SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
"Shakespeare in Love"! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
So what if William Shakespeare never wrote How do I Love thee! It fits! Just like the outrageous plagiarism of Young Will himself in "Shakespeare in Love." He steals lines from passersby on the streets, borrows ideas from his friends, and fuses them into something unique - a smash hit! That is exactly what director John Madden and authors, Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, have done using Shakespeare himself as their alter-ego. They have taken plot elements and references from dozens of his plays and woven them into a story about Will seeking his muse to inspire him to finish his next comic masterpiece - "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter!"
A fight between two competing theater companies over one of Will’s flirtations with an owner’s girlfriend, wends its way into the duel between the fictitious Capulets and the Montagues. His muse and lover’s impersonation of a boy playing a girl playing a boy, finds its way into the first draft of Will’s next play after "Romeo and Ethel etc…" undergoes a face lift, a dramatic shift, and a name change. "Shakespeare in Love" is a masterful farce worthy of the bard himself.
The plot: Will Shakespeare is in a funk. The debt collector is at his producer’s door. Will hedges his bets by promising his next play to another theater. He needs the money. On top of everything else, his cranial cavity is clogged. Will’s got writer’s block. His pentameters have lost their rhythm, his couplets don’t rhyme, and his sonnets keep coming up a few lines short. He needs a muse to get his creative juices flowing. A little lust would be helpful too! Both needs are met by a talisman from his local Elizabethan shrink and the vision of Lady Viola(Gwyyneth Paltrow). Her beauty is such that…(this where the poetry of the real Shakespeare kicks in)…etc. The rest of "Shakespeare in Love" is a magic carpet ride into the mystical realm of creativity. Bits and pieces are snatched from the ebb and flow of Will’s love life and fashioned into a work that answers the question posed by Queen Elizabeth(Judi Dench) in response to an ill conceived bet by Lady Viola’s betrothed, Lord Wessex(Colin Firth): "Can a play show us the very truth and nature of love?" The play is "Romeo and Juliet."
Just like all the other Great Works of Shakespeare, "Shakespeare in Love" has some of the most memorable characters ever put on screen, and an economy of action that defines most of them by the smallest of gestures. Joesph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow capture the flush of youth as Will and Lady Viola and breath life into the play within the play, "Romeo and Juliet." Phil Henslowe(Geoffrey Rush) and Richard Burbage(Martin Clunes) are the Minsky and Ziegfield of their day who have to battle debt collectors, the plague, and the Master of the Revellers(Simon Callow) who is always threatening to close their theaters. Colin Firth is the perfect horse’s ass as Viola’s betrothed, and Judi Dench puts a familiar raspy Bette Davis twist on her Queen Elizabeth. Tom Wilkinson is the murderous investor who is humbled by the artistry of Shakespeare’s words. Ned Alleyn(Ben Affleck) has a similar transformation as a renowned actor who knows a great part when he sees it. He becomes Mercutio. Rupert Everett’s Philip Marlowe brings the element of tragedy to "Shakespeare in Love."
All the things we associate with the Bard, from the pageantry of his histories, to the passion of his dramas, and the humor of his comedies are tossed into a blender to create a confection that can satisfy every taste. "Shakespeare in Love" is one of the best films of the year!
Other Romeo & Juliets!
"West Side Story" - 1961: Dir. Robert Wise - The Leonard Bernstein/ Stephen Sondheim musical inspired by the Bard. R & J’s alter egos move to New York’s West side as Tony and Maria. The Mantagues and the Capulets become the Jets and the Sharks.
"China Girl" - 1988:Dir. Abel Ferrara - The classic love story moves to New York’s Chinatown and Little Italy
William Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet" - 1996 The MTV R’n R version that has the stuff that classics are made of. The Bard transcends the ages with flying colors from Venice Italy to Venice California. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes pull it off!
"Romeo and Juliet" - 1936 - The not-so-classic classic with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer.
"Rome and Juliet" - 1954 - Another not-so-classic classic with Laurence Harvey in the lead in an Italian Production
"Romeo and Juliet" - 1968 - The first version to cast honest to goodness kids in the leads. Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey light up the screen and Michael York is a gret Mercutio. A Class a production from Franco Zeffirelli with a mesmerizing music score by Nino Rota.