Review: 1935 Midsummer

There are many Shakespeare movies that I know about, have written about, have seen screenshots and clips of. But sitting through all of them is a challenge for many reasons. I’m slowly chipping away at a very long list. Happily, I can now move a certified classic to the WATCHED list.

Max Reinhardt’s 1935 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream deserves its place in Shakespeare Film history. It picked up two Academy Awards (on four nominations) and featured a cast of names still known today – James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and Mickey Rooney to name just a few. Watching it now is a weirdly nostalgic experience for a Gen Xer like me. As we get to the big hysterical finish, all I could think of was how much it reminded me of watching the Three Stooges or Little Rascals. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but if you remember those shows (even if you watched them with your parents or grandparents!), maybe you’ll see what I mean.

Let’s talk about dreams for a second. They’re used in metaphors way too often. “Oh, this new job is a dream!” We use dream to mean “the ideal thing I wanted.” Not that. I mean real dreams. Real dreams to me are more like, “Nothing makes sense, and yet I’m oddly ok with all of it. Why am I suddenly back in high school, why are my coworkers here, why is there a freestanding toilet in the middle of the auditorium stage?” While you’re in the dream and not asking any of those questions, it all seems normal. Only after you step out and wake up do you think, “Well, that was weird.”

When I thought of that analogy for this movie, I intended it to be negative, but why not make a Dream movie that feels like a dream?

Let’s Make This More Visual

I’m sure many of us have seen productions of The Winter’s Tale, famous for its “Exit, pursued by a bear” stage direction, featuring no bear.

Not so fast! The forest of Athens seems to be home to actual bears now. My best guess is that somebody spotted Helena’s line, “No, no, I am as ugly as a bear; For beasts that meet me run away for fear:” and thought, “Ok, Helena is running away from a bear.”

“Now I will believe that there are unicorns!”

Unfortunately, that’s a line from The Tempest, not Midsummer. I have no idea how this one got here. The word unicorn doesn’t appear in the play that I can find.

How Were The Fairies

Now, let’s talk about the fairies. Most of the fairy budget was spent on Titania’s retinue. They sparkle, they glow, and they have lengthy dance numbers. At one point, they’re literally floating into the sky by the dozens:

Wow! If this is the entrance for Titania, I wonder what Oberon’s entourage will look like?

Uhhh… yeah. There’s a lot of these guys. They even have a band at one point, and you seriously wonder if the original Star Wars Cantina scene got the idea from this movie.

Later, though, they do get a costume change…

For some reason that I genuinely don’t understand, they suddenly all have wings. Black, scary wings. It’s very much like the part in The Tempest when Ariel suddenly transforms into a Fury, but I don’t recall such a scene in Midsummer. Just all of a sudden, they went from “little people in Halloween masks” to “I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t like it, keep those things away from me.”

What of our stars, Oberon and Titania?

Oberon gets the better deal here. Titania gets to sigh and oooh and ahhh with hand on cheek a lot. She sounds a great deal like Glinda from Wizard of Oz. Oberon, meanwhile, is a walking special effect. Not only does he have this cool crown of branches (that, in fairness, reminds me of Groot from the Marvel movies), but he’s always surrounded by stars. This is another one of those dream-like things. Why are there stars around him? How are they there? Are they actual fireflies? Are they really there or an illusion? If he swatted at them would they move? We don’t get any answers, of course. This is just how he goes about life.

But that’s ok, Titania gets to one-up her Oberon…

Titania flies wherever she wants. Oberon rides a horse. Again, there’s that dream world logic. Some people fly, some walk, some ride horses. But, are you ready for this?

Oberon can fly, too. SO WHY IS HE RIDING A HORSE?

The Mickey Rooney Show

You can tell how old someone is by how they remember Mickey Rooney, a wonderful actor with a record-breaking career that includes credited roles in 10 decades, from the 1920s to the 2010s.

As our Puck, he was just 14 years old and honestly does a spectacular job for someone so young. There’s a lot of creative license in how to play Puck, and Rooney plays to his strengths. He’s a child, running around and causing mischief. When he’s in the mood to act like an animal, he makes animal noises. When he finds things entertaining, he laughs with genuine glee. When an adult tells him what to do, he enthusiastically goes about trying to do it properly, though he doesn’t always succeed. All while delivering a lot of Shakespeare, in makeup and costume. Sometimes he flies. According to the trivia he actually spent much of production with a broken leg and had to be wheeled around the set!

Experience It For Yourself

Honestly, just see this one if you can. There are places where you really think you’re watching Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and the entertainment is to be found in mocking how bad it is (seriously, I can’t do justice to the “goblin fairies’). There are random ballet sequences just inserted at will. The special effects deserve their own award for just how broad a spectrum they covered. People fly, people fade in and out of existence, Bottom transforms back and forth before our eyes. Then there are the dimestore masks, and this fairy being carried off into the sunset:

I repeat, it’s like a dream. When it’s done you’re left thinking, “What in the world was that? Did it make sense or not? I can’t really tell.”

Macbeth Videogame? TAKE MY MONEY

https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/rsc-announces-new-video-game-inspired-by-macbeth_1661745

Ok, this is the kind of story that makes me want to blog again. The actual RSC – you know, the Royal Shakespeare Company – is getting behind a Shakespeare videogame project based on Macbeth.

There have been a lot of Shakespeare video games strewn throughout our history: point-and-click adventures, space shooters, and massive online role-playing games. Sadly, I’m unsure I can point to any that still exist. I always have a notebook of ideas that, should I someday win the lottery and have infinite time and resources at my disposal, I will absolutely bring into reality.

That doesn’t mean we can’t keep hoping, though.

Set in contemporary Iran, the game features Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir as Lady Macbeth. This marks the RSC’s first venture into video gaming, with the game co-produced by Zar’s Paris-based Alambic Production.

Lili is a screen life thriller that allows players to access Lady Macbeth’s personal devices, blending live-action cinema with interactive gameplay. The game immerses players in a stylised, neo-noir vision of modern Iran, where surveillance and authoritarianism are prevalent. Players will make choices that influence Lady Macbeth’s destiny, with Macbeth’s witches reimagined as hackers.

Well, I hate the “blending live-action cinema with interactive gameplay” idea. That reminds me of many failed attempts to integrate laser disc and similar technologies where basically all you got was a jumpy “Cut scene … menu of choices … cut scene …. menu of choices…” and under the covers it’s little more than a “choose your own adventure” book.

AI generated Shakespeare playing videogames

But, we’ll reserve judgment. What I love (and I think my daughter will love too) is, “make choices that influence Lady Macbeth’s destiny.” In my old age I’ve become a fan of Lady Macbeth, and see all kinds of interesting interpretations of the play from her perspective. When did she have the baby, was it long ago or recently? As a married couple, are they still trying, or have they given up (or possibly been told it can’t happen)? What was her relationship with her father? So much backstory to fill for her.

Setting it in Iran brings all kinds of new gender issues to the story. Lady Macbeth’s whole thing is “I can’t do that because I’m not a man.”

I’m excited for a new videogame to try, though I have to admit it looks like a fancy interactive theatre experiment. We’ll have to see how it looks when it’s finished!

Review: Denzel Washington as Macbeth

I suppose the official title of this production is “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, directed by Joel Coen and starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in the title roles, but that’s too much to fit in a title. You all no doubt know which production I’m referring to. Though it came out in 2021, I’ve finally sat down to watch the entire thing.

If you are a student of the art of film-making, you’re probably going to love this. It’s one of those final products that is all about the director’s vision, regardless of what actors he had to work with or what source material they spoke. Every scene is clearly driven by, “Ok, I want it to look like this.”

For my part, I hate that. Shakespeare, to me, is all about the character. Why are the characters speaking to each other the way that they do? What’s their backstory, their motivation? Why are they making the choices that they make? I can get that on a bare stage with no costumes. I don’t need special effects.

Macbeth's Castle
Seriously, who was their architect? What if they did have kids? That’s so dangerous.

Worse, I think that the visual backflips in this version are disjointed and distracting. Like when Macbeth and Banquo have first encountered the witches (more on this in a moment) and get to the line “Whither are they vanished? Into thin air…” but they are still right there. Or when the murderers set Macduff’s castle fully ablaze in a matter of seconds, just so we can get the image of people falling into the flames. Don’t get me started on the MC Escher-esque castle that the Macbeths live in. It’s like they borrowed some scenery from David Bowie’s Labyrinth.

Starring Kathryn Hunter as The Witches

Let’s talk about the witch(es) for a moment because clearly, she/they are the best part of the production. I would see a one-person show of just this performance. Kathryn Hunter alone plays the witches. Is she playing one, then, or three? Or one body housing three spirits? Yes, I guess, to all the things. If she didn’t play it so well, I’d be taking serious issue with the inconsistency in the presentation. Sometimes, she’s just one person speaking in three (or more?) voices. Other times, she splits into three. Or, she’s one body casting three reflections or shadows. She’s also a bit of a contortionist, which only adds to the otherworldliness of the whole performance. When I first started watching this at home on my laptop, my son walked by and said, “What the hell is that? That’s terrifying.”

Kathryn Hunter as the Witches

I’d watch a one-person show of that because the other actors have no choice but to break the illusion. Why does Macbeth refer to “them” in the plural when there’s just one person there? Something like that leaps off the screen and pulls me out of the moment. It’s a minor thing, I suppose. It just feels disjointed, as I mentioned above. It is as if the director is saying, “Yes, I know what the script says, but I know what I want the visual to be, even if they don’t match!”

Bring It Home, Denzel

Even if the director didn’t care much about how the actors played their parts, they still had to find something to work with. Though I admit I wasn’t hanging on every word, I liked parts of Washington’s performance, such as Macbeth. His explanation of killing Duncan’s guards can be summed up as “Sometimes I get into this weird mood where I randomly kill people, I can’t explain it,” and it is the implied, “Would you like to be next?” that cranks up the tension. Everybody probably wonders precisely what happened, but they know they’d better not question it too deeply.

Toward the end, I also enjoyed the way he played his assumed immortality to a point. Everything’s falling apart around him; most of the witches’ prophecies have come true, yet he’s still almost laughing at it all, believing himself to be invincible. His speech to Young Siward is a cross between a serial killer and a Marvel supervillain. Unfortunately, this is ruined by a ridiculous fight scene, but I’ll take what I can get.

See It Or Skip It?

I’ll end how I started. If you’re a fan of the art of filmmaking, this is a great example. You can pause at any point and break down why the director wanted that scene to look like it does. It’s disorienting 100% of the time. There are claustrophobic shots, there are shots looking straight down. There’s nothing extra in any of the scenes, it often feels like bare stage. For me, though, I think that takes away from the Shakespeare. Shakespeare didn’t make any of those decisions, Joel Coen did. Which is fine if your plan is to go see the Coen version of Macbeth. But I’m more about the actors, I wanted to see more of Denzel Washington’s Macbeth. I got some. I liked some. I just wish it was more about the words and the actors and not the visuals.

Macbeth on his throne
Macbeth doing his best Thanos impression.

Wicked Shakespeare

Ok, show of hands, has everybody seen Wicked yet? How many times? 🙂

Well, it’s now available for streaming, which means we get to take screenshots. And with screenshots and subtitles, we get to do this!

You just knew that if there were any Shakespeare in there, we would find it. Here, of course, Galinda (or Glinda) borrows Malvolio’s quote from Twelfth Night: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

This got me thinking about something I like to call the “Lion King Rule.” That’s the one that says you only need a handful of recognizable elements of a Shakespeare play to say that a movie is based on that movie. So, is Wicked a retelling of any Shakespeare plays?

We’ve got a father who wants nothing to do with his wife’s new baby and demands it be taken away. There’s even a bear. This makes it Winter’s Tale.

We’ve also got a powerful solo central character who is positioned as a pawn of powerful political forces. When our hero fails to do what they’re told, they’re recast as the villain of the story. There’s also a “frenemy” character who our hero may or may not be in love with but will certainly be instrumental in their downfall. Coriolanus.

Of course, this is a story about witches. Therefore, it is obviously Macbeth.

Anything else?

Enjoying The Infinite Variety Podcast?

Art!

Loyal readers probably know that Bardfilm and I finally did something we’ve talked about for years — we started a podcast!

The Infinite Variety Podcast

Hamlet and Ophelia, sitting by a tree. -- Infinite Variety Podcast
Hamlet and Ophelia, sitting by a tree.

Infinite Variety: The Shakespeare Rewatch Podcast will involve us watching anything inspired by Shakespeare—movies, television shows, music videos, commercials … If we can watch it and find some Shakespeare in it, it’s up for discussion.

We decided to start with one of the most well-recognized examples of how to put Shakespeare on screen. Don’t anybody dare say Lion King. I’m talking about Slings & Arrows, a Canadian television show about actors fighting to preserve the integrity of live theatre against the unending onslaught of commoditization and commercialization. Each of the three seasons is mirrored against a Shakespeare play—Hamlet in season one, Macbeth, then King Lear.

Darren Nichols -- Infinite Variety Podcast
He is Darren Nichols, and you’re not.

You have to watch a few episodes of S&A to understand why we love it so much. This isn’t just Hamlet — we have plenty of options to choose from if we want to watch Hamlet. This is a Hamlet mirror story. Geoffrey, the director of Hamlet, was an actor who played Hamlet. Who may or may not have gone insane. Who definitely sees ghosts.

If you’re an actor, love live theatre, or love Shakespeare, there are so many reasons to watch this show. Multiple times per episode, you’ll gesture wildly at your screen, yelling, “Exactly!” or “Oh my god that is so me!”

You’ll want to share the experience with people who get it. It’s people who love what we love, reminding us why we love it in the first place. Plus, it includes some stars you’ll no doubt recognize, including Mark McKinney, Luke Kirby and Rachel McAdams.

It’s been a joy to rediscover this show. I’m thankful to Bardfilm for getting the ball rolling and creating the opportunity to start the conversation. Join us, won’t you?

https://www.infinitevarietypodcast.com