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Stage Beauty (2004)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
3 September 2004 (UK) moreTagline:
She was the first of her kind. He was the last of his.Plot:
A female theatre dresser creates a stir and sparks a revolution in seventeenth century London theatre by playing Desedmona in Othello. But what will become of the male actor she once worked for and eventually replaced? full summary | add synopsisAwards:
3 wins & 1 nomination moreNewsDesk:
(4 articles)
Crudup Begs Parker for Visitation Rights (From WENN. 20 December 2004)
Crudup Never Expected To Date Danes (From WENN. 14 September 2004)
User Comments:
Shakespeare in Love with brains. And acting. moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Derek Hutchinson | ... | Stage Manager | |
| Mark Letheren | ... | Male Emilia / Dickie | |
| Claire Danes | ... | Maria | |
| Billy Crudup | ... | Ned Kynaston | |
| Tom Wilkinson | ... | Betterton | |
| Ben Chaplin | ... | George Villiars, Duke of Buckingham | |
| Hugh Bonneville | ... | Samuel Pepys | |
| Jack Kempton | ... | Call Boy | |
| Alice Eve | ... | Miss Frayne | |
| Fenella Woolgar | ... | Lady Meresvale | |
| David Westhead | ... | Harry | |
| Nick Barber | ... | Nick | |
| Stephen Marcus | ... | Thomas Cockerell | |
| Richard Griffiths | ... | Sir Charles Sedley | |
| Zoe Tapper | ... | Nell Gwynn |
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Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for sexual content and language.Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
106 minLanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 moreCertification:
Brazil:16 | Australia:M | Argentina:16 | Iceland:12 | Germany:12 | South Korea:18 | Netherlands:AL | Singapore:M18 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R | Canada:14A (Ontario)MOVIEmeter: 
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Kate Winslet was originally offered the female lead but she pulled out shortly before filming started. moreGoofs:
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Pepys is telling Kynaston to play a man's role, Kynaston's lips are out of sync with his speech in some shots. moreQuotes:
Maria: Why won't you play men?Ned Kynaston: Men aren't beautiful. What they do isn't beautiful either. Women do everything beautifully, especially when they die. Men feel far too much. *Feeling* ruins the effect. Feeling makes it ugly.
[Maria rolls her eyes]
Ned Kynaston: Perhaps that's why I could never pull off the death scene. I- could never feel it in a way that wouldn't mar the-
[pause]
Ned Kynaston: I couldn't let the beauty die. Without beauty there's nothing. Who could love that?
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We sat for the first few minutes wondering whether we'd come to the right film (expecting a formulaic period romp). And for a little while I was prepared to spend the rest of the evening apologising to my partner for the slowness and oddness of the film. But once our disbelief had been suspended and we'd got used to the cramped feeling of the film (more like a staged version than cinematic at times), we both loved it.
I agree that Claire Danes acted well (though the hyperventilation happened once too often) and Billy Crudup brought a complexity to the role that I rarely see in films. The reference to Shakespeare in Love is an affectionate comparison: I enjoyed the light snack of Gwinny, luvvies and Fiennes and have sat through the DVD time and again. But that film had a predictability that Stage Beauty lacked. We didn't know that Stage Beauty's 'love element' would ever work out.
I do not see the development of the relationship between Danes and Crudup as a conversion from gay to straight. Instead I see a problematic progress from an imposed gender identity (perpetuated through sexual fantasy by Buckingham) to an un"knowing" but more satisfying state, where it's being yourself (whatever that is) not performing a role that counts. I think that this is relevant to all of us as we perform the roles that we and those who've influenced our upbringing have created for ourselves. We can't easily escape them (and some are more hammy than others in their performance) but the knowledge that life is performative and complex is, for me, liberating.
And all that from a costume drama!