Recently I've watched the 1968 RSC version of 'Midsummer Night's Dream', and the '99 American version with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline (playing Titania and Bottom the Weaver, respectively). Both very odd.
The '68 version had the production values of a Dr. Who episode, especially in the fairy scenes. On the other hand, a young, nude Judy Dench painted green is a sight to behold. (All the fairies were nude and painted, and most were dirty in that artfully-smudged way. Apart from the principals, all of them were children. '68 was an innocent time.)
The '99 version, well, have I mentioned Kevin Kline as Bottom the Weaver? With an expanded part, of course...who knew that Bottom had an unhappy marriage? It's also one of those movies where you can tell the stars apart from the extras because, to paraphrase Monty Python, 'they're the ones not covered in shite'. Calista Flockhart, as one of the young lovers, pushes her bicycle around wearing daffodil yellow on a street where everyone is dressed in black. Kevin Kline has a white suit and goatee combo that looks like he built a time machine and mugged Tom Hanks on the set of "Ladykillers". And the fairies are grown-ups who keep their clothes on, even if they do frolic sorta aimlessly and generally look like the background of every tavern Xena ever wandered into, only with horns (male) and little wings (female).
Oh, and Bill Irwin steals every second he's on the screen. But that's a given.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
