One of Shakespeare's most frequently performed comedies, Twelfth Night has always scared away mainstream movie adapters because of its cross-dressing theme something which seemed natural in Shakespeare's day, when female roles were played by young boys but is a lot more problematic today. But that, says veteran stage director Trevor Nunn, is precisely what drew him to it. 'I've always thought that there was something about Twelfth Night that had an extraordinarily contemporary ring,' he says. 'It's an examination of gender as an essential ingredient of a love story. Shakespeare seems to be playing with the attraction of woman in man and man in woman.'
Adapting a conceit that is as old as the theatre, Shakespeare has his heroine, Viola (Imogen Stubbs), washed ashore following a shipwreck. Learning that the Lady Olivia (Helena Bonham Carter) is in deep mourning, Viola poses as a boy called Cesario and enters the service of Count Orsino (Toby Stephens). Acting as his go-between in wooing Olivia, Cesario/Viola slowly becomes aware that both Orsino and Olivia are beginning to fall in love with him/her.
Renaissance, the film's production company, started out in theatre with Kenneth Branagh as its artistic director, branching out into film with Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing. After Branagh left, the company made the hugely successful The Madness of King George.
But this is Renaissance's first venture with Nunn, who has long wanted to tackle Twelfth Night a play which, in his extended theatrical career (including nearly two decades as head of the Royal Shakespeare Company) he has never directed.
'It's the most autumnal of Shakespeare's comedies,' says Nunn, who has assembled a cast of top British stage and screen stars (including Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley as Feste, the clown, and Oscar-nominee Nigel Hawthore as Malvolio), 'because it touches on mortality and the death of youth on how fleeting that experience is.'
Fittingly enough, the film was shot last October and November in Cornwall, as the leaves turned brown and occasionally, in Bonham Carter's words, 'nothing would come through in the acting but the fact that we were so cold!'
Prod co: Renaissance Films
Prod: Stephen Evans, David Parfitt
Dir: Trevor Nunn
Guión (Scr): William Shakespeare, adapted by Trevor Nunn
Foto (Ph): Clive Tickner
Art dir (Prod des): Sophie Becher.
Mus: Shaun Davey
Mont (Ed): Peter Boyle
Ints (Cast): Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E Grant, Nigel Hawthorne, Ben Kingsley, Mel Smith, Imelda Staunton, Toby Stephens, Imogen Stubbs, Steven Mackintosh, Nicholas Farrell
Ventas (Sales): Summit Entertainment Group
Duración (Running time): 135 mins
Programación (Screening): 12.00, 19.00, 25 Sept, Victoria Eugenia; 23.00, 25 Sept, Astoria 1; 18.15, 26 Sept, Astoria 3
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