A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016)

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Movie
German title A midsummer night's dream
Original title A Midsummer Night's Dream
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2016
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director David Kerr
script Russell T. Davies
production Russell T. Davies,
Brian Minchin ,
Faith Penhale ,
Julie Scott ,
Nikki Wilson
music Murray Gold
camera Dale McCready
cut Philip Kloss
occupation

A Midsummer Night's Dream (original title: A Midsummer Night's Dream ) is a film adaptation of the theater play by William Shakespeare from the year 2016 as a romantic fantasy comedy . Many of the actors involved have previously starred in the British television series Doctor Who , and the film also shows a street that was already shown in this television series. Directed by David Kerr .

action

The action takes place in a fictional, fascist-looking state called Athens today. The action begins with the appearance of Theseus at his court in Athens. On the televsion tape, viewers learn that he has defeated the Amazons. He has his prisoner of war, the Amazon Hippolyta, tied up and announces his intention to marry her in four days. Hippolyta replies in the affirmative, but it is clear that her answer was given to her by Theseus' lawyers and that she only expresses it under pressure. After this announcement of the wedding, the Athenian Egeus steps forward with his daughter Hermia and asks the two courtiers Demetrius and Lysander to also step forward. Egeus complains to Theseus that his daughter is in love with Lysander, even though he has intended Demetrius as her husband. Theseus decides that she has four days, until the new moon, to obey. Until then, she must either marry Demetrius or she will be sentenced to death. Afterwards, Lysander and Hermia agree to flee Athens to find refuge with an aunt Lysander outside of Athens. They let Hermia's friend Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, know about their plans. Lysander and Hermia want to meet in the forest that evening. Helena decides to reveal the plan to Demetrius in order to be able to be with him at least briefly (namely during the pursuit of Hermia and Lysander in the forest.)

In the evening, six Athenian artisans meet to plan their performance of the “deeply tragic comedy” by Pyramus and Thisbe at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Master Sequence is the game master, she distributes the roles. The weaver Niklas Zettel would like to play all roles, he will give the lover Pyramus. The Bellows Flicker Flaut is supposed to take over Pyramus' lover Thisbe. Schlucker will play Thisbe's mother, Schnauz Pyramus' father and Peter Squenz himself will play Thisbe's father. Schnock will give the lions. The game master admonishes the performers to memorize their roles. Then they arrange to meet for a secret rehearsal the following evening in the castle forest, a mile from the city by moonlight.

In the forest near the castle, the elf king Oberon and the fairy queen Titania meet with their respective entourage. The couple accuse each other of infidelity - Oberon with Phillida, a fairy, and Titania with the Amazon queen Hyppolyta, who is going to marry Theseus. After a fight between the two, Titania refuses a reconciliation and disappears with her entourage. Oberon seeks retribution. He instructs his servant Puck to get a flower that was once struck by Cupido's arrow. If the nectar of the flower is dripped on the eyelids of a sleeper, they will, on waking, fall in love with the closest living creature they see, even if it is a wild animal. While Oberon is waiting for Puck, Demetrius arrives in the forest, followed by Helena. They're looking for Lysander and Hermia. Helena swears her love to Demetrius, but he rejects her. The Elven King observes the two of them and orders Puck to look for a young Athenian who is being followed by a woman. He should drizzle some of the juice onto his eyelids. Oberon himself wants to find Titania and enchant her too. Oberon finds Titania and drips the nectar of the magic flower into her eyes.

Hermia and Lysander have long since arrived in the forest and are lost. They lie down for the night, Hermia insisting that Lysander keep some distance from her in a chaste manner. While they sleep, Puck finds the two, mistakenly mistaking Lysander for the young Athenian he is looking for, and dripping the nectar on his eyelids. Helena is still following Demetrius and finds and wakes Lysander asleep. He wakes up, falls in love with her and follows her through the forest. A short time later, Hermia wakes up, finds that Lysander has disappeared, and looks for him in the forest.

Meanwhile, Puck discovers the craftsmen who have come to the forest for their rehearsal. The craftsmen discuss the need to explain to the terrifying ladies in the audience that neither violence nor lions are real in the play and that this must be explained in a prologue. When Zettel takes a short break from the rehearsal behind a tree, Puck rings a donkey's head on him. When he appears on his cue and Puck lets the lanterns go out, his horrified friends flee. Zettel encourages himself by singing, from which Titania, who is sleeping nearby, wakes up and falls in love with him. Puck tells Oberon of Titania's infatuation with the "donkey" note, which both amusingly amused.

Hermia now meets Demetrius and accuses him of murdering Lysander or at least being responsible for his disappearance. Oberon now discovers that Puck has made a mistake in the two lovers, because he has dribbled the juice on Lysander's eyes instead of Demetrius' eyes, which he is supposed to correct: While Oberon is dripping the juice on the eyelids of the asleep Demetrius, Puck is supposed to get Helena. When Demetrius wakes up, the first thing he sees is Lysander, who arrives before Helena and to whom he immediately swears his love. This is quickly corrected by Puck, so that Demetrius finally worships Helena. Now both Lysander and Demetrius love Helena, who feels mocked. When Hermia arrives, the argument worsens because the enchanted Lysander insults his lover as an emetic. The women also get into an argument because Helena now feels mocked by everyone and insults Hermia Helena as a “love thief”. A dramatic situation arises when everyone is fighting through the forest and Demetrius almost knocks Hermia down an abyss. Only after Helena's persuasion is Hermia saved from the crash. Oberon and Puck end the mess by putting everyone to sleep and removing the spell on Lysander so he can love Hermia again.

Oberon also frees Titania from her mania for love and Puck frees Zettel from his donkey's head. The elven rulers are reconciled. The next morning, a hunting party led by Theseus and Egeus finds the two couples who are happily in love thanks to the skillfully used magic. Theseus determines that Demetrius and Helena, as well as Lysander and Hermia, will celebrate their wedding with him. Zettel wakes up from his sleep and arrives in town just in time for the performance, to the delight of his friends.

The wedding takes place in Athens. Before the evening conversation begins, Theseus and Hippolyta talk about the fairy magic that the lovers reported, which Theseus dismisses as untrue. Hippolyta contradicts - a tense situation briefly arises, but then Theseus asks his master of ceremonies which pastime is planned and chooses the piece from the craftsman.

The piece begins with a misleading prologue by the game master, Master Sequence, followed by a performance of the “wall”. Then Zettel and Flaut appear as Pyramus and Thisbe, who awkwardly play their nocturnal rendezvous, hindered by the wall. Thisbe is then alone, flees from the lion in the moonlight and loses her coat in the process. Pyramus finds Thisbe's cloak, thinks the mistress is dead, and stabs himself. Thisbe finds the dead Pyramus and stabs himself too. While the craftsmen play the death scenes, Theseus leaves the room and dies of a heart attack alone in an adjacent corridor. Dying he still sees Oberon and Titania entering his castle with their people.

The elves then step in at the festivities: They disarm the guards, tear the flags of Theseus and mingle with the dancing wedding guests. Hippolyta, still dressed in a straitjacket, is released. It turns out that like Titania she is an elf queen - Titania and Hippolyta kiss deeply on it. The elves bless the castle and wish it never suffer again.

reception

The film attracted attention for its homosexual innuendos added to the story, including a kiss between Hippolyta and Titania. Overall, the film received positive reviews: The Guardian called it "Doctor Who-ish" but quite well. The Daily Telegraph gave it four stars out of five and said Russel T. Davies made Shakespeare engaging, fresh and weird. The film service writes that, despite the drastically shortened text version, the film shows great respect for Shakespeare's language and imagination and praises the actors.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for A Midsummer Night's Dream . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Dowling, Tim: "A Midsummer Night's Dream review: Doctor Who-ish but rather good". The Guardian , May 31, 2016.
  3. ^ O'Donovan, Gerard: "A Midsummer Night's Dream (BBC One): Russell T Davies made Shakespeare engaging, fresh and funny: review". The Telegraph , May 30, 2016.
  4. ↑ A Midsummer Night's Dream. In: Filmdienst . Retrieved June 5, 2017 .