|
www.culturevulture.net - : That description would befit an audience in the seventeenth century at the Globe Theatre, seeing Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It equally well describes our experience tonight seeing Michael Hoffman's film of the Shakespeare play. A captivating movie, it is real Shakespeare this time - his words, all the way through. His poetry ringing from the screen and delighting the ear. His love story, championing true love over arranged marriages, arbitrary rules and parents who treat their children as chattel. His magical world of fairies and wood nymphs mingling briefly with the mortal characters, placed by Hoffman in Tuscany at the turn of the twentieth century, a strategy that works very well indeed. We get to see the splendid Tuscan countryside, bathed in a golden glow; it needs no fairy spell to be magical. The social context - arranged marriage, a privileged noble class - fits perfectly. And Hoffman introduces the bicycle as a major prop for our many characters to speed about in the fairy forest. more...
|
|
Critic Reviews
