Shakespeare in Love

Director： John Madden

Screenwriter： Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard

Main Characters：

Will Shakespeare --- Joseph Fiennes Viola De Lesseps---Gwyneth Paltrow Philip Henslowe --- Geoffrey Rush Hugh Fennyman --- Tom Wilkinson

Length：123 min

Genre : Comedy /Drama /Romance

Showtime：December 3rd, 1998

Academy Awards：

The 71th Oscar Best motion picture

The 71th Oscar Best Original Screenplay

The 71th Oscar Best Art Direction

The 71th Oscar Best Costume Design

The 71th Oscar Best Music

The 71th Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Supporting Actress

Introduction

Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American comedy film directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard.

The film portrays playwright William Shakespeare's involvement in a love affair at the time that he was writing the play Romeo and Juliet. The story is fiction, though several of the characters are based on real people. In addition, many of the characters, lines, and plot devices are references to Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare in Love won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (for Gwyneth Paltrow), and Best Supporting Actress (for Judi Dench).

Plot:

It is a romantic comedy set in London in the late 16th century: Young playwright William Shakespeare struggles with his latest work "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter". A great fan of Shakespeare's plays is young, wealthy Viola who is about to be married to the cold-hearted Lord Wessex, but constantly dreams of becoming an actress. Women were not allowed to act on stage at that time (female roles were played by men, too), but dressed up as a boy, Viola successfully auditions for the part of Romeo. Soon she and William are caught in a forbidden romance that provides rich inspiration for his play.

Words fail him until his muse appears in the shape of Lady Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), a noblewoman whose love for the work of Shakespeare's leads her to dress as a boy (since at the time women were not allowed on stage) and attend an audition in disguise (mistaken identity and women dressing as men are devices Shakespeare often used in his comedies). She is given the role of Romeo and begins a forbidden relationship with Shakespeare, the only one who knows her real identity, in spite of the fact that she is betrothed to the villainous Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) at Queen Elizabeth’s (Judi Dench) command.

Movie Reviews:

Shakespeare in Love is a brilliantly funny, warm and fast moving romance from acclaimed director John Madden.

——By Mrs. Brown

This film should appeal to a wide range of viewers — even those who hated studying Shakespeare in school.

—— By Debbie Lee Wesselmann

When a script such as Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s Shakespeare in Love comes to life, any review seems pathetically inadequate. With sheer brilliance Norman captures the imagery of life in the 1590’s and speculates on Shakespeare’s inspiration to write Romeo and Juliet. Norman’s work coupled with Stoppard’s ability to bring the romance of Elizabethan theatre, and theater in general, into an environment where mainstream movie lovers can absorb Shakespearean prose and witness the magic of theater behind-the-scenes, should be experienced on the big screen in a theater filled beyond capacity.

—— By Jan E. Morris