A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968 film)
1968 film by Peter Hall
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A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1968 British film adaptation of the Shakespearean play, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Filmways. It is directed by Peter Hall and stars Derek Godfrey as Theseus, Barbara Jefford as Hippolyta, Diana Rigg as Helena, Helen Mirren as Hermia, David Warner as Lysander, Ian Holm as Puck, Ian Richardson as King Oberon, Judi Dench as Queen Titania, and Paul Rogers as Bottom.
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| A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Peter Hall |
| Based on | |
| Produced by | Michael Birkett |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Suschitzky |
| Edited by | Jack Harris |
| Music by | Guy Woolfenden |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Eagle Films (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Cast
- Derek Godfrey as Theseus
- Ian Holm as Puck, or Robin Goodfellow
- Judi Dench as Titania
- Helen Mirren as Hermia
- Paul Rogers as Bottom
- Diana Rigg as Helena
- Ian Richardson as Oberon
- David Warner as Lysander
- Michael Jayston as Demetrius
- Sebastian Shaw as Quince
- Bill Travers as Snout
- Clive Swift as Snug
- Donald Eccles as Starveling
- John Normington as Flute
- Barbara Jefford as Hippolyta
- Nicholas Selby as Egeus
- Hugh Sullivan as Philostrate
Adaptation
The film was only the second, after Max Reinhardt's 1935 film, sound film adaptation of the play.[1][a] It portrayed the fairies as "wild, near-naked creatures in a primitive, sinister wood."[2] and "the subsidiary fairies were bedraggled child actors; the artisans authentic, almost contemporary rustics."[2] that "contrasted with the sedate courtly milieu of an actual Warwickshire country house."[2]
Sukanta Chaudhuri—editor of The Arden Shakespeare, third series edition of the play—describes it as "a notable blending of the traditional with the innovative."[2] Peter Holland, editor of The Oxford Shakespeare edition described it as "[turning] the sentimentality into something rougher and muddier; his fairies, accompanying Titania (Judi Dench), naked with her modesty covered by a long wig, were dirty urchins covered in mud."[3]
Production
The "Athens" scenes were shot at Compton Verney House.[4]
Release
Critical reception
The film was generally poorly received by critics.[7] Penelope Houston, reviewing the film for The Spectator, wrote:[8]
Mr Hall's lovers … caper in their mini-skirts and flowered Beatle blouses … around a stately home so sparsely furnished that you feel the removal men are either assembling or dismantling. But stage influences and scaling creep in: half the time … they might as well be running around one small studio-planted coppice, with another daub of mud slapped over their foreheads at the end of each circuit. Make-up seems to present unlikely difficulties: Peaseblossom, Mustard Seed and their confreres … appear startlingly haggard, as though late nights ministering to Titania were taking their toll. The vaguely silvery, vaguely dun-coloured faces of Oberon's flock seem to belong at stage distance; close-up, the fairy kingdom looks like a dusky progressive school suffering from a nasty epidemic of pink-eye.
