed on the day of her wedding. After the ceremony, Viola's loyal nurse (Imelda Staunton) helps her slip away to the theatre. In a final twist, shortly before the play begins, the boy playing Juliet starts experiencing the voice change of puberty. Viola takes the stage to replace him and plays Juliet to Shakespeare's Romeo. Their passionate portrayal of two lovers inspires the entire audience.
Mr. Tilney, the Master of the Revels, arrives at the theatre with Wessex, who has deduced his new bride's whereabouts. Tilney invokes the name of the Queen to arrest all there for indecency. Suddenly, Elizabeth I's voice rings out from the back of the theatre: "Mr. Tilney! Have a care with my name; you will wear it out." The Queen had decided to attend the play in disguise, and says that she will handle this matter herself. Although she recognizes Viola in her guise as Thomas Kent, the Queen does not unmask Viola, instead declaring that the role of Juliet is being performed by the boy Thomas Kent.
However, even a Queen is powerless to break a lawful marriage. Queen Elizabeth orders "Thomas Kent" to fetch Viola so that she may sail to America. She also states that Romeo and Juliet has accurately portrayed true love and so Wessex is forced to pay Shakespeare the fifty pounds, the exact amount Shakespeare requires to buy a share in the Chamberlain's Men. The Queen then directs "Kent" to tell Shakespeare to write something "a little more cheerful next time, for Twelfth Night".
Viola and Shakespeare part, never to meet again: she must accompany Wessex to a colonial settlement in Virginia. Shakespeare immortalizes her by making the main character of his new play, Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, a strong young woman named Viola who disguises herself as a boy. The final image of the film has Viola walking away down a beach, with a voice over by Shakespeare discussing his plans to write Twelfth Night and musing of its main character, "For she will be my heroine for all time, and her name will be... Viola."
[edit] Historical accuracy
The film makes no pretense at historical accuracy. For example, the basis of Romeo and Juliet was a poem and not one of Shakespeare's romances.
The film features many comic anachronisms: a psychotherapist; a mug marked "A present from Stratford-on-Avon"; Shakespeare leaping into a ferry and saying "Follow that boat!"; Queen Elizabeth I remarking "Have a care with my name or you will wear it out"; and Shakespeare anticipating the phrase "The show must go on!"
The characters of Ralph Bashford, James Hemmings, Edward Pope, Sam Gosse, James Armitage, Viola de Lesseps, Robert de Lesseps (Nicholas Le Prevost), Lady de Lesseps (Jill Baker), Hugh Fennyman, and Lord Wessex did not exist.
The characters of Philip Henslowe, Richard Burbage, Ned Alleyn, Will Kempe, Edmund Tilney, Augustine Philips, John Hemmings (spelled in real life as "John Heminges"), George Bryan, Christopher Marlowe, and John Webster did exist, but their actions in the film are fictitious.
There were neither tobacco plantations nor English colonies in America in the 1590s.
[edit] Casting
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- Mel Gibson was the first choice to play Philip Henslowe. A cast reshuffle saw Geoffrey Rush win the part.
- Several years before the film was finally made, Julia Roberts was cast alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, but both dropped out a few weeks before filming.[1] The project then went into turnaround at Universal Pictures, where it remained until Miramax Films resuscitated it.
- Meg Ryan, Jodie Foster, Winona Ryder, and Kate Winslet were all considered for the part eventually played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
- Ben Affleck was not considered for his role (Ned Alleyn) until Paltrow put him forward, supplying an audition tape to the producers that they had prepared together.
- Julie Andrews was in the running for the role of Queen Elizabeth I which eventually went to Judi Dench.
[edit] References to Shakespeare's work
The main source for much of the action in the film is Romeo and Juliet, which the events in the film ultimately inspire Will to write. Will and Viola play out the famous balcony and bedroom scenes; like Juliet, Viola has a witty nurse, and is separated from Will by a gulf of duty (although not the family enmity of the play: the "two households" of Romeo and Juliet are supposedly inspired by the two rival playhouses). In addition, the two lovers are equally 'star-crossed' — they are not ultimately destined to be together (since Viola is of nobility promised to marry Lord Wessex and Shakespeare himself is already married). There is also a Rosaline, with whom Will is in love at the beginning of the film.
Many other plot devices used in the film are common in various Shakespearean comedies and in the works of the other playwrights of the Elizabethan era: the Queen disguised as a commoner, the cross-dressing disguises, mistaken identities, the sword fight, the suspicion of adultery (or, at least, cheating), the appearance of a "ghost" (cf. Macbeth), and the "play within a play".
The film also has sequences in which Shakespeare and the other characters utter words that will later appear in his plays:
- On the street, Shakespeare hears a Puritan preaching against the two London stages: "The Rose smells thusly rank, by any name! I say, a plague on both their houses!" Two references in one, both to Romeo and Juliet; first, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" (Act II, scene ii, lines 1 and 2); second, "a plague on both your houses" (Act III, scene i, line 94).
- Backstage of a performance of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare sees William Kempe in full make-up, silently contemplating a skull (a reference to Hamlet).
- Shakespeare utters the lines "Doubt thou the stars are fire, / Doubt that the sun doth move" (from Hamlet) to Philip Henslowe.
- As Shakespeare's writer's block is introduced, he is seen crumpling balls of paper and throwing them around his room. They land near props which represent scenes in his several plays: a skull (Hamlet), and an open chest (The Merchant of Venice).
- Viola, as well as being Paltrow's name in the film, is the lead character in Twelfth Night who dresses as a man after the supposed death of her brother.
- At the end of the film, Shakespeare imagines a shipwreck overtaking Viola on her way to America, inspiring the second scene of his next play, Twelfth Night, and perhaps also The Tempest.
- Shakespeare writes a sonnet to Viola which begins: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" (from Sonnet 18).
Christopher Marlowe appears in the film as the master playwright whom the characters within the film consider the greatest English dramatist of that time — this is accurate, yet also humorous, since everyone in the film's audience knows what will eventually happen to Shakespeare. Marlowe gives Shakespeare a plot for his next play, "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" ("Romeo is Italian...always in and out of love...until he meets...Ethel. The daughter of his enemy! His best friend is killed in a duel by Ethel's brother or something. His name is Mercutio.") Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is quoted repeatedly: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/ And burned the topless towers of Ilium?"
The child John Webster who plays with mice is a reference to the leading figure in the Jacobean generation of playwrights. His plays (The Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil) are known for their blood and gore, which is why he says that he enjoys Titus Andronicus, and why he says of Romeo and Juliet when asked by The Queen "I liked it when she stabbed herself."
When the clown Will Kempe says to Shakespeare that he would like to play in a drama, he is told that "they would laugh at Seneca if you played it," a reference to the Roman tragedian renowned for his sombre and bloody plot lines which were a major influence on the development of English tragedy.
Will is shown signing a paper repeatedly, with many relatively illegible signatures visible. This is a reference to the fact that several versions of Shakespeare's signature exist, and in each one he spelled his name differently.
[edit] Controversy
The writers of Shakespeare in Love were sued in 1999 by Faye Kellerman, author of the book The Quality of Mercy. Ms. Kellerman claimed that the story was lifted from her book, a detective novel in which Shakespeare and a cross-dressing Jewish woman attempt to solve a murder. Miramax derided the claim of similarity as "[an] absurd...publicity stunt".[2][3] After the film's release, certain publications, including Private Eye, noted strong similarities between the film and the 1941 novel No Bed for Bacon, by Caryl Brahms and S J Simon, which also features Shakespeare falling in love and finding inspiration for his later plays. In a foreword to a subsequent edition of No Bed for Bacon (which traded on the association by declaring itself "A Story of Shakespeare and Lady Viola in Love") Ned Sherrin, Private Eye insider and former writing partner of Brahms', confirmed that he had lent a copy of the novel to Stoppard after he joined the writing team,[4] but that the basic plot of the film had been independently developed by Marc Norman, who was unaware of the earlier work.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Cultural influence
Shakespeare in Love has since been used as material in the VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) in Australia.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,84065,00.html
- ^ "Novelist sues Shakespeare makers". BBC News. 1999-03-23. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/the_oscars_1999/301620.stm. Retrieved on 2008-06-30.
- ^ "Writer sues makers of 'Shakespeare in Love'". CNN. 1999-03-23. http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9903/23/shakespeare.lawsuit/. Retrieved on 2008-06-30.
- ^ Diarist (6 February 1999). "Closed government". The Spectator. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199902/ai_n8830211/?tag=content;col1. Retrieved on 2009-04-13.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Shakespeare in Love |
- Shakespeare in Love at the Internet Movie Database
- Shakespeare in Love at Allmovie
- Shakespeare in Love at Rotten Tomatoes
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Titanic |
Academy Award for Best Picture 1998 |
Succeeded by American Beauty |
| Preceded by As Good as It Gets |
Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy 1998 |
Succeeded by Toy Story 2 |
| Preceded by The Full Monty |
BAFTA Award for Best Film 1998 |
Succeeded by American Beauty |
| Preceded by Practical Magic |
Box office number-one films of 1999 (UK) January 31, 1999 |
Succeeded by A Bug's Life |
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