Page 96 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

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SOPHISTICATED COMEDY

Much Ado About Nothing; As You Like It;
Twelfth Night

Beauty is a witch against whose charms
faith melteth into blood,
—Claudio, Much Ado About Nothing

y the mid-1590s, Shakespeare's main concern was with the En-
Bglish history pageant. Occasionally, though, he still took artistic
respite with a comedy. However charming and clever (Merry Wives
of Windsor; All's Well That Ends Well] or dark and disturbing (Mer-
chant of Venice; Measure for Measure) the tone and temper might
be, the diverse comedies share signature themes with more seem-
ingly serious plays. Indeed, they often threaten to turn into tragedies
and qualify as comedy less for their humor (since there are great gags
in the tragedies and histories, too) than for the fact that they con-
clude with upbeat endings, most often life-affirming weddings rather
than the funereal nihilism of the tragedies. Three comedies of this
period, all turned into major movies, are here treated in the order
Will most likely wrote them.

The Geography of Intrigue
Much Ado About Nothing
Renaissance Films, 1993; Kenneth Brariagh

Much Ado About Nothing allowed Shakespeare to revise, on a more
sophisticated level, the twin love stories from The Taming of the
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