A Julie Taymor Midsummer Night's Dream? With Vinnie DelPino?

Here's a trailer for a film of A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Julie Taymor and starring (among other people) Max Casella, who played Vinnie DelPino on Doogie Howser, MD.

According to IMDB, it's already been screened in Canada, so it hopefully won't be too long before I can find it here in the States. Taymor's productions always leave me uncomfortable, but her tendency toward dark, playful mischief-making should fit very will with A Midsummer Night's Dream. I can't wait.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Clock That Roared

It could be that I’m not being fair to Elijah Moshinsky. I didn’t like his Love’s Labours Lost, but that’s a hard play to do well. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an entirely different play, with an entirely different cast, and Moshinsky had more television experience, so I should watch this with as little prejudice as I can.

But the problems start in the first scene. Except for Pippa Guard, none of these actors seem to have any idea that this is a comedy. There’s very little movement. The laugh lines fall flat. It’s more like a read-through than a staged performance. But that’s not the worst thing: Somewhere, there’s a clock. I don’t think it appears on screen, so if you watch with the sound off, you won’t notice it. Turn the sound back on, and it’s the loudest thing in the room! Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe there’s some sort of theme about time, and the regular, steady passage of time in the “real world” environment of Athens that contrasted with the flexible time of the “fantasy world” of the forest (Isaac Asimov made much of this in Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare). Maybe they were planning to put some contrasting elements in the forest scenes and they got cut. Maybe they did put them in, and I’m not clever enough to have noticed them. Maybe the sound technician should have moved the microphone away from the clock. Maybe some production assistant wound the clock after the sound check but before they started filming. Regardless, the clock is quickly established as the star, and upstages all the actors (including Estelle Koehler as Hippolyta, Nigel Davenport as Theseus, Geoffrey Lumsden as Egeus, Nicky Henson and Robert Lindsay as Demetrius and Lysander, and Cherith Mellor and Pippa Guard as Helena and Hermia). There’s supposed to be some funny stuff in Act I, scene 1, but the delivery here is so flat, bland, and overpowered by the clock, that you would never know it. Pippa Guard tries her best, but it’s like she’s in a different play.

Once the characters get out of Athens, things immediately start looking up. Brian Glover is hilarious. He’s the best Bottom I’ve seen so far. In fact, this ensemble of “Rude Mechanicals,” with Geoffrey Palmer as Peter Quince, John Fowler as Flute, Don Estelle as Starveling, Nat Jackley as Snout, and Ray Mort as Snug, is the best I’ve watched for this project. This is worth watching just for them.

But there’s more. Peter McEnery is spot-on as Oberon (according to IMDB he’s the older brother of John McEnery, who was Mercutio in the Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet), and he has to be, because he’s playing opposite the perfect-in-every-way Helen Mirren as Titania. Yes, she’s even better in the role than the great Judi Dench. Let that sink in for a minute.

I also want to mention Phil Daniels who makes an excellent Puck. Creepy. Weird. Funny. Exactly right. (I couldn’t find any evidence of this anywhere, so include your own grain of salt, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s somehow related to Anthony Daniels of C-3PO fame.)

Oh, and you’ll recognize Hugh Quarshie (Philostrate). He played Captain Panaka in the Star Wars prequels, he was one of the immortals in the original Highlander, and he was in the Doctor Who episodes “Evolution of the Daleks” and “Daleks in Manhattan.”

Do the excellent performances of the Fairies and Rude Mechanicals make up for the disappointing Athenians and the sound and lighting problems? I think they do, but I really wish they didn’t have to. It must be possible to focus on the comedy, timing, character, and motivations of this play (such as in the 1968 RSC production) and also have excellent lighting, sound, and special effects (such as in the 1935 Max Reinhardt version). I haven’t found it yet. For now, I recommend this version, but I’m still hoping to find something better.

I have to rate this one as my second-favorite Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here’s my current hierarchy:

1.     Midsummer Night's Dream. Dir. Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Perf. James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, and Dick Powell. 1935. DVD. Warner Bros, 2007.

2.    Midsummer Night's Dream. Dir. Elijah Moshinsky. Perf. Helen Mirren, Peter McEnery, and Pippa Guard. 1981. DVD. Ambrose, 2000 or 2001.

3.     Midsummer Night's Dream. Dir. Peter Hall. Perf. Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, and Ian Richardson. 1968. DVD. Water Bearer, 2004.

A Midsummer Night's Dream part 2: The Royal Shakespeare Company 1968

Dear lord, this is a dream cast!

Helen Mirren.

Diana Rigg.

Judi Dench.

Ian Richardson (the guy from the original British House of Cards).

Ian Holm (Bilbo from Lord of the Rings).

David Warner (best known as the Cardassian who tortured Picard).

Clive Swift (Friar Lawrence in the Thames Television/Ann Hasson Romeo and Juliet. He’s also been on Doctor Who twice, I believe).

There will never be a better Helena than Diana Rigg. She’s perfect. She understands every line, every motivation. If you’ve been cast as Helena, watch Diana Rigg. Or maybe don’t. You’ll lose hope.

Helen Mirren is incapable of putting out a bad performance, and she absolutely rocks as Hermia.

If the chemistry between Ian Richardson and Judi Dench (as Oberon and Titania) doesn’t make you blush, their costumes might.

Ian Holm is suitably weird as Puck.

The tragedy of this production is that in contrast to the extremely high quality acting, it appears to have been directed, filmed, and edited by a team of college freshmen taking Filmmaking 100 as an elective.

Tracking shots are hand-held. In the 1935 Max Reinhardt film, you can occasionally see rails on the ground behind James Cagney, which is a little cheesy, but in this one, Diana Rigg is looking straight at the camera, nailing Helena’s monologue, and the image you have is of the cameraman stumbling backwards across the field, desperately trying to point the lens in the right direction.

The splotchy green makeup is more reminiscent of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians than magical forest creatures.

The attempts at special effects are really really bad. I mean, my siblings did better with their production of Scrooge back in the early ‘70s. In fact, the production values of Scrooge compare well to this Midsummer Night’s Dream. Scrooge features characters appearing through jump-cuts. So does Midsummer Night’s Dream. Scrooge has scenes where the lights are pointed straight at the camera. So does Midsummer Night’s Dream. Scrooge has family members playing magical creatures. So does Midsummer Night’s Dream (Fairy and Peasblossom are played by Judi Dench’s nieces). The production team of Scrooge was amateurs aged 1-14. I can’t confirm that this is also true of the production team for Midsummer Night’s Dream, but the evidence on screen points in that direction. The only elements missing are double-exposed scenes and an interlude with the Memorial Day Parade.

So, no, I don’t recommend this version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but if you have to watch it, I suggest you use the smallest screen you can find. The shaky hand-held shots would be bad enough, but it looks like in the transfer from film to DVD, the frames were dancing around, so even where they did use a tripod, the picture is still shaking and bouncing. It’s very distracting on a large screen, but if you shrink the image on your computer, or watch it on your phone, you might be able to get through it without Dramamine.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Part 1 - Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle,1935

There's so much that could be said about this movie, I can't even begin to cover it all. In the end, I'll probably end up preferring another Midsummer Night's Dream over this one, but I think I can say, right now, if you need to or want to watch a Midsummer Night's Dream, even if you watch another one, watch this one too. It's worth it.

Points in favor:

• This is an American film of an English play, directed by two Germans, featuring a Javanese/Danish ballerina, choreographed by a Russian.
• By 1935, special effects were pretty impressive, considering that most of them were done in the camera. The digital effects we see in today's films are (for me) no more believable than the state-of-the-art effects you will see in this. The creativity plus trial-and-error formula of the 1930's makes the 21st Century CGI effects look cheap and lazy by comparison.
• James Cagney as Bottom. Apparently, critics hated his performance back in the day (and there are valid points there, like he was too handsome, too Brooklyn, too, well, wrong for the part), but he committed to the role and made it pay off. Maybe not as Bottom, but certainly as Bottom playing Pyramus.
• Joe. E. Brown. You'll recognize him from Some Like it Hot. If you don't, put down the computer and go find a copy of Some Like it Hot, watch it, and come back. I can't imagine I will see a better Flute/Thisbe.
• Victor Jory as Oberon. Olivia de Haviland and Jane Muir as Helena and Hermia. Their readings of the script might not be perfect, but they do a great job of bringing the characters to life.

Points against:

• It's black and white, which isn't a problem for me, but may be a problem for some.
• I'm pretty good at the Willful Suspension of Disbelief thing, but the masks on the elves and gnomes are pretty bad.
• Mickey Rooney's obnoxious cackilng! Oy! According to the special features, Max Reinhardt loved the laugh Rooney developed for the audition, and this is what got him the part. I found it extremely irritating.

Watch this one a second time with the commentary on. It might not explain much about Shakespeare or A Midsummer Night's Dream, but you will learn quite a bit about cinema in the 1930's.

Happy Birthday to William Shakespeare

Today is probably William Shakespeare's 450th birthday, so as a Happy Birthday to William Shakespeare, here's a video of the Pyramus and Thisbe Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, performed by some young actors you may recognize. Enjoy.