Page 104 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

Sophisticated Comedy I 93

bumpkins, even the confirmed noncomformists Jaques and Touch-
stone, who join the heterogeneous group while maintaining their
distinct individualities. In essence, Shakespeare's diverse audience
saw onstage an artistic mirror image of themselves.
Meersom managed the proper effect by creating, on a studio
soundstage, an Arden at once fantastical yet believable. Naive crit-
ics, like John Marks of Sight and Sound, foolishly complained of the
"fake flora and genuine fauna prodded in the wings." This is pre-
cisely as it should be: half real, half imaginary. As in the play, there
is evidence of Shakespeare's desire to stop short of romanticizing
nature as an ideal, where everyone and everything can happily coex-
ist. True to the bard's suggestions, Czinner effectively visualizes a
snake in this demi-Eden, crawling over the sleeping body of Oliver;
as Orlando peers on, the snake slithers away, only to be replaced by
an even more dangerous lion. Will is too much the realist to believe
that nature is entirely benign, and Czinner rightly brings the play-
wright's vision to the screen intact.
Touchstone woos pretty Audrey, even as she milks a cow—the
single workaday element in an otherwise enchanted wood. As he
does, rabbits dance about, suggesting the reproductive force which,
apart from romance or friendship, draws clown to wench. A dissolve
montage allows for a neat transition from Orlando's poem to the
image of his carving a heart on a tree. Czinner conveys Shakespeare's
notion of romantic love as a form of madness, especially in compar-
ison to deep friendship. The introduction of a gender-bending ele-
ment (Rosalind, disguised as a boy, who entices new "pal" Orlando
to pretend to be wooing "him," and pretending "he" is Rosalind,
who, unknown to Orlando, he/she really is) plays as light comedy
while mimicking Shakespeare's life-as-a-theater theme. When Ros-
alind eventually throws off her disguise, we know they will live hap-
pily ever after, enjoying the best of both worlds: Romantic attraction
coupled with deep friendship, both necessary, to Shakespeare, if the
relationship is to last.
When all the key characters finally face off with one another,
Czinner pans, then swish-pans, between them. The technique
implies that while these people stand close to one another, they
really don't know much about friends and lovers, the camera work
makes them appear so near to, and yet so far from, one another. A
terrible case of miscasting has always kept this otherwise fine film
in eclipse.