Twelfth Night or What You Will (1996)

Shakespeare's comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores, only to be pursued by the woman he loves.

Director:

Trevor Nunn

Writers:

William Shakespeare (by), Trevor Nunn (screenplay)

Stars:

Imogen Stubbs, Steven Mackintosh, Helena Bonham Carter

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Imogen Stubbs	...	Viola
Steven Mackintosh	...	Sebastian
Nicholas Farrell	...	Antonio
Sidney Livingstone	...	Captain (as Sid Livingstone)
Ben Kingsley	...	Feste
James Walker	...	Priest
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Olivia
Nigel Hawthorne	...	Malvolio
Mel Smith	...	Sir Toby Belch
Imelda Staunton	...	Maria
Toby Stephens	...	Orsino
Alan Mitchell	...	Valentine
Peter Gunn	...	Fabian
Richard E. Grant	...	Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Tim Bentinck	...	First Officer

Storyline

Brother and sister Viola and Sebastian, who are not only very close but look a great deal alike, are in a shipwreck, and both think the other dead. When she lands in a foreign country, Viola dresses as her brother and adopts the name Cesario, becoming a trusted friend and confidante to the Count Orsino. Orsino is madly in love with the lady Olivia, who is in mourning due to her brother's recent death, which she uses as an excuse to avoid seeing the count, whom she does not love. He sends Cesario to do his wooing, and Olivia falls in love with the disguised maiden. Things get more complicated in this bittersweet Shakespeare comedy when a moronic nobleman, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and a self-important servant, Malvolio, get caught up in the schemes of Olivia's cousin, the obese, alcoholic Sir Toby, who leads each to believe Olivia loves him. As well, Sebastian surfaces in the area, and of course there is Feste, the wise fool, around to keep everything in perspective and to marvel, like we ...

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Plot Keywords:

love | disguise | mourning | servant | fool | 

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Taglines:

Before Priscilla crossed the desert, Wong Foo met Julie Newmar, and the Birdcage was unlocked, there was...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for mild thematic elements

Details

Country:

UK Ireland USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Twelfth Night

Filming Locations:

Cotehele House, St Dominick, Cornwall, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$33,451 (USA) (25 October 1996)

Gross:

$551,545 (USA) (20 December 1996)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Renaissance Films, BBC Films, Circus Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby SR

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Helena Bonham Carter and Imelda Staunton also appear together in the Harry Potter films, with Toby Stephens's mother, Maggie Smith.

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Goofs

Feste's guitar playing for Cesario (Viola) and Orsino does not match up with the soundtrack.

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Quotes

Malvolio: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

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Connections

Version of Twelfth Night (1976)

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Soundtracks

"O Mistress Mine"
Music by Shaun Davey
Words by William Shakespeare
Sung by Ben Kingsley

User Reviews

Absolutely Ponderous

I beg to differ from the other User Comments. My family likes Shakespeare and we all agreed that this was one of the WORST adaptations we've seen! True the sets and photography were lovely, but the pacing was excruciatingly slow. In my opinion, the secret to a successful production of a Shakespeare comedy, at least for a modern audience, lies in rapid-fire delivery of the lines with a sense of tongue-in-cheek. Otherwise, the audience is given too much opportunity to realize just how ridiculous and implausible the plot really is. In this production, the lines seem to be dragged out to their ultimate limit, with lots of pauses in between. While I think that Shakespeare's comedies are more difficult to interpret on film than his tragedies, there have been some successes. Kenneth Branagh's `Much Ado About Nothing' and Franco Zefferelli's `Taming of the Shrew' come to mind. Even Peter Hoffman's recent `A Midsummer Night Dream', despite some casting mistakes, was better than this. Helena Bonham-Carter's considerable talents are wasted in the production, as I suspect are those of the other actors, with whom I am less familiar. None of them seem be having any fun. It's hard to believe that such an experienced Shakespearean director could have missed the mark so badly. I've seen a production by kids aged 9-14 that had a lot more energy than this!