A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Peter Hall |
Based on | A Midsummer Night's Dream 1600 play by William Shakespeare |
Produced by | Michael Birkett |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Suschitzky |
Edited by | Jack Harris |
Music by | Guy Woolfenden |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Eagle |
Release date |
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Running time | 124 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1968 British film of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream , directed by Peter Hall.
It stars Derek Godfrey as Theseus, Barbara Jefford as Hippolyta, Diana Rigg as Helena, Helen Mirren as Hermia, David Warner as Lysander, Ian Holm as Puck, Ian Richardson as King Oberon, Judi Dench as Queen Titania, and Paul Rogers as Bottom, as well as other members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The film premiered in theatres in Europe in September 1968. [1] In the U.S., it was sold directly to television rather than playing in theatres, and premiered as a Sunday evening special, on the night of 9 February 1969. It was shown on CBS (with commercials). [2]
The film was only the second, after Max Reinhardt's 1935 film, sound film adaptation of the play. [3] [lower-alpha 1] It portrayed the fairies as "wild, near-naked creatures in a primitive, sinister wood." [4] and "the subsidiary fairies were bedraggled child actors; the artisans authentic, almost contemporary rustics." [4] that "contrasted with the sedate courtly milieu of an actual Warwickshire country house." [4] Sukanta Chaudhuri—editor of The Arden Shakespeare, third series edition of the play—describes it as "a notable blending of the traditional with the innovative." [4] Peter Holland, editor of The Oxford Shakespeare edition described it as "[turning] the sentimentality into something rougher and muddier; his fairies, accompanying Titania (Judi Dench), naked with her modesty covered by a long wig, were dirty urchins covered in mud." [5]
The "Athens" scenes were shot at Compton Verney House. [6]
The film was generally poorly received by critics. [7] Penelope Houston, reviewing the film for The Spectator , wrote: [8]
Mr Hall's lovers … caper in their mini-skirts and flowered Beatle blouses … around a stately home so sparsely furnished that you feel the removal men are either assembling or dismantling. But stage influences and scaling creep in: half the time … they might as well be running around one small studio-planted coppice, with another daub of mud slapped over their foreheads at the end of each circuit. Make-up seems to present unlikely difficulties: Peaseblossom, Mustard Seed and their confreres … appear startlingly haggard, as though late nights ministering to Titania were taking their toll. The vaguely silvery, vaguely dun-coloured faces of Oberon's flock seem to belong at stage distance; close-up, the fairy kingdom looks like a dusky progressive school suffering from a nasty epidemic of pink-eye.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays.
Oberon is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairies.
Helena is one of four young lovers – the others being Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia – featured in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Titania is a character in William Shakespeare's 1595–1596 play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Hermia is a fictional character from Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. She is a girl of ancient Athens named for Hermes, the Greek god of trade.
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.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1935 American romantic comedy fantasy film of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, and starring James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, Jean Muir, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Victor Jory and Ian Hunter. Produced by Henry Blanke and Hal B. Wallis for Warner Brothers, and adapted by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr. from Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of the previous year, the film is about the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors, who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the story is set. The play, which is categorized as a comedy, is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. Felix Mendelssohn's music was extensively used, as re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The ballet sequences featuring the fairies were choreographed by Ballets Russes veteran Bronislava Nijinska.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1909 American film directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton, and starring Walter Ackerman and Charles Chapman. It was the first film adaptation of the eponymous play by William Shakespeare. The movie was made during summer 1909, but not released until December 25.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1959 Czechoslovak animated puppet film directed by Jiří Trnka, his last feature length film before his death 10 years later in 1969. It is based on the Shakespeare play of the same name.
The 1970 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was directed by Peter Brook, and is often known simply as Peter Brook'sDream. It opened in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon and then moved to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End in 1971. It was taken on a world tour in 1972–1973. Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC is often described as one of the 20th century's most influential productions of Shakespeare, as it rejected many traditional ideas about the staging of classic drama.
The Dream is a one-act ballet adapted from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with choreography by Frederick Ashton to music by Mendelssohn arranged by John Lanchbery. It was premiered by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 2 April 1964 in a triple bill with Kenneth MacMillan's Images of Love and Robert Helpmann's Hamlet.
Demetrius is one of the lovers in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is a young man who is engaged to a young woman, Hermia, who is in love with Lysander.
Wood Love is a 1925 German silent comedy film directed by Hans Neumann and starring Werner Krauss, Valeska Gert and Alexander Granach. It was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The Dreaming is a 2001 musical written by Howard Goodall and Charles Hart, based on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream but reset in the Edwardian period.
The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania is an oil on canvas painting by the Scottish artist Sir Joseph Noel Paton. Painted in 1849, it depicts the scene from William Shakespeare's comedy play A Midsummer Night's Dream, when the fairy queen Titania and fairy king Oberon quarrel; Oberon was considered the King of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. When exhibited in Edinburgh during 1850, it was declared as the "painting of the season". It was acquired by the National Gallery of Scotland in 1897, having initially been bought by the Royal Association for Promoting the Fine Arts in Scotland during 1850. An earlier version of this painting was Paton's diploma picture, which was submitted to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1846; they paid £700 for it.
Le Songe d'une nuit d'été is a French TV film from 1969. It is based on A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, and was directed by Jean-Christophe Averty.
Dream of a Summer Night is a 1983 Italian musical film written and directed by Gabriele Salvatores, at his directorial debut. Based on a rock musical directed by the same Salvatores, it is a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was screened in the "De Sica" section at the 40th edition of the Venice International Film Festival.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 2016 British television film based on the William Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was adapted by Russell T Davies, directed by David Kerr and produced by Nikki Wilson. It stars Maxine Peake as Titania, Matt Lucas as Bottom, John Hannah as Theseus and Nonso Anozie as Oberon. The film was first broadcast on 30 May 2016 on BBC One.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 2017 film adaptation of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. The film is a modern rendition that relocates the story from ancient Athens to present day Los Angeles.
A Caribbean Dream is a 2017 romantic comedy, produced by Melissa Simmonds and Lynette Eastmond, directed by Shakirah Bourne. The adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream was conceptualised and cast by Melissa Simmonds and written by Shakirah Bourne. The film stars Aden Gillett as Theseus, Sonia Williams as Hippolyta, Susannah Harker as Titania and Adrian Green as Oberon with Lorna Gayle as Bottom. There is an extensive cast of both English and Barbadian actors, this re-imagined traditional tale takes a twist under the full moon, as many wonders occur during this fated Caribbean Festival.
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