The idea of a silent film adaption of a Shakespeare play may seem strange to many. After all when one thinks of Shakespeare, his words often come directly to mind. However there were not a lack of Shakespeare adaptions during the silent era and most of them did not rely on intertitles. Rather like many literary film adaptations of this era, they relied on the audience's familiarity with the source material.
In this movie, Hermia (Rose Tapley) is in love with Lysander (Maurice Costello) but she is being made to marry Demetrius (Walter Ackerman). Because of this Hermia and Lysander run into the woods to escape, they are followed by Demetrius and Demetruis is followed by Helena (Julia Swayne Gordon), who has a crush on Demetrius. Meanwhile a mischievous fairy named Puck has fun with an herb that will make a sleeping person fall in love with the first person they see when they wake up. Puck causes the lovers to fall in love with the wrong mate. Meanwhile the queen of the fairies (Florence Turner) falls in love with Bottom, the egotistical leader of the tradesmen. Puck turns Bottom into a donkey for even more fun.
As you may have already realized this is a lot of story for an 11 minute short and frankly it is quite impressive just how much story is fit into this short runtime. Yet the film does not come off as rushed or lacking. Instead, it is a fun, spirited and breezy little comedy, that really captures the feel of one of Shakespeare's lightest and most fun works. The way the story is told is completely different from anything we might see in a modern film but was quite common for these types of movies at this time. We have some intertitles describing what we are about to see and then directly afterwards we see just that. There are no intertitles for dialogue here, but only to set up and describe the scenes. It is easy to see why filmmakers of this time often used this method to adapt famous literary works. One reason is that people where quite well read (at least compared to today) at this time and knew these stories quite well, so there was no need to worry about spoilers. Another reason is that it can clarify what we are about to see without stopping the action or taking us out of the film. Despite how unfamiliar this type of storytelling is to modern audiences; it still works quite well and I think many people today, would be surprised just how much fun they would have watching it.
Despite the amount of magic and fantasy in this film, there is actually not that much special effects in this film. This works to this film's advantage as it makes it date quite a bit less. Despite very simple camera work, this is quite a handsome movie because of the very appealing outdoor shooting and costumes.
The Film Index, 1909
Maurice Costello plays Lysander. His daughters, Helene and Dolores also appear in this movie. Dolores Costello (no relation to Lou), who would later become a star in the 1920's. During that decade she appeared in such films as The Sea Beast (1926), When a Man Loves (1927), Old San Francisco (1927) and Noah's Ark (1928). Later she would even be in Orson Welles' brilliant The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). Her first husband be John Barrymore, whom she co-stared with in multiple feature films. Gladys Hulette, who played Puck, is probably better remembered for another film she made around the same time, Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy (1909). Other films she appeared in include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910), Tol'able David (1921), The Iron Horse (1924), The Family Secret (1924) and The Ridin' Kid from Powder River (1924).
For anyone interested in watching this film, it is available on YouTube.
Resources Used
https://moviessilently.com/2014/10/19/a-midsummer-nights-dream-1909-a-silent-film-review/
http://www.jbkaufman.com/movie-of-the-month/midsummer-nights-dream-1909
No comments:
Post a Comment