Kenneth Branagh's film of Love's Labours Lost turns the Shakespeare comedy in a 1930s musical.
The one-man Shakespeare industry called Kenneth Branagh has produced yet another intriguing example of Shakespeare on film. Love’s Labours Lost, the tale of four friends who forsake women for their studies, and end up falling head over heels in love, has been filmed as a 1930s musical, complete with song and dance routines to hits such as “I Get A Kick Out of You”, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Cheek to Cheek”.
Set (loosely) in Oxford during the late 1930s, the film has the King (Alessandro Nivola) withdrawing to Oxford with his friends Berowne (Branagh), Longaville (Matthew Lillard) and Dumaine (Adrian Lester) whilst tensions in Europe rise towards the Second World War. Against this background, Alicia Silverstone’s role as Princess of France gains a little more gravitas, and her father’s death coincides with the fall of France and the beginning of the war – an interesting twist on the characters’ delay in getting married.
Having said that, this is not a film where gravitas counts for much. The emphasis is firmly on fun, and even silliness. Tim Spall’s vowel-mangling Spanish count, to Geraldine McEwan’s mildly flirtatious tutor, the cast seem to be having an absolute ball, and the high spirits are infectious. Supported by so much energy and enthusiasm (as well as some amusingly literal acting out of metaphors), Shakespeare’s highly wrought lines don’t provide any hindrances to understanding. Though, as in previous Branagh productions (such as his Much Ado About Nothing), they have been trimmed for the big screen.
This Love’s Labours Lost is not going to win any friends amongst Shakespeare purists, even those who think the Bard can be successfully translated onto film. But in creating a noisy, upbeat, stylish and even slightly kitschy show, Branagh is arguably closer to the spirit of Renaissance theatre than productions which regard the texts as sacrosanct museum pieces. After all, songs and dances were regularly jammed into Early Modern performances to keep the crowds entertained, and the current Globe production of Othello rounds off with a lively jig. The urbanity and wit of lyricists like Porter and Hammerstein easily earn their place in this show, no matter who wrote the book!
There’s little stirring oratory or particularly touching romance in this production, and the use of the Second World War scenes at the end feels a little uncomfortable. This is, however, an irresistibly enjoyable version of a classic Shakespeare comedy.
