| 1909 Silent Film | Director – Charles KentFirst adaptation of a midsummer night’s dream into film Designed to show what cinema could do |
| 1935 Warner Brothers Film | Directors – Reinhert and Diederly Combination of both theater and film (amise en scene)Techniques – establishing shot (viewers see the forest before seeing the fairies) and continuity editing |
| 1999 MND Film | Director – Michael HoffmanGoal – evoke sympathy for Bottom (addition of his nagging wife)Gender politicsBottom does not transform, prevents his dehumanizationPyramus and Thisbe is serious (Flute is good) |
| “Would the World Mine” Film | Director – Tom Gustafson”it gets better movement”Helena gets what she wants in the woodsBreaking away from the rigid societyThe woods are queer (the definition of queen changes in shakespeare’s day to now) |
| Peter Brooks Production of MND | 1970White abstract boxPressures the audience to use their imagination and focus on the words, like Shakespeare does |
| Life of an American Fireman | Cuts create a complex plot due to the multiple locations and suspense through the back and forth pattern of scenes |
| Montrose, “Sleeping Fantasies” | New Historicism – connection between Queen Elizabeth and Titania (Titania controls Bottom, and Oberon controls Titania)Focus on cultural fantasies: The queen’s presence The queen is perceived by the text and the queen shapes the text dually |
| Hendrick’s “Obscured by Dreams” | Cultural/Racial embodimentIndia = the fairylandEnglish people obsessed with foreign places |
| “Why Does Puck Sweep” | Written by wallsNew materialism (the commoners)Puck is in control the entire time, even though he is under the authority of Oberon (like a housewife)Exposes the reason that order is restored at the end of the play is because everything is swept under the rugWide Ranges of classes in the fairy world (Puck is in Oberon’s court) |
| Angela Carter’s “Overture and Incidental Music” | The golden herm = the changeling boyMimetic Desires – Oberon wants the changeling because Titania wants himShort story in the changeling’s perspective (self agency to object status)critique of colonialism (Titania and the votress are not equal)Connected to Mendelssohn’s “Overture and Incidental Music” (like a preface to the play) |
| Felix Mendelssohn’s “Overture and Incidental Music” | The Wedding March for Theseus and Hypoletta’s weddingCelebrates Theseus as a hero (opposite of what Shakespeare wanted)Real wedding of Mary and William |
| Richard Dadd | painter who was obsessed with Shakespeare’s idea of madnessFantastical motifs seen in Shakespare4 Paintings (Puck, Titania Sleeping, Oberon and Titania, The fairy feller’s master stroke) |
| Turner’s Double Helix | Shows how literature can be scientific in Midsummer Nights Dream |
| Sir Francis Bacon | developed the scientific methodWanted to rid society of the “slipperiness” of language |
| Purcell’s =”The Fairy Queen” | Opera from 1962First adaptation of MNDCuts women’s monologue Written for the marriage of William and Mary |
| Reynold’s Opera version of MND | patriarchal powerAlters the play by having Hermia apologize to Egeus and Hypoletta commemorate Theseus’ conquests |
| William’s “Our Moonlight Revels” | Talks about Reynold’s opera and says for the opera to be understood one must look at it as an empire. Medium for British nationalist identity (different medium then shakespeare’s play about fairies)Colonialism – colonies are feminized because they are being taken over |
Midsummer Night’s Dream Final
August 19, 2019