In 1593 London, William Shakespeare is a sometime player in theLord Chamberlain's Men actor company and playwright forThe Rose Theatre ownerPhilip Henslowe. Suffering fromwriter's block with a new comedy,Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter, Shakespeare attempts to seduce Rosaline, mistress ofRichard Burbage, owner of the rivalCurtain Theatre, and to convince Burbage to buy the play from Henslowe. Shakespeare receives advice from friend and rival playwrightChristopher Marlowe, but is despondent to learn Rosaline is sleeping withMaster of the RevelsEdmund Tilney. The desperate Henslowe, in debt to ruthless moneylender Fennyman, begins auditions anyway.
Viola de Lesseps, daughter of a wealthy merchant, who has seen Shakespeare's plays at court, disguises herself as a man named Thomas Kent to audition. Kent gains Shakespeare's interest with a speech fromTwo Gentlemen of Verona, but runs away when Shakespeare questions her. He pursues Kent to Viola's house and leaves a note with her nurse, asking Kent to begin rehearsals at the Rose. Shakespeare sneaks into a ball at the house, where Viola's parents arrange her betrothal to Lord Wessex, an aristocrat in need of money. Dancing with Viola, Shakespeare is struck speechless. Confronted by Wessex, Shakespeare introduces himself as Christopher Marlowe. Wessex ejects "Marlowe" and threatens to kill him. Shakespeare finds Viola on her balcony, where they confess their mutual attraction before he is discovered by her nurse and flees.
Inspired by Viola, Shakespeare quickly transforms the play into what will becomeRomeo and Juliet. Rehearsals begin, with Thomas Kent as Romeo, the leading tragedianNed Alleyn as Mercutio, and the stagestruck Fennyman in a small role. After Shakespeare discovers Viola's true identity, they begin a secret affair.
Viola is summoned to court to receive approval for her proposed marriage to Wessex. Shakespeare accompanies her, disguised as her nurse's female cousin, and anonymously persuades Wessex in public to wager £50 that a play can capture the true nature of love, the amount Shakespeare requires to buy a share in the Chamberlain's Men.Queen Elizabeth I declares that she will judge the matter.
Burbage learns Shakespeare has seduced Rosaline and cheated him out of payment for the play, and starts a brawl at the Rose with his company. The Rose players repel Burbage and his men and celebrate at the pub, where a drunken Henslowe lets slip to Viola that Shakespeare is married, albeit separated from his wife. News arrives that Marlowe has been murdered. A guilt-ridden Shakespeare assumes Wessex had Marlowe killed, believing him to be Viola's lover, while Viola believes Shakespeare to be the victim. Shakespeare appears at her church, allaying Viola's fears and terrifying Wessex, who believes he is a ghost. Viola confesses her love for Shakespeare, but both recognize she cannot escape her duty to marry Wessex.John Webster, an unpleasant boy who hangs around the theatre, spies on Shakespeare and Viola making love and informs Tilney, who closes the Rose for breaking the ban on women actors. Viola's identity is exposed, leaving Shakespeare without a stage or a lead actor, until Burbage offers his theatre and the heartbroken Shakespeare takes the role of Romeo. Following her wedding, Viola learns the play will be performed that day, and runs away to the Curtain. She overhears that the boy playing Juliet cannot perform,his voice having broken, and Henslowe asks her to replace him. She plays Juliet to Shakespeare's Romeo to an enthralled audience.
Just after the play has concluded, Tilney arrives to arrest everyone for indecency due to Viola's presence, but the Queen reveals herself in attendance and restrains him, pretending that Kent is a man with a "remarkable resemblance" to a woman. Powerless to end a lawful marriage, she orders Viola to sail with Wessex toVirginia. The Queen also tells Wessex, whom Webster reveals has followed Viola to the theatre, thatRomeo and Juliet has won the bet for Shakespeare, and has Kent deliver his £50 to Shakespeare with instructions to write "something more cheerful next time, forTwelfth Night". Viola and Shakespeare say their goodbyes, and he vows to immortalize her, as he imagines the beginning ofTwelfth Night,in character as acastaway disguised as a man after a voyage to a strange land.
The original idea forShakespeare in Love was suggested to screenwriterMarc Norman in the late 1980s by his son Zachary.[9] Norman wrote a draft screenplay which he presented to directorEdward Zwick, which attractedJulia Roberts, who agreed to play Viola. However, Zwick disliked Norman's screenplay and hired the playwrightTom Stoppard to improve it (Stoppard's first major success had been with the Shakespeare-themed playRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead).[10]
The film went into production in 1991 atUniversal, with Zwick as director, but although sets and costumes were in construction, Shakespeare had not yet been cast, because Roberts insisted that onlyDaniel Day-Lewis could play the role. Day-Lewis was uninterested, and when Roberts failed to persuade him, she withdrew from the film, six weeks before shooting was due to begin.[11] Zwick and the studio had tried to hold chemistry tests between Roberts and several unknown actors includingHugh Grant,Ralph Fiennes,Jeremy Northam,Rupert Graves,Colin Firth, andSean Bean, but Roberts either skipped the meetings or found faults with them all. After a last screen test withPaul McGann, Roberts pulled out of the production, which Zwick attributed to insecurity about the pressure she was under to succeed in the role.[12][13] The production went intoturnaround, and Zwick was unable to persuade other studios to take up the screenplay. Canceling the film cost Universal $6 million.[10]
Eventually, Zwick gotMiramax Films interested in the screenplay, but Miramax choseJohn Madden as director over Zwick, who instead served as a producer. Miramax Films bossHarvey Weinstein acted as producer. For the president of a studio to have given himself a producer credit created a firestorm within the industry which resulted in what has come to be known as “the Harvey Rule,” which stipulates that to earn theProducers Guild credit, a producer must have performed some real role in making the finished film.[14] To justify his producer credit, Harvey claimed he took a leave of absence from his executive duties at Miramax to work on this movie, which longtime Miramax Films senior executive,Mark Gill, dismissed as “complete bullshit.”[15]
Weinstein persuadedBen Affleck to take a small role asNed Alleyn.[16]Kate Winslet was offered the role of Viola after the success ofTitanic, but she rejected it to pursue independent films.[17]Winona Ryder,Diane Lane, andRobin Wright were also considered for the lead role.Principal photography began on March 2, 1998, and ended on June 10, 1998.[18] The film was considerably reworked after the first test screenings. The scene with Shakespeare and Viola in the punt was re-shot, to make it more emotional, and some lines were re-recorded to clarify the reasons why Viola had to marry Wessex. The ending was re-shot several times, until Stoppard eventually came up with the idea of Viola suggesting to Shakespeare that their parting could inspire his next play.[19]
Among the locations used in the production wereHatfield House, Hertfordshire (for the fireworks scene),Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire (which played the role of the de Lesseps mansion), the beach atHolkham in Norfolk, the chapel atEton College, Berkshire, and the Great Hall ofMiddle Temple, London.[20]
Much of the action of the film echoes that ofRomeo and Juliet. Will and Viola play out the famous balcony and bedroom scenes; like Juliet, Viola has a witty nurse, and is separated from Will by a gulf of duty (although not the family enmity of the play: the "two households" ofRomeo and Juliet are supposedly inspired by the two rival playhouses). In addition, the two lovers are equally "star-crossed" – they are not ultimately destined to be together (since Viola is of rich and socially ambitious merchant stock and is promised to marryLord Wessex, while Shakespeare himself is poor and already married). Rosaline, with whom Will is in love at the beginning of the film, is a namesake of Romeo's love-interest at the beginning of the play. There are references to earlier cinematic versions of Shakespeare, such as the balcony scene pastiching theZeffirelliRomeo and Juliet.[21]
Many other plot devices used in the film are common in Shakespearean comedies and other plays of the Elizabethan era: the monarch moving unrecognized among the common people (cf.Henry V), thecross-dressing disguises, mistaken identities, the sword fight, the suspicion of adultery, the ostensible appearance of a ghost (cf.Hamlet andMacbeth), and the "play within a play". According to Douglas Brode, the film deftly portrays many of these devices as though the events depicted were the inspiration for Shakespeare's own use of them in his plays.[22]
Christopher Marlowe is presented in the film as the master playwright whom the characters consider the greatest English dramatist of that time – this is historically accurate, yet also humorous, since the film's audience knows what will eventually happen to Shakespeare's reputation. Marlowe gives Shakespeare a plot for his next play, "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" ("Romeo is Italian... always in and out of love... until he meets... Ethel. The daughter of his enemy! His best friend is killed in a duel by Ethel's brother or something. His name isMercutio.")[23] Marlowe'sDoctor Faustus is quoted repeatedly: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/ And burned the topless towers of Ilium?" A reference is also made to Marlowe's final, unfinished playThe Massacre at Paris in a scene wherein Marlowe (Rupert Everett) seeks payment for the final act of the play from Richard Burbage (Martin Clunes). Burbage promises the payment the next day, so Marlowe refuses to part with the pages and departs forDeptford, where he is killed.[24][25] The only surviving text ofThe Massacre at Paris is an undated octavo that is probably too short to represent the complete original play. It has been suggested that it is amemorial reconstruction by the actors who performed the work.[26]
The childJohn Webster (Joe Roberts), who plays with mice, is a reference to a leading figure in the next, Jacobean, generation of playwrights. His plays (The Duchess of Malfi,The White Devil) are known for their 'blood and gore', which is humorously referred to by the child saying that he enjoysTitus Andronicus, and also saying ofRomeo and Juliet, when asked his opinion by the Queen, "I liked it when she stabbed herself."[27] Likewise, theThameswaterman who ferries Shakespeare to the estate of Robert de Lesseps, and tries to get Shakespeare's opinion of his own writing, referencesJohn Taylor.[28]
When the clownWill Kempe (Patrick Barlow) says to Shakespeare that he would like to play in a drama, he is told that "they would laugh atSeneca if you played it", a reference to the Roman tragedian renowned for his sombre and bloody plot lines which were a major influence on the development of English tragedy.[29] Will is shown signing a paper repeatedly, with many relatively illegible signatures visible. This is a reference to the fact that several versions of Shakespeare's signature exist, and in each one he spelled his name differently.[30]
After the film's release, certain publications, includingPrivate Eye, noted strong similarities between the film and the 1941 novelNo Bed for Bacon, byCaryl Brahms andS. J. Simon, which also features Shakespeare falling in love and finding inspiration for his later plays. In a foreword to a subsequent edition ofNo Bed for Bacon (which traded on the association by declaring itself "A Story of Shakespeare and Lady Viola in Love")Ned Sherrin,Private Eye insider and former writing partner of Brahms', confirmed that he had lent a copy of the novel to Stoppard after he joined the writing team,[31] but that the basic plot of the film had been independently developed by Marc Norman, who was unaware of the earlier work.
The film's plot can claim a tradition in fiction reaching back toAlexandre Duval'sShakespeare amoureux ou la Piece a l'Etude (1804), in which Shakespeare falls in love with an actress who is playingRichard III.[32] The writers ofShakespeare in Love were sued in 1999 by bestselling authorFaye Kellerman. She claimed that the plotline was stolen from her 1989 novelThe Quality of Mercy, in which Shakespeare romances a Jewish woman who dresses as a man, and attempts to solve a murder.Miramax Films spokesman Andrew Stengel derided the claim, filed in the US District Court six days before the1999 Academy Awards, as "absurd", and argued that the timing "suggests a publicity stunt".[33][34] An out-of-court settlement was reached, but the sum agreed between the parties indicates that the claim was "unwarranted".[35]
The film is "not constrained by worries about literary or historical accuracy" and includesanachronisms such as a reference to Virginiatobaccoplantations, at a time before theColony of Virginia existed.[36]Queen Elizabeth I never entered a public theatre, as she does in the film. BetweenRomeo and Juliet andTwelfth Night, Shakespeare wrote ten other plays over a period of six years.[37] Another historical liberty concerns the central theme of Shakespeare's struggle to create the story ofRomeo and Juliet, whereas in real life he simply adapted an existing story.Arthur Brooke translated the Italian verse taleThe Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet into English in 1562, 32 years before Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet.[38]
Shakespeare in Love was among1999's box office number-one films in the United Kingdom. The American and Canadian box office reached over $100 million and in the United Kingdom it grossed $34 million; including the box office from the rest of the world, the film took in over $289 million.[4][40]
Rotten Tomatoes givesShakespeare in Love a 92% approval rating based on 141 critical reviews, averaging 8.30/10. The website's critical consensus was: "Endlessly witty, visually rapturous, and sweetly romantic,Shakespeare in Love is a delightful romantic comedy that succeeds on nearly every level."[41] OnMetacritic, the film holds a score of 87 out of 100 based on 33 critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[42] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[43]
Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times made the film an "NYT Critics' Pick", calling it "pure enchantment". According to Maslin, "Gwyneth Paltrow, in her first great, fully realized starring performance, makes a heroine so breathtaking that she seems utterly plausible as the playwright's guiding light."[36]
Roger Ebert, who gave the film four stars out of four, wrote: "The contemporary feel of the humor (like Shakespeare's coffee mug, inscribed 'Souvenir of Stratford-Upon-Avon') makes the movie play like a contest betweenMasterpiece Theatre andMel Brooks. Then the movie stirs in a sweet love story, juicy court intrigue, backstage politics and some lovely moments fromRomeo and Juliet... Is this a movie or ananthology? I didn't care. I was carried along by the wit, the energy and a surprising sweetness."[23] FilmmakerDavid Cronenberg was critical of the film saying it "really annoyed me" as it was "deconstructionist film-making, but it's also justRomeo and Juliet again".[44]
The Sunday Telegraph claimed that the film prompted the revival of the title ofEarl of Wessex.Prince Edward was originally to have been titledDuke of Cambridge following his marriage toSophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, the year after the film's release. However, after watchingShakespeare in Love, he reportedly became attracted to the title of the character played by Colin Firth, and asked his motherQueen Elizabeth II to be given the title of Earl of Wessex instead.[45]
Many industry pundits speculated that the Best Picture win was attributed to the awards campaign led by Weinstein.[49][50] Weinstein was reported to have strong-armed the movie's talent into participating in an unprecedented blitzkrieg of press.[49] Terry Press, an executive atDreamWorks at the time, said that Weinstein and Miramax "tried to get everybody to believe thatSaving Private Ryan was all in the first 15 minutes".[51] Mark Gill, an executive at Miramax at the time, claimed that Weinstein had a reliance on relatively cheap publicity. He stated, "This was not saying to the stars, 'O.K., you can go on a couple of talk shows to open the movie and do a weekend of interviews at a junket and thanks so much for helping'", Gill said. "That was just 'Good morning. You've got three more months of shaking hands and kissing babies in you.'"[51]
In 2015,The Hollywood Reporter magazine said that it had interviewed hundreds of Academy members, indicating that, having to choose betweenShakespeare in Love andSaving Private Ryan, a majority of them would award the Oscar for Best Picture to the latter. (The same article claimed that the results of four other Best Picture winners would also be different, referring to their survey as "a referendum on what films have stood the test of time".)[52] In 2020,Glenn Close said in an interview withPeter Travers that she thought Paltrow winning Best Actress overFernanda Montenegro forCentral Station did not "make sense".[53] In response, Montenegro said she was grateful for Close's praise, but thought the Oscar should have gone to Blanchett.[54]
Initially, the film's home video releases were handled domestically byDisney'sBuena Vista Home Entertainment (under the Miramax Home Entertainment banner), while outside the United States, home video releases were allocated to the film's international distributorUniversal. The film was released onVHS andLaserDisc in the United States on August 10, 1999, by Miramax Home Entertainment,[75] with aDVD following on December 7, 1999.[76] In late 1999, the film received LaserDisc releases in Japan and Hong Kong.[75] The Japanese and Hong Kong LaserDiscs were released byCIC Video, a joint venture created byParamount and Universal to distribute their films outside North America.[75] The Australian (Region 4) and British (Region 2) DVDs were released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.[77][78]
In December 2010, Miramax was sold by The Walt Disney Company, their owners since 1993. That month, the studio was taken over by private equity firmFilmyard Holdings.[79][80] Filmyard licensed the home media rights for several Miramax titles toLionsgate, and on January 31, 2012, Lionsgate releasedShakespeare in Love on a domesticBlu-ray.[76] In 2011, Filmyard Holdings licensed the Miramax library to streamerNetflix. This streaming deal includedShakespeare in Love, and ran for five years, eventually ending on June 1, 2016.[81]
Filmyard Holdings sold Miramax to Qatari companybeIN Media Group during March 2016.[82] In April 2020,ViacomCBS (now known asParamount Skydance) acquired the rights to Miramax's library, after buying a 49% stake in the studio from beIN.[83] This April 2020 deal included the U.S. rights toShakespeare in Love, along with the rights to all other 700 titles from Miramax's library.[84][85][86] The deal putShakespeare in Love under the same corporate umbrella as its Oscar rivalSaving Private Ryan, which Paramount co-released with DreamWorks, and later acquired full rights to after buying DreamWorks' live-action library in 2006.[87][88]
Paramount Home Entertainment reissuedShakespeare in Love on DVD and Blu-ray on January 12, 2021, with this being one of many Miramax titles that they reissued around this time.[76] On September 22, 2020, Paramount Home Entertainment also released a four film DVD set which includedShakespeare in Love and three other Miramax-produced Gwyneth Paltrow films (Emma,Bounce andView from the Top).[89] Additionally, they issued the film on a two-disc double feature DVD withEmma on February 23, 2021.[90] In the United States, the film was made available on Paramount's subscription streaming serviceParamount+,[91] as well as on their free streaming servicePluto TV.[92]
In November 2011,Variety reported thatDisney Theatrical Productions intended to produce a stage version of the film in London withSonia Friedman Productions.[93] This report came after Disney had already given up their ownership of the film by selling Miramax to Filmyard Holdings in December 2010.[79] The production was officially announced in November 2013.[94] Based on the film screenplay by Norman and Stoppard, it was adapted for the stage byLee Hall. The production was directed byDeclan Donnellan and designed by Nick Ormerod, the joint founders ofCheek by Jowl.
From December 2016 to January 2017,Shakespeare of True Love (Japanese:シェイクスピア物語～真実の愛), a Japanese adaptation ofShakespeare in Love written by Shigeki Motoiki and Sakurako Fukuyama, was produced inKanagawa Arts Theatre.[98][99] It was not related to Lee Hall's play.Takaya Kamikawa played Will Shakespeare andAlisa Mizuki played Viola.[98][99]
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^abPeter Biskind, "Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 327.
^Mell, Eila (2004).Casting might-have-beens : a film by film directory of actors considered for roles given to others. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 216.ISBN978-0-7864-2017-9.
^Zwick, Edward (4 March 2023)."Not to Be".Air Mail.Archived from the original on 7 May 2023. Retrieved4 March 2024.
^Auletta, Ken (12 July 2022).Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence. City of Westminster, London: Penguin Publishing Group. p. 133.ISBN9781984878380.
^Peter Biskind, "Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), pp. 328–30.
^French, Emma,Selling Shakespeare to Hollywood: Marketing of Filmed Shakespeare Adaptations from 1989 Into the New Millennium, University of Hertfordshire Press, 2006, p. 153.
^Douglas Brode,Shakespeare in the movies: from the silent era to today, Berkley Boulevard Books, 2001, p. 240.
^Ebert, Roger (2007).Roger Ebert's four-star reviews, 1967–2007. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel. p. 698.ISBN978-0740771798.
^Bevington, David (2008). "Christopher Marlowe: the late years". In Logan, Robert; Deats, Sara Munson (eds.).Placing the Plays of Christopher Marlowe: Fresh Cultural Contexts. Aldershot, England. p. 209.ISBN978-0-7546-6204-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Probes, Christine McCall (2008). "Senses, signs, symbols and theological allusion in Marlowe'sThe Massacre at Paris". In Deats, Sara Munson; Logan, Robert A. (eds.).Placing the plays of Christopher Marlowe: Fresh Cultural Contexts. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. p. 149.ISBN978-0-7546-6204-4.
^Burt, Richard (2002).Shakespeare After Mass Media. London: Macmillan. p. 306.ISBN978-0-312-29454-0.
^Portillo, Rafael; Salvador, Mercedes (2003). Pujante, Ángel-Luis; Hoenselaars, Ton (eds.).Four Hundred Years of Shakespeare in Europe. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press. p. 182.ISBN0-87413-812-4.
