Movie Log: Twelfth Night (again)

On the advice of several people (after I'd seen the Kenneth Branagh version), I decided to see the Trevor Nunn film of Twelfth Night.

My first impression is that this one is much more homoerotic than Branagh's production. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) And, for once, it's equal opportunity homoeroticism, with both a vaguely swishy Duke of Orsino (Toby Stephens) and some very physical scenes between Olivia (Helena Bonham Carter) and Viola (Imogen Stubbs).

Otherwise, having seen the same story once (in a slightly different selection of scenes from the original, longer play) helped quite a bit, as did not having one actor double two minor characters in the same clothes. (Here's a clues for all dramatic presentations: you do not want the audience spending their time wondering if two people with different names are the same person when all it means is that you're too cheap to pay two actors.) So the plot was clearer the second time around, and actually having backgrounds and furniture was also helpful.

The hugger-mugger of the mistaken identity plot (and the related hurly-burly of the duel) late in the play is still silly and needs to be taken at great speed to be at all plausible. (Again, when a plot hinges on someone not saying "Hang on, my name's not X!", you've got your work as a director cut out for you.) Others have said it before me: Shakespeare is not generally remembered because of his plots -- they're usually not his, to begin with -- but for his speeches.

I'm not sure how I missed Twelfth Night the first time around -- I seem to have spent a big part of the middle '90s in a hole; I was married without kids and not working that much -- but it was a good movie to catch up with. It's probably one of the top 20 movie adaptations of Shakespeare; others may put it even higher.