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Shakespeare in Love [VHS]
by (Producer: Bob Weinstein) (Producer: David Parfitt) (Producer: Donna Gigliotti) (Producer: Edward Zwick) (Producer: Harvey Weinstein) (Writer: Marc Norman) (Writer: Tom Stoppard)
Director: John Madden
Product Group: Video
Studio: Walt Disney Video
ISBN: B0000203YT
EAN: 9780788818738
UPC: 786936115048
Binding/Media: VHS Tape
Running Time: 123 minutes
Original Release Date: 1999-01-08
Theatrical Release Date: 1999-01-08
Release Date: 1999-12-07
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
SKU: 06362
Condition: New
Comments: Brand new in shrink wrap.
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Editorial Reviews
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Description
Triumphant winner of 7 Academy Awards(R) -- including Best Picture -- this witty, sexy smash features Oscar(R)-winning Best Actress Gwyneth Paltrow (SLIDING DOORS, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) and an amazing cast that includes Academy Award-winners Judi Dench (Best Supporting Actress), Geoffrey Rush (Best Actor -- SHINE), and Ben Affleck (GOOD WILL HUNTING, PEARL HARBOR). When Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes -- ELIZABETH) needs passionate inspiration to break a bad case of writer's block, a secret romance with the beautiful Lady Viola (Paltrow) starts the words flowing like never before! There are just two things he'll have to learn about his new love: not only is she promised to marry someone else, but she's successfully impersonating a man in order to play the lead in Will's latest production! A truly can't-miss motion picture event with outstanding critical acclaim to match its impressive collection of major awards -- everyone will love this funny behind-the-scenes look at the writing of the greatest love story ever told!
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Amazon.com
One of the most endearing and intelligent romantic comedies of the '90s, the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love is filled with such good will, sunny romance, snappy one-liners, and devilish cleverness that it's absolutely irresistible. With tongue placed firmly in cheek, at its outset the film tracks young Will Shakespeare's overwrought battle with writer's block and the efforts of theater owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush, in rare form) to stage Will's latest comedy, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. Jokey comedy, though, soon takes a backseat to ravishing romance when the beautiful Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) disguises herself as a young man to wangle herself an audition in the all-male cast, and wins both the part of Romeo and, after much misunderstanding, the playwright's heart. Soon enough, Will's pirate comedy becomes the beautiful, tragic Romeo and Juliet, reflecting the agony and ecstasy of Will and Viola's romance--he's married and she's set to marry the slimy Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) in the near future. The way that Oscar-winning screenwriters Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard enfold their story within the parameters of Romeo and Juliet (and even Twelfth Night) is nothing short of brilliant--it would take a Shakespearean scholar to dissect the innumerable parallels, oft-quoted lines, plot developments, and thematic borrowings. And most amazingly, Norman and Stoppard haven't forgotten to entertain their audience in addition to riding a Shakespearean roller coaster, with director John Madden (Mrs. Brown) reigning in his huge ensemble with rollicking energy. Along the way there are small gems to be found, including Judi Dench's eight-minute, Oscar-winning turn as a truly regal Queen Elizabeth, but the key element of Shakespeare in Love's success rests on the milky-white shoulders of its two stars. Fiennes, inexplicably overlooked at Oscar time, is a dashing, heartfelt Will, and as for Best Actress winner Paltrow, well, nothing she'd done before could have prepared viewers for how amazing she is here. Breathtakingly beautiful, fiercely intelligent, strong-willed, and lovestruck--it's a performance worthy of Shakespeare in more ways than one. By the film's end, you'll be thoroughly won over--and brushing up your Shakespeare with newfound ardor. --Mark Englehart
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Customer Reviews
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Superb
Rating  (5)
Date: 2010-05-01
This movie is for movie lovers and second for lovers of Shakespeare. It is gorgeous!!!!
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Comedy
Rating  (3)
Date: 2010-04-20
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is actually a pretty good movie. It is the basis for Romeo and Juliet. You get the see the lead actress topless briely in 3 scenes. A romance inspires Shakspeare. It is set in the 1500s.
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I'm in love with this movie...
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-04-19
There is a lot of stigma that follows this film. In my circle of cinephile friends, any discussion of the year that was 1998 ends in debate, sometimes aggressive. Now, I have always felt that Oscar handled the `Director' and `Picture' races correctly (even if my top five differs drastically from theirs). Steven Spielberg worked wonders with his director of `Saving Private Ryan'. There is no doubt in my mind that he deserved that Oscar ten times over for what he was able to create. That said, I find the film itself to be mediocre at best. The plot is weakly realized, the script is all sorts of bland and the acting is hit and miss. In fact, the only real saving grace is the sharp direction.
`Shakespeare in Love' is leagues better than `Saving Private Ryan', even if the direction isn't as inspired.
The film is a fictitious telling of Shakespeare's rise as a playwright. He is a joke so-to-speak until he finds true inspiration in a rapturous affair with the beautiful Viola De Lesseps. Sadly, much like the ill-fated romances that circulate the majority of Shakespeare's visions, their love could not be. Shakespeare was married and Viola was promise in marriage to the evil (not really evil, but highly unlikable) Lord Wessex. Still, Shakespeare and Viola continued their love affair. Viola disguised herself as a man in order to participate in Shakespeare's play `Romeo + Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter' (which later became known as `Romeo + Juliet'), all the while keeping her groom-to-be at bay.
Shockingly, this film is truly romantic. For all the slivers of comic glory included, the film has a very beautiful edge that makes it one of the most spellbinding and romantic of all the date-movies of the 90's. The fact that it remains intelligent and compelling throughout is a major bonus.
The film rests on some very sturdy shoulders, and that is a blessing as well. Both Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes are believable and engaging here. A lot of debate can also be found in the Best Actress category, with camps claiming that Paltrow was better than Blanchett and visa-versa. Personally, I think Emily Watson should have won (actually I think Cameron Diaz should have won, but she wasn't even nominated), but I am one who feels that Paltrow's win was inspired and deserving. First of all, she did not chew up the scenery in the most dramatized of ways as her competitors did (at least the two I mentioned). Instead, she allows the slow burn of her charismatic persona to evoke a real sense of emotional relevancy with her character. She was very, very real. Joseph Fiennes was also spectacularly real. I loved the way that his melancholy approach served as a nice contrast to the films comic tones without ever once feeling out of place. Judy Dench is ravenous as the sharp-tongued Queen Elizabeth, and Ben Affleck shows some comic mastery here as well. Geoffrey Rush was hammy, but delightfully so. I don't agree with his nomination, especially when you consider that Tom Wilkinson went without one, but alas, he was good here.
Wilkinson was best-in-show for me though. With such a small role, he never stopped acting. Wilkinson kind of reminds me of Robert Logia in that he acts from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, even when attention is not focused on him. When you watch a scene, Wilkinson could be in the backdrop and not even part of the scene really, but when you watch him you notice that he NEVER drops character. Here he is sharp witted without ever hamming it up, even for a second.
Astonishing performance.
In the end, there may not be a lot of weight to this film, but it is beyond entertaining and it really embodies the spirit of Shakespeare well. I also loved the fact that, instead of painting his life like a mirror image of his work (take that `Becoming Jane'), it showed how his life inspired his work. Shakespeare had such a wide range in his work, and I loved how this script skillfully and wittily created something relatable from that work.
So yeah, I think that `Shakespeare in Love' deserved that Oscar.
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An amazing, intelligent comedy.
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-03-11
The winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1998 (awarded in 1999), "Shakespeare in Love" has gotten some unfair bad press in my opinion, largely due to its beating "Saving Private Ryan" in the contest. The latter film, a dramatic epic that redefined cinematic depictions of combat, has been widely viewed as the superior product. As a matter of personal opinion, I prefer "Shakespeare in Love", though I acknowledge that I am squarely in the middle of the film's target demographic: English Literature nerds who will get jokes about a violence-loving theatre assistant named John Webster. Nevertheless, the film is a stirring and witty tribute to Shakespeare and Renaissance theatre.
Set late in the reign of Elizabeth I (Judi Dench, in an eight-minute performance that won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes, brother of Ralph) is a struggling playwright working at the Rose Theatre, owned by Phillip Henslowe, who is deep in the hock. Shakespeare is a prodigious talent, but romantic disappointment has resulted in a serious case of writer's block. Henslowe needs the comedy "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter" finished soon, and Shakespeare needs inspiration, which comes in the form of Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), and ardent admirer of his plays who poses as a man to audition for a part. The two fall in love, but she is to marry the Earl of Wessex (Colin Firth; oddly, a year after the film was made, this title was created for Prince Edward; maybe Elizabeth II was a fan?).
This is a very smart and clever film, to start. Written by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard with Marc Norman (who won an Oscar for it), it displays tremendous understanding of the time period, as well as the literature surrounding Shakespeare (choosing, for purposes of comic and dramatic effects to ignore the basis for "Romeo and Juliet" in an Italian story). You are given a real sense of the nature of the theatre of the period, and all of the competing demands on writers (the greatest writer of the English language was working for pence on a line, as he puts it). And Shakespeare is not yet the greatest English writer, with a running gag being the constant praise for Christopher Marlowe, who advises Shakespeare on his writing.
Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar for this star-making turn, and she is indeed marvellous, providing the soul of the film. She conveys tremendous passion, both romantic and for the theatre: she's not an especially convincing man, but that is a comic device that Shakespeare knew well. Joseph Fiennes as the other lead is good; Fiennes is not the most talented actor out there, but he provides the requisite romantic intensity, and is believable as a playwright. Ben Affleck is hilarious in a minor role as Edward Alleyn, one of the biggest stars on the Renaissance stage, an egotist tricked into playing a minor role. Dench is tartly funny, and there are a number of other recognizable faces, including Tom Wilkinson.
One of only two comedies to win Best Picture in the last 30 years, "Shakespeare in Love" is well worth seeing.
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Best Movie Ever
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-02-18
The DVD arrived safely and in great condition, also in a timely manner. I watched the movie as soon as it arrived and I just love it.
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