Twelfth Night: or What You Will

[Howard Schumann]

TWELFTH NIGHT: OR WHAT YOU WILL

Directed by Trevor Nunn (1996)

In Illyria, Orsino (Toby Stephens), a nobleman, is saddened because he cannot have the love of Lady Olivia (Helena Bonham-Carter) who is mourning the loss of her brother. Meanwhile, twins Sebastian (Stephen Mackintosh) and Viola (Imogen Stubbs) both survive a terrible shipwreck off the coast, but each thinks the other has died. Viola takes the guise of a man and goes to work in the household of the nobleman, falling in love with Duke Orsino. Meanwhile Olivia is taken with Viola who calls herself Cesario. This is the premise of one of William Shakespeare's most appealing comedies, Twelfth Night: Or What You Will, updated from Elizabethan England to late 19th century and brought to life by director Trevor Nunn. It is one of the best interpretations of Shakespeare that I have seen on film.

Reminiscent of other Shakespearean cross-dressing comedies such as As You Like It, Twelfth Night is mostly about the ins and outs of romantic love but it is also about pride, "overweening ambition", disguises, and mistaken identities. The play contains some of Shakespeare's most memorable characters: Sir Toby Belch (Mel Smith), Olivia's drunken uncle, his friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Richard E. Grant) who is also trying to court Olivia, Olivia's gentlewoman Maria (Imelda Staunton), Feste (Ben Kingsley), the house clown, and Malvolio (Nigel Hawthorne) the prudish steward. Nunn has assembled a cast that more than does justice to the play. Imogen Stubbs as Viola actually looks like a handsome young man and has a sense of purity and innocence that makes her instantly likeable. Helena Bonham Carter brings warmth to the character of Olivia who like Orsino seems to be in love with the idea of love not the reality. Some have noticed a similarity between the character of Olivia and Queen Elizabeth and interestingly, Olivia is addressed by Feste as "madonna", the only time the word is used in all of Shakespeare, perhaps a wry comment about the myth of the Virgin Queen.

The main story involves a love triangle between Orsinio, Viola, and Olivia but the minor characters have more than ample time on stage. Malvolio is both a comic and a tragic figure, said to caricature Sir Christopher Hatton, a courtier, romantic pursuer of the Queen and rival of the Earl of Oxford. Hatton was so fawning Elizabeth called him her "sheep" or "mutton" and this allusion is present early in the play as Malvolio is called a "rascally sheep-biter", harking back to Hatton's letter assuring Elizabeth that "The sheep hath no tooth to bite while the Boar's (Oxford) tusk doth raze and tear." Malvolio is a puritan who rails against people having fun, a trait that earns him the enmity of Sir Toby and Maria. To strike back, Maria engineers a joke on Malvolio. She forges a love letter supposedly from Olivia telling him that if he wants her to notice him, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed garters and, as he woos Olivia dressed in his strange attire, Malvolio cuts a ridiculous figure (incidentally this is the same costume worn by Henry VIII when he danced with Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth's mother, at a masked ball, before he had her beheaded for adultery).

While there are many great performances, the star for me is Ben Kingsley who is totally convincing as Feste, a fool but a knowing one who functions as an objective commentator of the scene around him, exuding an air of righteous superiority. His portrayal of the priest Sir Topas who interrogates Malvolio in a darkened room has overtones of the 1581 trial and execution of Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest who was executed by the English government in 1581. In his speech of less than fifty words, which appears to resemble nothing but nonsense, there are no less than five phrases which refer directly to Edmund Campion and his 1580-81 mission to England.

Richard Desper has pointed out that the mock trial scene works as a parody of the government persecution of Catholic martyrs. "The playwright," he writes, "demonstrates for us a world turned upside down, with clowns passing themselves off as men of learning, while men of learning …are pressed to deny what they believe to be true to serve political ends." The ending is too delightful to give anything away but it reminded me of the Ingmar Bergman comedy Smiles of a Summer Night, where mismatched couples get together at a summer cottage to sort everything out. Malvolio is pitiable in trying to redeem a shred of dignity but we feel for him when he exits saying, "I shall be revenged on the whole pack of you". As he leaves, he is the only person suffering in a sea of happy faces, those on screen as well as those at home.

GRADE: A

[JustaFied]

Thanks for the review and recommendation. I'm trying to get caught up on my Shakespeare now (I regret dozing off in class during my school years!). My approach for each play is to first read the text and then see the film adaptations (if available).

I've already seen Polanski's MacBeth and I recently watched Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. The latest version of The Merchant of Venice, with Pacino as Shylock, is on its way. And I've got Welles' Othello on the list also. Any other suggestions? I've read good things about Branagh's Henry V, and of course there's the works of Olivier.

"I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none." - Macbeth

[Howard Schumann]

Originally posted by JustaFied
Thanks for the review and recommendation. I'm trying to get caught up on my Shakespeare now (I regret dozing off in class during my school years!). My approach for each play is to first read the text and then see the film adaptations (if available).

I've already seen Polanski's MacBeth and I recently watched Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. The latest version of The Merchant of Venice, with Pacino as Shylock, is on its way. And I've got Welles' Othello on the list also. Any other suggestions? I've read good things about Branagh's Henry V, and of course there's the works of Olivier.

"I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none." - Macbeth

Thanks for commenting. There are reputed to be many good versions on film of Shakespeare's plays but I have seen very little. Branagh's Hamlet is supposed to be excellent. I enjoyed Olivier's Henry V but I haven't seen any other version. There's a Russian director named Grigori Kozintsev who has done King Lear and Hamlet and both are said to be outstanding but they are probably quite hard to find.

[oscar jubis]

By a huge margin, my favorite film based on Shakespeare is Othello by Orson Welles and this great director's Chimes at Midnight (aka Falstaff) and Macbeth are close behind. I prefer Branagh's darker Henry V to Olivier's, which was limited by its aim to instill pride and patriotism in UK's audiences during WWII. Watch them both though and make up your own mind. I found Olivier's Hamlet clunky as film, particularly during the soliloquy scene where Olivier zooms out until Hamlet is a small figure in the distance. I was surprised by Michael Almereyda's Hamlet, set in late 90s corporate NYC. It's remarkably good, no small thanks to Ethan Hawke as the Prince and Bill Murray's Polonius. I'd enjoy reading your comments about any adaptation you watch.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Howard Schumann
There's a Russian director named Grigori Kozintsev who has done King Lear and Hamlet and both are said to be outstanding but they are probably quite hard to find.

I'm gald you mentioned Grigori Kozintsev. King Lear (Korol Lir) and Hamlet (Gamlet) were the last two films he directed before he died. Both are by far the best adaptations I've seen. Shot in beautiful B&W sovoscope, they are also the best looking, not to mention the music by the great Dmitri Shostokovitsch.

Will post more regarding the site where I bought them from.

[arsaib4]

Okay, here they are:

King Lear

Hamlet

Both discs are in NTSC format. Extras are also subtitled. Shipping is free within continental U.S.

[Howard Schumann]

Originally posted by arsaib4
Okay, here they are:

King Lear

Hamlet

Both discs are in NTSC format. Extras are also subtitled. Shipping is free within continental U.S.

Sight unseen, they are a bit too rich for my blood. I will have to wait until they are available for rent.

[JustaFied]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. The Russian films do indeed look intriguing, but it looks like you've gotta buy 'em.

I did see Almereyda's Hamlet when it came out several years ago - I like the concept of setting the story in modern day NYC, and Bill Murray as Polonius was a hoot ("To thine own self be true" in his deadpan voice). Also memorable (at least in my mind) was Ethan Hawke as an angst-ridden Hamlet wandering the aisles of his local Blockbuster Video. That was a humorous scene. I'm not as interested in seeing other film versions of this play right now, primarily because it's the Shakespeare play I'm most familiar with.

As I said earlier, I recently watched Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. I liked it, but at the same time I'm not particularly familiar with the background of the play or how it "should" be presented, so I say this with reservation. Like any Shakespeare play, there's so much at work, particularly within the dialogue itself, that it's tough for an amateur like me to judge whether it's being presented "correctly".

I've also just read The Merchant of Venice and finished watching the film version that came out last year. As there is a separate thread here for that film, I'll try to consolidate my thoughts on Shylock & Co. over there.

Othello, and Welles' film adaptation, are next. I see that the film version is only 90 minutes long - is this yet another example of a Welles film being chopped up by the studio without his consent?

I've also started reading Richard III and will also check out Olivier's 1955 film version, which is supposed to be fantastic.

And of course there are the countless versions of Romeo & Juliet, but I'll probably skip all those, including the one with Claire Danes set in Southern California.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by JustaFied
Othello, and Welles' film adaptation, are next. I see that the film version is only 90 minutes long - is this yet another example of a Welles film being chopped up by the studio without his consent?

For the first time in his career, there was no studio involved as this is his first completely independent movie. Well, to be exact, Othello was designed as an Italian studio production, but the producer went bankrupt and Welles decided to finance it himself. The film was shot in Morocco and Italy between '48 and '51, with interruptions due to production problems and Welles having to accept acting jobs to finance it. It's interesting to note that the film had no "nationality", but it became necessary to assign one to it in order for it to be shown at Cannes: this "Moroccan" film won the top prize at Cannes in 1952.
The last time Othello had a theatrical release was 1992. The marketing campaign called it a "lost" masterpiece but in reality there have always been good, complete, 35 mm prints available. The problem with the restoration the film underwent between '89 and '91 is not the visuals, but the lack of care in recreating the original score by Francesco Lavignino and the amazingly inventive monoaural soundscape created by the former radio man himself. They butchered it in an effort to make the sound technologically up-to-date.
Welles distilled the essence of the play into an intense, visually arresting 92 minutes in which no word or image is superfluous.

[JustaFied]

Still haven't watched "Othello" but will do so soon after finishing the play.

I did watch Olivier's classic recreation of "Richard III", and I was mostly disappointed that he made so many changes to Shakespeare's original work. Several prominent characters from the play, including Queen Margaret, were missing altogether from Olivier's version. Also, Olivier did more rearranging of scenes then I would like to have seen. For instance, in the play, there is only one long scene between Richard and Anne. In the play, the caustic interplay of words between the characters ends with Richard's exhausting and humiliating triumph over Anne. He, who killed her father and husband, will become her new husband. ""And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!". But in the film, Olivier splits this into two separate scenes, and it loses its immediacy. Perhaps this is the price to be paid in moving plays meant for the stage into a broader context. I'd almost prefer keeping the film within the limited parameters of the staged production and leaving the rest to the audience's imagination.

"Henry V", both versions, is next.