Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

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Movie
German title A lot of noise about nothing
Original title Much Ado About Nothing
Country of production UK , USA
original language English
Publishing year 1993
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Kenneth Branagh
script Kenneth Branagh
production Kenneth Branagh ,
Stephen Evanes ,
David Parfitt
music Patrick Doyle
camera Roger Lanser
cut Andrew Marcus
occupation

Much Ado About Nothing is a film adaptation of the play of the same name by William Shakespeare from 1993. Directed by Kenneth Branagh from his own script.

action

Several men return to Leonato's estate after a victorious battle. In the walls and in the sunny gardens, a courtship develops between them and the women present, followed by intrigues.

Claudio and Benedikt fought with Don Pedro against his half-brother Don Juan during the campaign. Leonato, the governor of Messina , invites her to stay in Messina for a month and Don Pedro accepts the invitation. Claudio sets out to win the hand of Hero, Leonato's daughter. In the meantime, Leonato's eloquent niece Beatrice and Benedikt have arguments. Both are known for not mincing words when dealing with other people. And both harbor a long, apparently unfounded dislike for one another.

Claudio and Hero are quickly engaged and decide, together with others, to shorten the time until the wedding by luring Benedikt and Beatrice into the love trap. Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro let Benedict overhear a conversation in which they discuss how much Beatrice suffers because she actually loves him. Benedict decides to have mercy on her and to return her love. Hero and her chambermaid Ursula have a similar conversation within earshot of Beatrice. She immediately decides to be kinder to Benedict.

Don Juan, Don Pedro's illegitimate brother, wants to wreak havoc by preventing the wedding. To prove Hero's unfaithfulness, he stages a scene in the window of Hero's chamber between his follower Borachio and Hero's maid Margaret, in which she wears Hero's clothes and makes Claudio believe that Hero is unfaithful to him. Claudio falls for the spectacle. On the day of the wedding, he publicly accuses her and refuses to marry. Hero faints, and the monk advises people to let everyone believe that Hero has died given the shame until their honor is restored.

Left alone in the church, Benedict and Beatrice confess their mutual love. Beatrice is convinced of Hero's innocence and makes Benedict promise to kill his friend Claudio for the damage he has caused.

Before the duel can take place, however, Hero's honor is restored: On the night the production of Don Juan took place, the guards caught Borachio and his ally Konrad. Despite the guards' comical ineptitude, they heard the two discuss their evil plans and understood that Hero had been wronged. After hearing her testimony, Leonato is completely convinced of Hero's innocence.

Claudio feels deep remorse for the "death" of his bride that he is responsible for. Leonato promises to marry him off to his niece, who looks just like Hero. Of course, it turns out to be actually the living hero himself. At the wedding, Benedikt and Beatrice fall back into their old pattern of denying their mutual love with a lot of puns, until Hero and Claudio pull out love poems that Benedict and Beatrice wrote to each other. The story ends with a happy double wedding and the arrest of Don Juan while fleeing Messina.

Reviews

“A Shakespeare film adaptation conceived as a fast-paced, high-spirited 'screwball comedy', performed excellently by a mixed ensemble of theater and cinema stars. The theme of the gender struggle is at the center of a theater adaptation that is as true to the work as it is 'popular' and that lives primarily from its sparkling wit. "

- Lexicon of international film

"Shakespeare has seldom been such a sensual pleasure: the director and actor Kenneth Branagh [...] filmed the most beautiful comedy of the master-dramatist [sic] with wonderful ease and entertainment."

- Focus

synchronization

actor speaker role
Kenneth Branagh Ulrich Matthes Benedict
Emma Thompson Katerina Jacob Beatrice
Denzel Washington Leon Boden Don Pedro of Aragon
Keanu Reeves Joachim Tennstedt Don juan
Richard Briers Jürgen Thormann Signor Leonato
Michael Keaton Joachim Kerzel Dogberry
Robert Sean Leonard Udo Schenk Claudio
Richard Clifford Ernst Meincke Conrade
Kate Beckinsale Marina Krogull Hero
Gerard Horan Roland Hemmo Borachio
Edward Jewesbury Hans Teuscher Clerk
Brian Blessed Horst lamp Antonio
Phyllida Law Bettina Schön Ursula
Jimmy Yuill Peter Reinhardt Friar Francis
Conrad Nelson Gosta Knothe Hugh Oatcake

Remarks

Villa di Vignamaggio

All dialogues of the characters come from the original text of Shakespeare , as in all Shakespeare films by Kenneth Branagh . The five-hour play was only severely shortened for the film and the sequence of scenes was partially changed.

Although Shakespeare's play is set in Messina, Sicily, the filming took place in the vicinity of Greve in Chianti in Tuscany , predominantly on the area of Villa Vignamaggio .

In several scenes, the monk who is supposed to marry Hero and Claudio plays the main musical theme of the film on a guitar. The credits show that this was actually played by the composer Patrick Doyle , who also provided the entire soundtrack for the film.

Awards (selection)

Actress Emma Thompson received the 1994 Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Much ado about nothing. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Shakespeare for the People . In: Focus . August 30, 1993. Retrieved October 14, 2013 .
  3. ↑ synchronkartei.de
  4. ^ Report on the shooting on the villa's website.