Cape Literature Ia "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare

2242 Words Mar 5th, 2011 9 Pages
The 1993 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, by Kenneth Branagh, differs in many aspects from the original script written by Shakespeare. Branagh employs brilliant cinematography, manipulating lighting, camera angles to produce a carefree version to the original text. The soundtrack is dazzling and his interpretation breathes life and vitality into this old world play. According to critic Vincent Canby, “He has taken a Shakespearean romantic comedy, the sort of thing that usually turns to mush on the screen and made a movie that is triumphantly romantic, comic and, most surprising of all, emotionally alive” (May 7th, 1993). Lighting, music and technology enhance the various moods that perpetuate the film and …show more content…
As the film progresses Branagh exploits the use of the different camera angles to provide emotional information about the characters involved in the scene which thus allows the audience to form judgments about those said characters. For instance, when Benedick first speaks, the camera angle changes to focus on Beatrice - she scowls. This close-up allows the audience intimate details of the character’s emotional state. Here it hints to a history, a painful one at that, between the two. Even in the shaming scene, Branagh is able to focus on Margaret. In the original text Margaret is completely left out. Shakespeare was not privy to the advances of technology thus he was not able to do as Branagh did, thus Margaret was left out of the original scene. However through her show of guilt Branagh is able to reassure the audience that this will not last a feat Shakespeare achieved through manipulating language and plot structure. Significantly, when the villains tell of the “betrayal” of Hero the plan is never revealed however, and the camera angle switches to show Hero in her bed alone again reaffirming to the audience the truth something Shakespeare attained through language.
Also as Branagh abridges the two gulling scenes, he is able to then superimpose the end of each scene, one over the next to show both characters experiencing the same thing. The cameras focus on their faces highlighting the immense joy they are both