A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968 film)
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
|---|---|
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 |
|
Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1968 British film of
Production
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
The "Athens" scenes were shot at Compton Verney House.[6]
Cast
- Derek Godfrey as Theseus
- Ian Holm as Puck, or Robin Goodfellow
- Judi Dench as Titania
- Helen Mirren as Hermia
- Paul Rogers as Bottom
- Diana Rigg as Helena
- Ian Richardson as Oberon
- David Warner as Lysander
- Michael Jayston as Demetrius
- Sebastian Shaw as Quince
- Bill Travers as Snout
- Clive Swift as Snug
- Donald Eccles as Starveling
- John Normington as Flute
- Barbara Jefford as Hippolyta
- Nicholas Selby as Egeus
- Hugh Sullivan as Philostrate
Reception
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.
References
Informational notes
- ^ Excepting Jiří Trnka's 1959 puppet version.[3]
Citations
- ^ Mullin 1975, p. 529.
- ^ BUFVC: Midsummer Night's Dream, A n.d.
- ^ a b Chaudhuri 2017, p. 38.
- ^ a b c d Chaudhuri 2017, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Holland 2008, p. 25.
- ^ Mullin 1975, p. 532.
- ^ Mullin 1975, pp. 529, 534.
- ^ Houston 1969.
Bibliography
- "Midsummer Night's Dream, A". British Universities Film and Video Council. n.d. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- Chaudhuri, Sukanta, ed. (2017). A Midsummer Night's Dream. ISBN 978-1408133491.
- Holland, Peter, ed. (2008). A Midsummer Night's Dream. ISBN 978-0199535866.
- ISSN 0038-6952.
- Mullin, Michael (1975). "Peter Hall's Midsummer Night's Dream on Film". JSTOR 3206388.
Further reading
- Crowl, Samuel (1992). Shakespeare Observed: Studies in Performance on Stage and Screen. ISBN 9780821410349.
- Jorgens, Jack J. (1977). "Peter Hall's A Midsummer Night's Dream". Shakespeare on Film. ISBN 9780253351968.
- "Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream". The Times. 30 January 1969.
- "Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream". Newspapers.com.
- "Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream". Newspapers.com.
External links
- A Midsummer Night's Dream at IMDb
- A Midsummer Night's Dream at the TCM Movie Database
- Screenonline - more information
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) on YouTube
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