Page 99 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

88 / Shakespeare in the Movies

speare's own 1600 and 1900, when the modern age began and magic
disappeared from the world. Women's clothing appears seventeenth
century; the heroic men's tailored uniforms, eighteenth century; and
the black leather breeches worn by villains, nineteenth century S &
M garb. If the mise en scene suggests a collage from past periods,
the tone is decidedly modern. As heroes and ladies lounge about in
the midday sun, the interracial as well as international crowd of
attractive people appear to have stepped out of a Ralph Lauren adver-
tisement. In scouting locations, production designer Tim Harvey fell
in love with the idyllic quality of Italy's central region, particularly
the lush, seductive landscapes surrounding Villa Vignamaggio in
Greve, where, in 1503, Lisa Gherardini Giaconda (the model for the
Mona Lisa) lived. The on-screen result was, in Branagh's own words,
a place of "primitive passion where people live in the sun, eat, drink,
and have sex."
In Time, Richard Corliss noted that that vision was achieved.
Branagh made the play "so fresh and moved it so fast that audiences
will forget it's Shakespeare." While emphasizing the possibilities for
pleasure, Branagh was careful to include weightier themes, perfectly
combining respect for Shakespeare's vision with an audience's
hunger for entertainment. His Much Ado About Nothing is the
filmic equivalent of that mid-nineties bestseller Men Are From
Mars, Women Are From Venus; true to the Bard, Branagh suggests
that the earthy, sensuous wisdom of women is far preferable to the
macho posturings of men, which he mercilessly ridicules—particu-
larly in the guise of his own character, Benedick.
This film is cinematic in more significant ways than the pictorial
jazzing up of man-woman confrontations. The dancing is not only
fast and furious, but what is more significant, it is central to the
director's vision of community. Branagh also opts for subtler visual
symbols. When Beatrice and Benedick, at last united in the love each
has so long denied, swear eternal allegiance, the director-adapter
shifts this scene to a hidden chapel, built specifically for the film,
where they speak beneath a cross, conveying Shakespeare's insis-
tence on the need for his heroic couples to restrain and contain pas-
sion within conventions at once social and religious. By confining
the entire affair to a single villa, Branagh emphasized what critic
David Denby of New York referred to as "the geography of intrigue"
and highlighted the spying so dear to Will's heart; indeed, in Eliza-
bethan times, the play was popularly referred to as "Much Ado
about Noting."