DVD

Shakespeare Collection (Hamlet 1996 / A Midsummer Night's Dream 1935 / Othello 1965 / Romeo & Juliet 1936)

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Warners continues to go highbrow with this new boxed set

Shakespeare Collection (Hamlet 1996 / A Midsummer Night's Dream 1935 / Othello 1965 / Romeo & Juliet 1936)
Starring: Kenneth Branagh , and Laurence Olivier
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000QC6O98
Release Date: 2007-08-14

Customer Reviews:

Warners continues to go highbrow with this new boxed set.......2007-05-12

I was very pleased with my "Literary Classics Collection" and "Motion Picture Masterpieces Collection" that I purchased from Warner's, and it looks like the studio originally known for gritty urban dramas continues to go highbrow with this collection of four movies featuring interpretations of works by the Bard. The press release by Warner Home Video has the following extras listed for each movie:

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Cast includes James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland (in her screen debut), Joe E. Brown, and Mickey Rooney. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
DVD Special Features:
Commentary by film historian Scott MacQueen
Olivia de Havilland screen test
Vintage featurette "A Dream Comes True" (8 minutes)
Presenting... Gallery of 6 teaser trailers showcasing cast members
Warner Bros. Studio Café teaser trailer
Musical short "Shake Mr. Shakespeare"
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English, French and Portuguese (feature film only)

Romeo and Juliet (1936)
This was actually an MGM production. George Cukor directs with Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard in the title roles. Nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture.
DVD Special Features:
Vintage short "Master Will Shakespeare"
Classic MGM cartoon "Little Cheeser"
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Othello (1965)
Lawrence Olivier in the title role, Maggie Smith as Desdemona, Joyce Redman as Emilia, and Frank Finlay as Iago. All four performers were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances.
DVD Special Features:
Vintage featurette "Olivier Talks About Othello"
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Hamlet 2-Disc Special Edition (1996)
Cast includes actor/director Kenneth Branagh, Kate Winslet, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Robin Williams, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal and Charlton Heston. This rendition is set in the 19th century.
DVD Special Features:
Introduction by director/star Kenneth Branagh
Commentary by Kenneth Branagh and Shakespeare scholar Russell Jackson
New digital transfer from original 70mm elements
Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
Featurette "To Be on Camera: A History with Hamlet"
1996 Cannes Film Festival promo
Shakespeare movies trailer gallery
Subtitles: English, French and Spanish subtitles. (feature film only)

Average customer rating:

Not happy with this version
Wonderful
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The 'Psychedelic' version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
The Beauty of Shakespeare

Midsummer Night's Dream (1996)
Starring: Lindsay Duncan , Alex Jennings , Desmond Barrit , Finbar Lynch , and Osheen Jones
Director: Adrian Noble
Manufacturer: Miramax
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Twelfth Night
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Romeo & Juliet

ASIN: B000068QPX
Release Date: 2002-10-08

Amazon.com

This adaptation of a Royal Shakespeare Company production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is drenched in color: The costumes, the set, the lighting--all of them are flush with bright yellows, reds, blues, every color in the rainbow. In this classic comedy, the confused lives of four young lovers (two men who love the same woman and another woman who loves one of the men) get caught up in a fight between Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies. Oberon has his servant Puck brush Titania's eyes with a flower that will make her fall in love with the next creature she sees--who turns out to be an oafish aspiring actor named Bottom and whom Puck has magically given a donkey's head. But Puck also brushes the eyes of the young lovers, twisting their love rectangle in all directions. The RSC actors have the great virtue of British theatrical training; they understand Shakespeare's language and, for the most part, can make that understanding clear to the audience. The production carries a number of theatrical devices into the movie--some actors play more than one character; the forest of the fairies is represented by a bare and brightly painted wooden floor; doors and umbrellas appear out of nowhere, resulting in some wonderfully surreal imagery. This may be confusing at first, but over the course of the story these techniques give the play's shifting worlds a greater clarity. This unusual adaptation is a feast for the eyes and an excellent introduction to one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Miramax Home Entertainment invites you to enjoy this playful interpretation of William Shakespeare's classic romantic comedy! A rich man's daughter has a difficult choice to make: do her duty and accept an arranged marriage ... or follow her heart to her one true love! But then the fun takes flight. When the humorous Kingdom of Fairies begins to toy with this funny romantic entanglement, magic and mischief are spun into the lives of everyone involved. An outstanding presentation of this timeless favorite, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM is a delightful must-see for Shakespeare fans new and old.

Customer Reviews:

Not happy with this version.......2006-08-22

I had a couple of major problems with this version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The little boy -- Titania's changeling? -- who kept cropping up was just one of those conceits that directors and screenplay writers feel that they have to slip in there to keep the story interesting. As if the story needs to be made more interesting. *sigh*

I don't mind the representational forest and the umbrellas and all that, but PLEASE don't write parts for characters that aren't even part of the original play.

The other thing that sent me over the edge was the extremely graphic sex scene between Bottom and Titania. They weren't naked, but the sex was VERY VISUAL accompanied by moans and sighs. It was completely gratuitous and it offended the hell out of me since I was sitting there watching it with my two young daughters. What is the deal with this? It was far, far more than the bawdy talk and suggested action in the play that would go straight over their heads anyway. No, the director and screenwriter felt that we needed to see Bottom thrusting energetically between Titania's splayed legs.

That ruined it for me. Adding the role of the boy in was bad enough, but adding in the frank sex scene was just obnoxious.

DO NOT buy this movie if you intend to watch it with your children.

Wonderful.......2005-12-08

The Royal Shakespeare Players know how to do a production. This film of A Midsummer Night's Dream did more than take my breath away, it made me think and gasp and laugh till I had tears in my eyes. The sensitivity of the cast to each line they speak is profound and beautiful. So often when Shakespeare is performed on film the actors are not very familiar with speaking in verse, but this version the actors speak beyond the text and break down the barrier of language that is often associated with Shakespeare.

Also in this version there is a brilliant use of light and color to set a mood. The rooms and costumes are wildly colorful and it makes things seem very child-like. This brings in the topic of the little boy in this film. He seems to be the one dreaming this whole play, but in the play he seems to be the changeling boy that Oberon wants to take from Titania. The fairy world is very sexual and I for one find it a bit too racy for my taste, and it makes me recoil to see the perverse gestures as the thoughts of a little child.

Other than this, I was delighted by the themes brought out in the film. One such theme is the relationship between the dream world in the woods and the world of reason in Athens. This is shown by actors playing Hippolyta and Theseus are double cast as Titania and Oberon, (as they would be in Shakespeare's day) and so is every other character except the four lovers, who visit both worlds throughout the play.

It is beautiful and intriguing production and I enjoyed it immensely.

A Midsummer Night's Dream.......2005-12-07

The 1996 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream puts a modern spin on a traditional Shakespearean play.

Having the same actors play the parts of both Titania and Hippolyta, and Theseus and Oberon was a very good move. It accentuated the difference between reality and imagination, which is one of the main themes of the original Shakespeare. We see Theseus and Hippolyta as serious characters in a serious, recognizable set. Then, we see the same actors dressed differently in an "other-worldly" type of set - it really stressed the difference between that which is a dream, and that which is real. Costumes were easily differentiated as well, for the fairies had wild, Dr. Seuss-like hair-do's, and the Athenians wore specific costumes according to their sex, in a variety of colors.

The production was very true to Shakespeare in terms of using the majority of his text within the play, which, though staged far differently than he ever foresaw it, offered an accurate presentation of Shakespearean themes and vision nonetheless.

While the little boy seemed to be distracting at first, he also had a role to play in the movie: it was HIS dream. He was the Indian boy whom Titania and Oberon fought over. And, it was the play stage in his room which was used by Puck and Oberon during their plotting. However, some of the shots of his reactions to different occurrences did seem slightly superfluous. But, through the eyes of this child, it was much easier to believe some of the seemingly crazy things that were going on in the woods.

The play-within-the-play remained unchanged in this version from the original text, and the players also performed multiple roles, dressing for the part of Bottom's fairy attendants when the fairy queen falls in love with him. Again, this adds to the distinction between reality and dream. It reminded me of the Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy falls asleep and dreams of a lion, a scarecrow, and a tin man, who are really the people from her own farm in different costumes. An excellent choice by the director.

While the staging and overall presentation of Shakespeare is radically different from any other movie version I've seen, I believe it holds significant value nonetheless. In fact, I believe that, although the set and costumes are very different from the Athenian garb which was worn in the 1935 version, the characterization and presentation given by this version is far more accurate to the original text.

Finally, while this version contains some sexually explicit material, that probably makes it more true to what the original production would have portrayed. Since Shakespeare wrote to please intellectuals and commoners, it was not uncommon for his plays to contain raunchy lines or scenes. This version has captured that, as the sexual themes do not overpower the themes of love, dreams and reality, they do play a part.

The 'Psychedelic' version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".......2005-12-06

Psychedelic and funky, the Royal Shakespeare Players present "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with an entirely new twist to the traditional costumes and set. The fairies are portrayed wearing brightly colored tufts of fluff and their hair-do's are something to behold. The actor playing both Oberon and Theseus changes not only his attitude for each respective character but also his hair undergoes massive transformation from a hail to a Sesame Street character to something more subdued. Puck is an 80's rock star re-incarnate.

The sets are simplistic yet astounding in their simplicity. Many times they consist of only doors opening and closing to symbolize a different setting. Another interesting point to note is the use of color. The doors change colors periodically throughout the performance and can be tied to the emotion being enacted in that scene. Much of the action takes place on an empty and somewhat darkened stage.

This interpretation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a unique blend of modern and traditional. While staying true to Shakespeare's written words they take liberty to play with the characters and how to interpret them. The players in the play (Bottom, Quince, etc) are portrayed as a pseudo-biker group, leather jackets included. Puck is interpreted as an extremely sexual being, which accentuates Shakespeare's tendency to incorporate the intellectual and vulgar into his plays in order to appeal to the groundlings and to the more scholarly.

Many reviewers have something to negative to say about the boy who randomly appears in this version. In a way it can be confusing but upon a closer look his appearances are not as random as one originally assumes. For example, he falls asleep and dreams himself into the play and we are seeing the action from his point of view. We get to see his reactions to the drama. Another interesting thing to note is the reappearance of the doll house. The dollhouse starts out as just a toy in the boy's room but later you see Oberon and Puck maneuvering the lovers on the stage of the doll house just as they are discussing how to maneuver them through the woods and rectify the confusion. The boy and his dollhouse are actually ingenious devices used to show the audience how true it is that the whole play is about people maneuvering people to feel a certain way or do a certain thing. For example, Oberon dislikes how Titania is keeping the Indian boy away from him so he manipulates her and makes her fall in love with a donkey. Upon awakening from the "nightmare" she gives the boy over to Oberon.

All in all I believe that this version, although somewhat raunchy in certain scenes, does an amazing job bringing a fresh interpretation to "A Midsummer Night's Dream. With the merging of a simplistic set, fantastical costumes, and overall stellar acting, this play comes to life yet again.

The Beauty of Shakespeare.......2005-12-04

The beauty if Shakespeare is present in this version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The version is quite different from other versions. Often the fairy world contains no sets- just floating lights and ambient light. The fairies are portrayed in bright color with wild hair-do's. Puck is reminiscent of an eighties rock star, and several of the fairies look like oompah- loompahs. Lysander and Demetrius are introduced wearing the same clothes and appear very whiny at times. The play is very sexual at times and the acting sometimes appears over the top (several people are slapped in the face in anger at random times). But staging is marvelous. The backdrop of the movie is that the entire thing is a child's dream, making the many fantastical happenings much more believable. The child appears throughout the movie, and if you watch carefully, many things in the child's room are repeated throughout the movie. The same actor and actress play the Theseus/Hippolyta couple and the Oberon/Titania couple. The end has some excellent staging using these two actors/four characters portrayal.
The beauty of Shakespeare is interpretation. Shakespeare has been done on so many levels in so many ways, and this is simply another way of doing it. The bright color and sometime unorthodox manner of interpretation (at one point Titania and Bottom with a donkey's head are seen making love) may startle at first, but know that the essence of the play is kept. Many things of this movie are in fact reminiscent of past versions. The player of "moon" in this version of the play within a play is still a skinny old man with glasses as in the Woolfenden and Hoffman productions, and the wall "chink" is still two fingers. Many of the same jokes are kept (Ninus' Tomb! Ninus' Tomb! Not Ninny's!) and the actual Shakespeare lines are treated with respect, unedited with the exception of simple removal. So, although the movie stands out as utterly different from all other screen versions (and probably from most stage versions too) it contains the remnants of its predecessors along with the nature Shakespeare originally intended for the play.
I personally quite enjoyed the movie. The over acting can be something amusing, and once you get used to it, you can see through to the interpretation of the play. The actor of Theseus/Oberon is quite young, and does well in changing his acting. It is obvious the same actor is playing both parts, but his change in attitude makes it interesting to watch him act. The players (Quince, Bottom and the others) are portrayed as a sort of subdued biker group. They are very funny, and the actor of Pyramus, while acting silly during the play within a play, is able to elicit serious emotion as well.
So, give this version some time. It is quite satisfying to see it through to the end. The differences can be startling at first, but the interpretation is marvelous at times. Shakespeare is treated with due respect, earlier versions are honored, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is definitely experienced by all who watch.

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