| A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
| Director: | Michael Hoffman |
| Screenplay: | Michael Hoffman |
| Cinematography: | Oliver Stapleton |
| Editing: | Garth Craven |
| Music: | Simon Boswell |
| Studio: | Regency Enterprises |
| Distributor: | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
| Runtime: | 116 minutes |
| Budget: | $11 million[1] |
| Gross: | $16.1 million |
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1999 fantasy romantic comedy film written, produced, and directed by Michael Hoffman, based on the 1600 play of the same name by William Shakespeare. The ensemble cast features Kevin Kline as Bottom, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett as Titania and Oberon, Stanley Tucci as Puck, and Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, and Dominic West as the four lovers.
In 1890s Monte Athena, in the Kingdom of Italy, as Duke Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding banquet preparations are underway, young Hermia's father Egeus approaches him. He requests the Duke support his promise of his daughter's hand to Demetrius, at threat of her death if she does not comply. Theseus gives Hermia four days to choose to marry Demetrius, join a convent or die.
As the lovers Lysander and Hermia are forbidden to marry, the pair make plans to flee to the forest to escape the arrangement. They confide in Hermia's friend Helena, who is in anguish over Demetrius because she is desperately in love with him after they had had an affair.
Meanwhile, theater director Peter Quince assigns parts to his upcoming production based on the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe. After the townspeople make a mockery of actor Nick Bottom, the acting troupe decide to take rehearsals to the forest.
Helena informs Demetrius of Hermia and Lysander's plan, then follows him into the woods like a lovesick puppy. He tries to disuade her, but she persists as her love is more of an obsession. Once in the forest, they wander into the fairy world, ruled by Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the fairies.
Oberon observes them and he and his servant sprite Puck cause mayhem using a potion made of a special flower. It, when applied to the eyes, makes the person fall in love with the first person they see. Oberon puts it on Titania's eyes. Puck uses the magic potion on Lysander while he sleeps, and Helena wakes him, fearing him dead. He suddenly forgets about Hermia, chasing Helena through the woods.
Meanwhile, the acting troupe, preparing the play for the entertainment of the Duke, rehearse in the forest. The mischievous Puck magically enchants Bottom with the head of a donkey and he is then seen by the bewitched Titania. She woos him in her bower, attended by fairies.
Upon Oberon's orders, Puck uses the magic potion on the sleeping Demetrius. He also falls in love with Helena, leading to a rift between all four that culminates in a mud-wrestling scene.
Oberon tires of the sport and restores order, pairing Lysander back with Hermia using another flower to undo the spell. Demetrius is let be with Helena, and he reconciles with his own queen Titania with the second flower.
Theseus and Hippolyta's riding party comes across the couples sleeping half-naked in a field. As the couples declare their love, Demetrius with Helena and Lysander with Hermia, the Duke and future bride invite the other couples to also wed in their ceremony, much to Egeus' chagrin.
Bottom also wakes in a field, transformed back into fully human form. What happened with the fairy seems a dream. However, he is left a gold ring that has a woodland appearance.
Bottom and his troupe of "rude mechanicals" perform their amateur play. They do so before Duke Theseus, his wife Hippolyta, the other two couples and the court at the wedding celebration, producing a tragedy that unintentionally turns into a comedy.
A Midsummer Night's Dream was shot at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, as well as in Caprarola and Montepulciano, Italy.[2] The action of the play was transported from Athens, Greece, to a fictional Monte Athena, located in the Tuscany region of Italy, although all textual mentions of Athens were retained.
The film made use of Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for an 1843 stage production (including the famous Wedding March), alongside operatic works from Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Gioacchino Rossini and Pietro Mascagni.
The score also includes a recording of Renée Fleming singing the aria "Casta diva" from Bellini's opera Norma.
The film was released on VHS and DVD on November 30, 1999.[3]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Faultless production and shining performances display the Bard's talent propitiously."[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5] Many critics singled out Kevin Kline and Stanley Tucci for particular praise.
In The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote:
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote:
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack wrote:
In Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston wrote:
In The Washington Post, Jane Horwitz wrote:
Also in The Washington Post, Desson Howe wrote:
In Variety, Emanuel Levy described the film as a "whimsical, intermittently enjoyable but decidedly unmagical version of the playwright's wild romantic comedy ... There is not much chemistry between Pfeiffer and Everett, nor between Pfeiffer and Kline, particularly in their big love scene. Kline overacts physically and emotionally, Flockhart is entertaining in a broad manner, and Pfeiffer renders a strenuously theatrical performance. Overall, the Brits give more coherent and resonant performances, especially Friel and West as the romantic couple, a restrained Everett as Oberon, and Rees as the theatrical manager."[6]
Time Out London wrote that "this Dream is middlebrow and unashamed of it. Injecting the film with fun and pathos, Kline makes a superb Bottom; it's his play and he acts it to the hilt."[7]
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Further reading