Stage Beauty
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Stage Beauty |
| Original title | Stage Beauty |
| Country of production | Great Britain , Germany , USA |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Eyre |
| script | Jeffrey Hatcher |
| production |
Jane Rosenthal Hardy Justice Robert De Niro |
| music | George Fenton |
| camera | Andrew Dunn |
| cut | Tariq Anwar |
| occupation | |
Stage Beauty ( Engl. Stage Beauty ) is a romantic comedy directed by Richard Eyre , which in London plays theater world by 1660. The film is based on the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty by author Jeffrey Hatcher, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. It was filmed in 2003 at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, and at Shepperton Studios .
action
Until well into the 17th century, only men were allowed to play on English public stages; Women were banned from acting. Some actors specialized in portraying women and were often very successful in doing so, like Edward "Ned" Kynaston, the main character in the film. He not only plays women on stage, but also in his homosexual relationship with the Duke of Buckingham.
The prohibition of women on stage is violated on “underground” stages. Actress Mrs. Margaret Hughes becomes the talk of the town. At the suggestion of his mistress Nell Gwyn , King Charles II decides not only to allow women on the stages, but also to forbid the portrayal of women's roles by men. Ned Kynaston is hit hard by this ban, especially since behind the new female stage star Margaret Hughes there is none other than his previous cloakroom attendant Maria, whom Ned admires and his star role, Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello , secretly in an "underground" - Played theater.
Ned is so specialized in female roles through training and years of habit that he does not succeed in playing a man convincingly. He can no longer find work, gets drunk and has to work in unworthy spectacles. Maria saves him from these circumstances. Despite the initial rapprochement, the two fall out again. Since there is dissatisfaction with Maria's portrayal of Desdemona, Ned is finally hired to teach her to play the role. He discards all traditional acting, takes on the role of Othello and, together with Maria, plays the scene in which Othello kills Desdemona in a completely new, extremely realistic way, so that even the king who is present is impressed. The rapprochement between Ned and Maria that concludes the film is no longer in the way.
background
The author Jeffrey Hatcher drew from various sources for the plot, especially from the diaries of Samuel Pepys , who also appears as a supporting character in the film. While there is no clear evidence as to why women were suddenly allowed to play theater, the prohibition on men playing women's roles has been historically proven. Certainly not historical is the new way of performing theater shown towards the end of the film, which only emerged centuries later.
Ned Kynaston and Margaret Hughes, like all the other main characters in the film, are historical figures. Margaret Hughes' first stage appearance was, as many historians assume, on December 6, 1660, in the role of Desdemona in Shakespeare's play Othello . The performance by Thomas Killigrew's new King's Company took place at the Vere Street Theater.
Many critics were reminded of the similar film Shakespeare in Love by Stage Beauty . Stage Beauty is by no means a mere copy of this film, but rather addresses other questions such as the self-image of the sexes in a similar situation.
Reviews
- cinefacts.de [1] : "Theater drama about the search for identity and stardom, about gender confusion and the dawn of a new era - excellently played, confidently staged and with great humor."
Awards
- Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards: Overlooked Film of the Year 2004
Individual evidence
- ^ FE Halliday: A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964 . Baltimore: Penguin 1964. p. 347.
Web links
- Stage Beauty at the Internet Movie Database (English)