A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)

Lovers lives are complicated by city law, feuding faerie royalty, and... love.

Director:

Michael Hoffman

Writers:

William Shakespeare (play), Michael Hoffman (screenplay)

Stars:

Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kevin Kline	...	Nick Bottom
Michelle Pfeiffer	...	Titania
Rupert Everett	...	Oberon
Stanley Tucci	...	Puck
Calista Flockhart	...	Helena
Anna Friel	...	Hermia
Christian Bale	...	Demetrius
Dominic West	...	Lysander
David Strathairn	...	Theseus
Sophie Marceau	...	Hippolyta
Roger Rees	...	Peter Quince
Max Wright	...	Robin Starveling
Gregory Jbara	...	Snug
Bill Irwin	...	Tom Snout
Sam Rockwell	...	Francis Flute

Storyline

Shakespeare's intertwined love polygons begin to get complicated from the start--Demetrius and Lysander both want Hermia but she only has eyes for Lysander. Bad news is, Hermia's father wants Demetrius for a son-in-law. On the outside is Helena, whose unreturned love burns hot for Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to flee from the city under cover of darkness but are pursued by an enraged Demetrius (who is himself pursued by an enraptured Helena). In the forest, unbeknownst to the mortals, Oberon and Titania (King and Queen of the faeries) are having a spat over a servant boy. The plot twists up when Oberon's head mischief-maker, Puck, runs loose with a flower which causes people to fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Throw in a group of labourers preparing a play for the Duke's wedding (one of whom is given a donkey's head and Titania for a lover by Puck) and the complications become fantastically funny.

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Plot Keywords:

love | lover | fairy | fickleness | victorian era | 

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Taglines:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Italy UK USA

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

14 May 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Filming Locations:

Caprarola, Viterbo, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£310,464 (UK) (24 September 1999)

Gross:

£1,183,531 (UK) (15 October 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Searchlight Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Taurus Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some of the orchestral score is from Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's 1843 incidental music for the play. It has also been used in Frederick Ashton's 1964 ballet adaptation of the play, "The Dream", and in George Balanchine's ballet version of the play. The 1935 film version of Shakespeare's play also used generous chunks of Mendelssohn's music.

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Goofs

After calling Hermia a "dwarf", Lysander has a lot less mud on his face in the next shot.

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Quotes

Francis Flute: Asleep, my love? What, dead, my dove?

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Connections

Version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1996)

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Soundtracks

"Incidental music"
from the 1843 German stage production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Composed by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (as Felix Mendelssohn)
Performed by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
Courtesy of The Decca Record Company Limited, London
By Arrangement with PolyGram Film & TV Music

User Reviews

Surprisingly faithful adaptation

As a general rule, I normally don't post comments unless I have enough time to write a thorough review, and have given it much thought before hand. I'm sorry, but even though it's 2am, I can't bear to go to sleep and let the review before me just sit there. Obviously the reviewer before me seems to have no idea that the complicities that arise from the various plots go back to Shakespeare himself - and it is a great achievement by this film to manage to keep all the plates spinning and all the stories interesting.

I am amazed by this film. I am a life-long Shakespeare fan and it's great to see a faithful American production. The British/American cast all worked fantasically well together - Christian Bale, Anna Friel, Dominic West, and Calista Flockheart were all perfectly cast as the four lovers. The fairies and the actors both worked very well to frame the story - and the director has managed to keep it both visually unique and incredibly entertaining.

I'm not quite sure why they decided to change the location from Greece to Italy, but in an age where Kenneth Branagh is trying to make a 1940s musical out of Love's Labour's Lost, I say, the changes could be a lot worse. All in all, this is a very impressive adaptation. I'm just happy to see that Shakespeare hasn't lost his appeal to modern audiences.