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William Shakespeare | Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

Using his previous success formula of an international cast, Kenneth Branagh filmed a project that he had wanted to do for a very long time: a 1930s treatment of Love's Labour's Lost. Unfortunately, in the age of MTV and VH1, this film is an abysmal failure that can be attributed to several factors. Because of budget limitations, the setting for the film was an indoor set which lack any sense of reality. This may have been Branagh's intent, but to a modern audience is visually unappealing. In addition, Love's Labour's Lost, while a favourite of Branagh's, is a relatively unknown play. As usual, Branagh works long and hard to make the text clear, but the songs he chose for his characters to sing and dance to do not generate from the text, and therefore, seem to be spliced in for no valid reason. Although Adrian Lester and Nathan Lane shine in their roles as Dumaine and Costard, it is at the expense of their fellow actors. It may have been a good idea to give this particular play the 1930s treatment, but it would have been a better idea to cast more song and dance performers like Lester and Lane in the roles. Alicia Silverstone (Clueless) is annoying at best. Branagh cannot dance or sing and looks to be too old for the role of Berowne, the young lover who reluctantly joins the King in giving up women for study. As the pact dissolves on the arrival of the Princess into a courting frenzy, there are some funny moments, but these are not sufficient to carry the film. These dancers are not Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and no matter how they try, they cannot come close. At the end of the play, there is the pageant of the Nine Worthies, and the happy ending is left in question. Here, the entertainment is interrupted by a modern dance sequence that is very out-of-place. And it doesn't end the film. The men go off to meet the challenges set to them by the women, the audience sees those challenges and their completion, and the couples are re-united, presumably to live happily ever after. Whereas the play leaves it to the audience to ponder what will happen, Branagh leaves no room for doubt, and in this, he does the audience a disservice. - J.R. Costa

Cast: Berowne: Kenneth Branagh; The King: Alessandro Nivola; The Princess: Alicia Silverstone; Rosaline: Natascha McElhone; Longaville: Matthew Lillard; Dumaine: Adrian Lester; Don Armado: Timothy Spall; Costard: Nathan Lane; Jacquenetta: Stefania Rocca; Boyet: Richard Clifford; Katherine: Emily Mortimer; Maria: Carmen Ejogo; Moth: Tony O'Donnell; Holofernia: Geraldine McEwan; Nathaniel: Richard Briers; Dull: Jimmy Yuill; Mercade: Daniel Hill; Gaston: Alfred Bell; Isabelle: Daisy Gough; Eugene: Graham Hubbard; Jaques: Paul Moody; Beatrice: Yvonne Reilly; Hippolyte: Iain Stuart Robertson; Celimen: Emma Scott; Sophie: Amy Tez; Dancers: Nikki Abraham, Colin Barrett, Jonathan Blazer, Catherine Dugdale, Michele Du Verney, Richard Joseph, Trudi Swift; Bryn Walters.

Director: Kenneth Branagh; Writers; Kenneth Branagh, William Shakespeare; Producers: David Barron, Kenneth Branagh, Andrea Calderwood, Guy East, Alexis Lloyd, Rick Schwartz, Nigel Sinclair, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein; Production Companies: Arts Council of England, Pathè Pictures, Shakespeare Film Company Intermedia Films, Le Studio Canal+ (FR), Miramax Films.

Colour. Runtime: 93 mins.

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1. William Shakespeare: Introduction
2. Shakespeare Biography
   1. Shakespeare Biography
   2. Shakespeare in London
   3. The First Folio
   4. For Futher Study
   5. Chronology of Shakespeare's Works
3. Shakespeare Chronology
4. Shakespeare's Plays with eNotes
5. Shakespeare Translated
6. Reading Shakespeare
7. Shakespeare's Globe Theater
   1. Shakespeare's Globe Theater
   2. Globe Theater: Early 17th Century Drawing
   3. Globe Theater: 1647 Drawing by W. Hollar
   4. Model of the Reconstructed Globe (1996)
   5. Exterior of the Reconstructed Globe
   6. Stage of the Reconstructed Globe
   7. For Further Study
8. Shakespeare Texts
9. Shakespeare on Film
   1. Preface to the Film Reviews
   2. Henry V (1944)
   3. Henry V (1989)
   4. Macbeth (1971)
   5. Richard III (1995)
   6. Romeo and Juliet (1996)
   7. Romeo and Juliet (1968)
   8. Hamlet (1948)
   9. Hamlet (1996)
   10. Macbeth (1948)
   11. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
   12. The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
   13. Titus (1999)
   14. Twelfth Night; or What You Will (1996)
   15. Hamlet (1990)
   16. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
   17. Othello (1965)
   18. Richard III (1954)
   19. The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952)
   20. Othello (1995)
   21. Love's Labour's Lost (2000)
10. Shakespeare Essays
11. Shakespeare Portraits
    1. Color Illustration of the Stratford Bust
    2. Black and White Sketch of the Stratford Bust
    3. Black and White Side View of the Bust
    4. Chandos Portrait
    5. Another of the Chandos Portrait
    6. The Droeshout Portrait (Title Page First Folio)
    7. Color of the Droeshout Shakespeare
    8. Droeshout Portrait
    9. Marshall Shakespeare
    10. Shakespeare's Grave
    11. What Did Shakespeare Look Like?
12. Shakespeare Criticism
13. Shakespeare Pictures (Color Plates)
    1. Detail showing a student at Oxford college in 1574 (painting)
    2. Painting of 1604 meeting at Somerset House
    3. 16th-century illustration of whiskey distillation
    4. Anne Hathaway's Cottage (color photograph)
    5. The New Globe (color photograph with the Thames in the background)
    6. Painting (ca. 1600) of an Elizabethan wedding
    7. 1608 woodcut of a night watchman in London
    8. Illustration of Queen Elizabeth's funeral procession
    9. Illustration of an Elizabethan feast
    10. Woodcut of a Grammar school classroom
    11. Embroidery showing hunting scenes
    12. 1616 view of London
    13. Scene of early Elizabethan theater
    14. The defeat of the Spanish Armada
    15. Elizabethan music
    16. 1911 poster for a production of Macbeth
    17. Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 Romeo and Juliet
    18. Scene from the 1998 movie Shakespeare in Love
    19. Scene from a 1984 production of Twelfth Night
    20. Scene from a 2000 production of Coriolanus
    21. Scene from 2000 production of Merchant of Venice
    22. Poster for 1892 production of Julius Caesar
    23. Playbill of 1863 production of Hamlet
    24. Scene from 1991 production of Henry IV
    25. Scene from 1992 production of The Comedy of Errors
    26. Scene from 1999 production of The Life and Death of King John
    27. Scene from 1984 production of Richard III
    28. 1852 painting of Ophelia
    29. Scene from 1999 production of Othello
    30. Scene from 1990 production of Hamlet
    31. Portrait of Queen Elizabeth
    32. John Singer Sargent oil painting of Lady Macbeth (1889)
    33. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Hamlet
    34. Oil painting of Shakespeare (unknown artist)
    35. Painting of William Charles Macready, a Shakespearean actor
    36. Sir Laurence Olivier as King Lear
    37. Nathan Field, a Shakespearean actor and member of the King's Men
    38. British director Jonathan Miller
    39. 1585 Portrait of Christopher Marlowe
    40. Poster promoting Sara Bernhardt in Hamlet (1899)
    41. Alec Guinness as Shylock (1984)
    42. Richard Burbage, leading actor in Shakespeare's company
    43. Henry Irving, actor
    44. Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth's mother
    45. Sarah Siddons as Lady Macbeth
14. FAQs
    1. Why is Shakespeare considered to be the greatest writer in English literature?
    2. What was Shakespeare's childhood like?
    3. What was Shakespeare's marriage like?
    4. Did someone else write Shakespeare's plays?
    5. What was Shakespeare's political orientation?
    6. What was Shakespeare's view of human nature?
    7. Did Shakespeare believe that our lives are governed by fate?
    8. Was Shakespeare a homosexual?
    9. Was Shakespeare anti-semitic?
    10. Was Shakespeare a racist?
    11. Did Shakespeare believe in supernatural beings or forces?
    12. Who attended Shakespeare's plays?
    13. What do we know about Shakespeare's son Hamnet?
    14. Was Shakespeare a misogynist?
    15. How did Shakespeare die?
    16. Where is Shakespeare buried?
    17. Who is Shakespeare's greatest hero?
    18. Who is Shakespeare's greatest villain?
    19. Who is Shakespeare's greatest comic character?
    20. What is valued most in Shakespeare's plays?
    21. Did Shakespeare write any "bad" plays?
    22. Did Shakespeare act in any of his plays and if so, what roles did he perform?

See Also:

• Shakespeare A to Z
• Shakespeare's World
• Shakespeare's Work
• Shakespeare's Influence
• Shakespeare Quotes

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