A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare written sometime in the 1590s. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and with fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
A Midsummer Night's Dream was a 1968 rendition of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Peter Hall.
It starred Derek Godfrey as Theseus, Barbara Jefford as Hippolyta, Diana Rigg as Helena, Helen Mirren as Hermia, 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, but on television in the U.S., on the night of February 9, 1969. It is significant of the era in which it premiered (before cable television and PBS), that it was shown on CBS (with commercials) rather than on an educational television station. The commercial networks were far more willing in the 1950's and '60's to risk programming Shakespeare plays.
The film runs two full hours and is quite faithful to the play, with few unusual gimmicks. One touch that may surprise viewers is that there are very few "magical" effects, especially when compared with the classic 1935 film version. The fairies are all covered in green body paint, and rather than appearing and disappearing slowly, simply burst onto the scene out of thin air.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1999 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same title. The film sets the play in the fictional Monte Athena in the late nineteenth century. The film stars Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart, Kevin Kline, Stanley Tucci and Michelle Pfeiffer.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) is an Academy Award-winning film directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, produced by Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis, and adapted by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr from the play by William Shakespeare.
The cast includes James Cagney as Nick Bottom, a teenage Mickey Rooney as Puck, Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, Joe E. Brown as Francis Flute, Dick Powell as Lysander and Victor Jory as Oberon. Many of the actors in this version had never performed Shakespeare before, and never would do so again, notably Cagney and Brown, who were nevertheless highly acclaimed for their performances in the film. All critics agreed that Dick Powell, who played Lysander, was horribly miscast, and Powell himself concurred with the critics' verdict.
Felix Mendelssohn's music was used, but re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Not all of it was from the Midsummer Night's Dream music that Mendelssohn had composed in 1843. Other pieces used were excerpts from the Symphony No. 3 in A minor, the Songs without Words, and the Italian Symphony, among others. The ballet sequences featuring the fairies were choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska.
The film won two Academy Awards:
It was nominated for:
Notably, Hal Mohr was not nominated for his work on the movie; he won the Oscar thanks to a grass-roots write-in campaign. The next year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declared that it would not accept write-in votes for the awards.
The film was first released at 132 minutes, but was edited to 117 minutes for its general release run. The full 132 minute version was not seen again until it turned up on cable television in 1994. The film was then re-issued at its full length on VHS (its first video release was of the edited version). Later showings on Turner Classic Movies have restored the film's pre-credits Overture, and its Exit Music, neither of which had been heard since its 1935 road show presentations. In August, 2007, it will be released on DVD for the first time as part of a box set known as "The Shakespeare Collection."
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1909 film directed by Charles Kent and starring Walter Ackerman and Charles Chapman. This is the first film version of the classic play by William Shakespeare.
A musical ballet based on the Shakespearean tale of beguiled lovers and feuding faeries. The story is told through performance, with no spoken parts. Written by Anonymous
When the Duke of Athens tries to separate young lovers Lysander and Hermia, insisting that Hermia instead marry Demetrius, the two lovers run off together. Meanwhile, Demetrius is pursued by Helena, who wants to marry Demetrius herself. Impish fairies from the woods make things even more complicated with a herb that, when placed on someone's eyes, causes that person to fall in love with the first creature he or she sees. Written by Snow Leopard
Shakespeare's intertwined love polygons begin to get complicated from the start--Demetrius and Lysander both want Hermia but she only has eyes for Lysander. Bad news is, Hermia's father wants Demetrius for a son-in-law. On the outside is Helena, whose unreturned love burns hot for Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to flee from the city under cover of darkness but are pursued by an enraged Demetrius (who is himself pursued by an enraptured Helena). In the forest, unbeknownst to the mortals, Oberon and Titania (King and Queen of the faeries) are having a spat over a servant boy. The plot twists up when Oberon's head mischief-maker, Puck, runs loose with a flower which causes people to fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Throw in a group of labourers preparing a play for the Duke's wedding (one of whom is given a donkey's head and Titania for a lover by Puck) and the complications become fantastically funny. Written by Lordship
Shakespeare's comedy about two couples in love with the wrong partners, and how they are finally brought together rightly, thanks in part to the bungling work of Puck. It is completely in the language of the Bard, with Pfeiffer as the Fairy Queen and Kline as the one turned into her evening's lover with donkey ears. Written by BOB STEBBINS
Monte Atena, nella campagna toscana, agli inizi del Novecento. Egeo, notabile locale, vorrebbe che la figlia Ermia sposasse Demetrio, giovane benestante, ma la ragazza ama, ricambiata, Lisandro. Perciò i due giovani amanti decidono di fuggire nella foresta, dove si sono recati anche lo stesso Demetrio ed Elena, che lo ama inutilmente. Il tutto sullo sfondo dei preparativi per le nozze del duca Teseo con Ippolita. Le vicende si intrecciano con quelle di una scalcagnata compagnia di comici che spera di recitare alla presenza del duca e con le schermaglie fra Oberon e Titania, re e regina di elfi e fate della foresta. Le scorribande amorose si complicheranno maggiormente a causa del maldestro intervento del folletto Puck, paggio di Oberon. Alla fine, come nelle migliori tradizioni, tutto si aggiusta e le nozze celebrate.......saranno tre ! Written by rosebud6
This film went straight to television in the US, where it did not receive a theatrical release.
Don Henderson's first film role.
Theseus has defeated Hippolyta in battle, and now claims her as his bride. But before the nuptials begin, a pair of young lovers flee into the forest to be married, pursued by a pair of not-lovers. There, in the forest, live the fairies whose lives are in turmoil, due to the heated lovers' quarrels between their rulers, Oberon and Titania. Between the fairies, an ass's head, the lovers, a troupe of unsuspecting would-be actors, and a magic flower that can make people fall in love at first sight, it's a merry night of chaos and comedy until everything is put to rights. Written by Kathy Li
Where magic comes alive!
A boy dreams the play. Authority in Athens is shaky: Hermia rejects her father's choice, the Duke backs her father, and the Duchess sides with Hermia. Dad's choice, Demetrius, pursues Hermia but is loved by Helena. When Hermia and her lover meet in the woods the next night, Helena tells Demetrius in hopes she can follow and change his mind. Also in the woods are craftsmen preparing a play, plus the fairies: the fairy rulers, Oberon and Titania, are at odds, so Oberon conjures a spell and Titania falls for a craftsman bewitched with the ears of an ass. Oberon's sprite, Puck, also tries to bring the four young lovers into compatible couples but makes an error before all is right. Written by
During an engagement party thrown by Theo and Polly for their daughter Hermia and Theo, a man she grew up with but doesn't really love, Hermia's true love Xander shows up. After Hermia declares her engagement to James is off, it becomes clear that her best friend Helena has been in love with James all along. When the King and Queen of the Fairies (themselves feuding) decide to straighten things out with a love potion, their meddling goes terribly wrong and the relationships between all those involved become even murkier than they were. Written by Ron Kerrigan
Theseus, Duke of Athens, is going to marry Hyppolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Demetrius is engaged with Hermia, but Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius. Oberon and Titania, of the kingdom of fairies have a slight quarrel about whether or not the boy Titania is raising will join Titania's band or Oberon's, so Oberon tries to get him from her by using some magic. But they're not alone in that forest.Lysander and Hermina have there a rendezvous, Helena and Demetrius are there, too as well as some actors, who are practicing a play for the ongoing wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Due to some misunderstandings by Puck, the whole thing becomes a little bit confused... Written by Stephan Eichenberg
