A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
July 25, 2024 11:45 AM - Subscribe
The lovely Hermia is to wed Demetrius, but she truly cares for Lysander. Hermia’s friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius, while other romantic entanglements abound in the woods, with married fairy rulers Titania and Oberon toying with various lovers and each other.
Starring Kevin Kline, Calista Flockhart, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Anna Friel, Christian Bale (again!), Dominic West (again!), David Straitharn and various other actors.
July Shakespeare Movie Club pick. I picked it mostly because of the actors, and also it's summer. It's Christian Bale (Henry V) and Dominic West (Richard III) again!
Just Watch
Letterboxd for those who do.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust again with the plot summary.
Roger Ebert liked it.
Variety had something to say about it.
July Shakespeare Movie Club pick. I picked it mostly because of the actors, and also it's summer. It's Christian Bale (Henry V) and Dominic West (Richard III) again!
Just Watch
Letterboxd for those who do.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust again with the plot summary.
Roger Ebert liked it.
Variety had something to say about it.
I have a fondness for this one because it's the first Midsummer I saw on film. It was only years later that I would come back to it and go, "Holy shit, it's McNulty vs. Bruce Wayne!"
Anyway, this is definitely a Rom-Commy version of the play, from the casting of the 4 lovers, to the design, to cutting Hippolyta's Amazonian backstory. And it is all very fun and brisk and entertaining. And I liked the bicycles too!
But really, this is Bottom's Midsummer. Kevin Kline pwns everyone else in the cast with his performance, and the film frames him as the heart and soul of the story. Of course they do, it's Kevin Kline, he's a GOAT!
casting Calista Flockhart is as an awkward and "unattractive" person is classic "Hollywood Homely".
Well, Helena isn't really supposed to be unattractive -- she says in her first soliloquy that everyone thinks she is just as beautiful as Hermia, and as we find out later, she has lighter colored hair and is a little taller, too! Awkward, though, I think fits; I've often seen her portrayed as the awkward nerdy girl who then takes off her glasses and lets her hair down reveal how she's be a secret hottie all along. I once saw a college production that played Helena as very sexually confident, even aggressive -- she was very keen on being Demetrius' spaniel (ahem.) and him "doing her wrong in the city, in the woods" etc. etc., if ya get my drift, nudge nudge wink wink.
posted by Saxon Kane at 1:06 PM on July 25, 2024 [1 favorite]
Anyway, this is definitely a Rom-Commy version of the play, from the casting of the 4 lovers, to the design, to cutting Hippolyta's Amazonian backstory. And it is all very fun and brisk and entertaining. And I liked the bicycles too!
But really, this is Bottom's Midsummer. Kevin Kline pwns everyone else in the cast with his performance, and the film frames him as the heart and soul of the story. Of course they do, it's Kevin Kline, he's a GOAT!
casting Calista Flockhart is as an awkward and "unattractive" person is classic "Hollywood Homely".
Well, Helena isn't really supposed to be unattractive -- she says in her first soliloquy that everyone thinks she is just as beautiful as Hermia, and as we find out later, she has lighter colored hair and is a little taller, too! Awkward, though, I think fits; I've often seen her portrayed as the awkward nerdy girl who then takes off her glasses and lets her hair down reveal how she's be a secret hottie all along. I once saw a college production that played Helena as very sexually confident, even aggressive -- she was very keen on being Demetrius' spaniel (ahem.) and him "doing her wrong in the city, in the woods" etc. etc., if ya get my drift, nudge nudge wink wink.
posted by Saxon Kane at 1:06 PM on July 25, 2024 [1 favorite]
I haven't seen this version -- Midsummer overall is a little too silly than I'm generally in the mood for -- though I agree this is a stellar cast that seems worth checking out. However:
I once saw a college production that played Helena as very sexually confident, even aggressive -- she was very keen on being Demetrius' spaniel (ahem.) and him "doing her wrong in the city, in the woods" etc. etc., if ya get my drift, nudge nudge wink wink.
This is an absolutely legit interpretation. Shakespeare was pretty low-brow raunchy when he wanted to be, and this is a pretty raunchy play, so that totally tracks.
posted by Pedantzilla at 2:15 PM on July 25, 2024 [1 favorite]
I once saw a college production that played Helena as very sexually confident, even aggressive -- she was very keen on being Demetrius' spaniel (ahem.) and him "doing her wrong in the city, in the woods" etc. etc., if ya get my drift, nudge nudge wink wink.
This is an absolutely legit interpretation. Shakespeare was pretty low-brow raunchy when he wanted to be, and this is a pretty raunchy play, so that totally tracks.
posted by Pedantzilla at 2:15 PM on July 25, 2024 [1 favorite]
Oh I wasn't challenging its validity, just noting it as an approach different from the majority of versions I've seen; I think it's an effective interpretation of the character.
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:03 PM on July 25, 2024
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:03 PM on July 25, 2024
And in turn I was not reading that as a challenge to its validity, I apologize for giving that impression. You made it sound like a lot of fun! I was merely reinforcing the idea for anyone else who might be giving it the side-eye.
posted by Pedantzilla at 8:34 PM on July 25, 2024
posted by Pedantzilla at 8:34 PM on July 25, 2024
And I in double turn most splendid do apologize for my wrongful apprehension, or should I say, misapprehension of your intention, for what is it to apprehend wrongfully but to misapprehend, unintentional, which is to fully miss the mark, as it were, and so I have, foolishly, for which forthwith I intend these remarks of regret as reparation and remittance, and get me hence to penance most swift as an arrow shot forth with force remarkable before more follies flow regretfully forth! :)
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:40 PM on July 25, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:40 PM on July 25, 2024 [3 favorites]
That made me literally LOL -- well played!
posted by Pedantzilla at 12:37 AM on July 26, 2024
posted by Pedantzilla at 12:37 AM on July 26, 2024
See this is why I love Shakespeare still.
posted by fiercekitten at 5:05 PM on July 26, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by fiercekitten at 5:05 PM on July 26, 2024 [1 favorite]
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I agree with the general sentiment of being uneven, but not bad. It really made me want to watch the 2014 Julie Taymore version, though, with Kathryn Hunter as Puck.
posted by fiercekitten at 11:56 AM on July 25, 2024