Sen noci svatojanske (1959)

Director:

Jirí Trnka

Writers:

Jirí Brdecka (writer)
Josef Kainar (writer)

Release Date:

25 September 1959 (Czechoslovakia)

Genre:

Animation

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream | Based On Play

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Joss Ackland	...	Quince (voice)
Ann Bell	...	Hermia (voice)
Richard Burton	...	Narrator
Tom Criddle	...	Lysander (voice)
Jean Desailly	...	Récitant / Narrator (French version) (voice)
Laura Graham	...	Hippolyta (voice)
Jack Gwillim	...	Oberon (voice)
Barbara Jefford	...	Titania (voice)
Barbara Leigh-Hunt	...	Helena (voice)
Hugh Manning	...	Theseus (voice)
Alec McCowen	...	Bottom (voice)
Michael Meacham	...	Demetrius (voice)
Stephen Moore	...	Flute (voice)
Rudolf Pellar	...	Narrator (original Czech version) (as R. Pellar)
Roger Shepherd	...	Puck (voice)
John Warner	...	Egeus (voice)

Also Known As:

A Midsummer Night's Dream (USA)

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Company:

Studio Kresleného a Loutkového Filmu

Movie Connections:

Version of Songe d'une nuit d'été, Le (1909)

A Dream You Won't Want to Wake Up From!

Alas, the version I saw was not the one listed here - with narration by Richard Burton and voices dubbed by luminaries of the Royal Shakespeare Company - but an alternative one with a very cloying woman (uncredited, and deservedly so!) who tells the whole story in voiceover. The result was less 'William Shakespeare Presents' than 'Tales for Toddler Time.' Frankly, I don't know why they bothered with narration at all, as Trnka's animation is so magically vivid as to make words superfluous.

In fact, this film is a masterpiece of visual storytelling - a reminder of just how wondrous animation can be when it doesn't insult a viewer's intelligence a la Walt Disney. Indeed, it's surprisingly adult at times. A randy goat (under the influence of magic love potion) tries to rape the fairy Puck. The two runaway lovers, Hermia and Lysander, slip into an eerily vulva-shaped cave to consummate their love. Strange, then, that Trnka cuts out the story's gay element - the desire of the Fairy King Oberon for the changeling boy. Perhaps that was more than Communist-era censors could take.

Otherwise, this is an exemplary reading of the text. Jiri Trnka's visualisation of the Enchanted Forest - every inch of it swathed in moonlight and dripping with rose petals, fairy wings, spying owls - rivals the Baroque splendours of the 1935 Max Reinhardt film. Even the amateur actors' performance of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' (an irksome comic interlude in most stagings) is transformed by Puck's magic into a heart-soaring experience. A must for anyone who loves Shakespeare - or, more important, anyone who doesn't - this is one dream you won't want to wake up from!

David Melville