Very Long, Muddy, and Green Night’s Dream
Reviewed by Carissa Avalos
September 28th, 2007
Imagine a world where the youth speaks in Shakespearian iambic pentameter yet sports a pair of go-go boots. A world where fairies are most literally green with envy and blankets of random fog and quick cuts of arbitrary scenery are all too common. Add a couple of drops of magical flower nectar, a lot of close-up soliloquies, and you get the 1968, A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Peter Hall.
Once accustomed to the poor editing job and the nifty mop tops you may actually appreciate this indie film as if it was a play being preformed right on your screen, especially since the over- acting performers from the Royal Shakespeare Company seem to have made no adjustment from play to on screen acting.
Since this film was created towards the end of the 60’s, you can understand that some of the special effects (or lack thereof) and editing seem fitting for this low-budget, independent film, although some other aspects have no excuse. The blurred out lighting that occurred throughout the film was a great addition to the mysteriousness of the woods as well as the green fairies. I felt both were such obvious effects that they allowed the audience to know exactly when the fairies or anything mystical was going to occur and was some what of a comic relief to current audiences. The magical lightings and green paint were some of the few props added into the movie, which allowed it to have some characteristics as a live performance would have. The costumes were a major disaster in the films conceivability and became very distracting. When David Warner (Lysander) first entered in a magniloquent button down shirt with tight bloomers tucked into boots and a Beatles styled mop top, it was very hard to focus on the important lines he speaks as he declares his love for Hermia. These wardrobe catastrophes happen with every character with exception of the fairies, which had a wardrobe even more disturbing. Their attire, if it can be called that at all, consisted of a few leaves and other forms of nature cleverly placed to conceal personal regions of their body which was covered in thick green paint. Although these costumes may be fitting for each characters personal style, they are not what Shakespeare intended his actors wearing while performing this play. This takes away from the idea that the film is taking place in Athens during Elizabethan Times and makes it very difficult to take this film seriously. For better and for worse, the film’s architecture is a factor that helps make the transition from a play to a movie successful.
It is very difficult to take an amazing on-stage performance, transform it into a movie, and expect it to come out the same. Though this film may not have done the play complete justice, I felt it was pretty apt, especially because of what it had to live up to. The company mechanicals were depicted very well in relevance to the playwright. Their scenes always opened with them eating like pigs, speaking slowly, not in iambic pentameter, much like how it would be in the play. Seeing this on film really showed the characters lack of education as well as allowing comic relief to all classes of audience. Malapropisms like “aggravate” instead of “moderate”, as said by Bottom, were also permissible in the film, which are always funny and enhanced their benighted characteristics. But a soliloquy with the breaking of the fourth wall like Titania’s (Judi Dench) from Act. 2 Scene 1 becomes very distracting because of the constant changing of scenery. This eventually becomes a narrative and shows that she has not thought of these thoughts all at once, which would not be how it is portrayed in a play. This was a problem that occurred during most other soliloquies but a problem that could mostly be overlooked nevertheless. These small characteristics allowed the play to be compelling and successful.
This film was very effective in getting the lines across and also successful in portraying the dreamlike quality of illusion of reality. The cast may have been over-acting at times, but annunciated and projected as if they were on stage. For example when Hermia told Lysander that they could not get married, Lysander seemed as if he were to kill her. This came across as odd, but made it easier to understand the storyline.
The play in the film that was performed by the mechanical company was shot to be viewed straight on; this allows you to view the play that is in a play that is really a film as if you were a part of the audience in a theatre. The film gave the illusion of distorted reality when the blocking character, Puck, gave his epilogue. This left the audience questioning their own knowledge of reality and in the state of suspended disbelief.
The great acting and interesting effects were all components that allow you to find yourself being swept away in this ominous yet auspicious mirage of uncertainty. So dare if you will to venture outside your costly, sci-fi Steven Spielberg productions, along with your A-list actors, and allow your own theory of reality to be questioned, submissive, and distorted.
