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There have been criticisms here of Reinhardt’s AMND as “un-Shakespearean,” but truly: who among us would really want to sit in a theater with almost no props or backdrops, minimal costuming, men performing the women’s parts, and audiences that were anything but tranquil during the display? -For that’s exactly what Shakespearean theater conditions amounted to. Our opinion of Shakespeare derives simply from original Masterpiece Theater style productions, which perform a virtue of sober lucidity, and do a glorious job of it, too.
But Reinhardt gives us a German High Romantic version of AMND, and displays a very different virtue, seldom seen in recent cloak transcriptions of older works: a sense of well-conceived and executed style. You may not like his Mendelssohnian fairies, but their integration into the play–by choice of dialog, imaginative staging and costuming, knowing special effects and incidental music–is consistent. Mendelssohn’s music was in fact intended to accompany sincere performances many years previously; and the ballet sequences built around it have a blueprint of stopping time even today with their visionary beauty, a matter of movement, staging, lighting (the noteworthy Hal Mohr), editing and effects. A book in fact could be written on Reinhardt’s multi-level application of thematic materials, which is done in a manner that’s far less expressionless than the arrangement it sounds. This is a intellectual opinion of Shakespeare, far from the “let’s be different to grab attention” Shakespeare of punk Romeos that have fled across our screens in modern years.
The casting is generally very proper. Mickey Rooney, in his first film role, displays all the considerable energy and focus which were his greatest gifts. (What a shame the film industry kissed him off when he matured into a short, stout man, who was unprejudiced as talented!) No prim, polite observer, his Puck is an elemental force, taking malicious delight in the strongly felt emotions of the humans that have advance to the forest. Everything is vivid, knowing mockery: his deliberately garbled imitation of the speech and gestures of Lysander prior to the latter’s magical sleep is a suitable example. This is not a Puck you would want call Robin Goodfellow, not unless you wanted to please him–and you most definitely would want to please him. It is a taut, kaleidoscopically varied performance.
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The funny players are also well cast. James Cagney is estimable as Bottom, particularly in the monologue that follows waking from what he considers “his dream.” Hugh Herbert brings more variation to a giddy giggle, both for accompanying expression and meaning, than any other human being probably ever has. Frank McHugh is a delight as Peter Quince. Only Joe E Brown, as Flute, goes overboard, trying to select the scene from others during their lines; but he makes up for it with a delicious Thisbe. Arthur Treacher is very worthy wasted, with nothing to say; and their are indications in the action that more may have been filmed, or at least planned of their material to film. Considerations of length and/or budget probably intervened.
Victor Jory, so well known even today for his villainous roles (especially in Flash Gordon serials), is a superbly shadowy Oberon: not corrupt, but more of a somber Herne the Hunter type, in dissimilarity to Anita Louise, who is all Elven gossamer. Presumably Reinhardt saw them as a balance of light and shaded, perhaps with an overlay of contemporary Austrian psychoanalysis: masculine/dark/forceful against feminine/light/receptive. No, I don’t retract the amusing pop analysis of Men Are From Mars, Women From Venus; but in Reinhardt’s AMND, we may be looking at an earlier incarnation of the same values, definitely presented on a more creative level. I don’t occupy into Reinhardt’s portrayal of Oberon’s followers as a bunch of anthrompomorphized bats, but I have to admit it works in context. This especially holds correct for the ballet sequence where one bat follower symbolically forces a fairy follower of Titania to the ground, overshadows her, then bears her off, horizontal, her hands waving delicately in the air. I boom we can only be thankful that the Hayes Office wasn’t really paying attention to high prestige Art films.
The lovers are not quite as effective. All four are genuine, with Olivia de Haviland perhaps the best of the lot; but there’s tiny sense of emotional depth in their performances, at least enough to intention forth Puck’s disparaging snarl about “what fools these mortals be.” Some of this, again, may be due to the director’s belief. Reinhardt clearly plays them more for laughs, cutting a splendid amount of the four-way badinage, and deliberately staging at least one eminent section of it as a four-way, non-stop, unintelligble harrangue, in which opponents trade off to continue arguing. The quartet in Adrian Noble’s 1996 AMND is to be preferred, here (though the staging is, IMO, bad) .
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To round out, I have to return to Reinhardt. He gave many of Hollywood’s greatest talents during the 1920s-40s their apprenticeships. The contemporary notices for his productions are unanimous raves for his artistic insight, integrity, intelligence, directorial ability, and brillance of execution. Yet he would be no more than a footnote in some theatrical encyclopedia if it were not for this single film, made after Reinhardt escaped from the Nazis. A modest success in box offices at the time, Hollywood could not countenance the vast expenditure of resources on such a film, and Reinhardt was a respected pariah in the film community until his death in the early 1940s. But AMND lives on, and provides an honorable sense of what all the excitement was about this master visionary of theater…and potentially, cinema.
A large production of Shakespeare overwhelms us with its oral perfection and sensational visuals. In this case it is the latter, the great stage visuals, that astonish us, as opposed to the elocution of the actors and actresses.
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Max Reinhardt was a superstar theatre producter of the Berlin twenties.
(Being Jewish, he had to wing the Nazis, once they assumed power) . He has created a German High Romantic version of the play. For example, the film has a spiritual glow, a soft-focus radiance when the fairies are in prove. Even the palace in Athens has dreamlike, amorphous spires. At moments, I opinion I was experiencing a religious vision of the Virgin and Child when Titiana and Bottom were in the forest. Other times, the spiral of fairies ascending in the air reminded me of a William Blake painting of Jacob’s Stairway to Heaven.
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Regarding the actors, the undisputed star of the film is Mickey Rooney. In this movie, he communicates a manic energy, a malevolent laugh, a force of nature in his peformance. I idea the other actors were substantially weaker…so if you are primarily eager in the language, go for the Peter Hall version of Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Nevertheless, the film is so overwhelmingly magnificent that it must belong in anyone’s list of the top 1000 films anywhere. It’s so ironic that with the development of movie special effects in the last 70 years, today’s filmmakers cannot replicate the truly magical effects that Max Reinhardt delivers. Go for the experience, forget the weaknesses, and be pleased this photographic masterpiece for what it is.
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