The
action has been updated to the late 1930s,
and Branagh's screenplay interweaves the original
text with music from Irving Berlin, George
Gershwin and Cole Porter.
"The
opportunity in a delightful, fluffy, boy-meets-girl
story which is what Love's Labour's
Lost is to experiment in the
world of old-fashioned, glamorous Hollywood
movie-making became pretty irresistible,"
Branagh says.
And so we get a film which harks back to the
screwball comedies that Claudette Colbert
and Katharine Hepburn used to appear in.
The
music, Branagh insists, is not a distraction,
but helps to advance the plot. "It's been
a very pleasant and genuine surprise to
me that so far, the play has not bucked
against this partly because the songs
themselves are classics."
Hollywood
musical-style set-pieces include Branagh himself
crooning Cheek To Cheek and Alicia Silverstone
and her female co-stars performing Fancy Free
while splashing around in a swimming pool.
"I love the utter silliness and excessiveness
of those swimming pool routines in old Esther
Williams movies," says Branagh. "It felt very
perky and silly and full of fun... and the
girls loved doing it."
by
Kenneth
Branagh