MissSimonetta The play itself is not one of Shakespeare's better efforts, though I liked it well enough. I am currently taking a class on Shakespearean tragedy and history, so it was nice to break from all of that with such a lightweight piece. There's lots of humor as well as interesting discussion on the nature of love. Unfortunately, the ending comes close to marring everything good about the play. That ending is, as others have noted, awful. How anyone could forgive a "friend" like Proteus, who not only jeopardized his best friend's romantic relationship and job, and abandoned his girlfriend without a moment's pause, but also attempted to sexually assault someone, is beyond me.Nonetheless, this was an enjoyable movie, for all the source material's flaws. All of the actors are charming and funny. They're so wonderful that they almost sell the ridiculous ending. The whole production is stage-bound, especially when we get into the woods, which are deliberately artificial. The musical interludes are beautiful to listen to.Overall, this was a good film version of the material, one that I would certainly give another watch.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU Shakespeare here proposes a pure entertainment. Two young men in love with the same woman, and two ladies in love with one of each of these two men. It so happens one man necessarily loves the woman who is the common love to both and the other woman loves the second man. It is then a story of plotting, betraying, cheating, and all variations on these three themes for the one who loves the woman the two men love and is not love by that woman to try to force his choice onto her against the other man who is supposed to be his best friend. The rest is nothing but circumstances. The couple that shares a mutual love will finally come together and the man who lost that woman will accept the love of the other woman. Hence we will end with two happy couples or at least two happily married couples, which is weak in Shakespeare's dramatic patterns. All is well that ends well and it was all much ado about nothing. The play is particularly light because of the numerous musics that take it along on a brisk Elizabethan path. You know something is awry when Launce, Proteus' servant, describes the woman he loves in the style of some official statute. "the catalog of her condition: Imprimis: She can fetch and carry. […] Item: She can milk. […] Imprimis: She can milk. […] Item: She brews good ale. […] Item: She can sew. […] Item: She can knit. […] Item: She can wash and scour. […] Item: She can spin. […] Item: She has many nameless virtues. […] Her vices. Item: She is not to be kissed fasting, in respect of her breath. […] Item: She has a sweet mouth. […] Item: She doth talk in her sleep. […] Item: She is slow in words. […] Item: She is proud. […] Item: She hath no teeth. […] Item: She is curst. […] Item: She will often praise her liquor. […] Item: She is too liberal. […] Item: She hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults. […] Item: She hath more hair than wit, […] and more faults than hairs, […] and more wealth than faults. […]" Each item is read by Speed and is vastly commented upon by Launce. It is in a way the portrait of a standard woman in Elizabethan society. We have to think of course that in 1590-91 the Queen of England was Elizabeth I and any allusion to the fate of women was an allusion to the Queen who must have had some fair sense of humor to take all the more or less sarcastic remarks on the stage, and at times in the Court since she often invited the companies for court performances, which is by the way alluded too in many plays by Shakespeare who adored having plays in the play and these plays were always in front of kings, dukes or whatever other princes. It is that level we have lost in our reading of Shakespeare and this production is typical of our modernity by having a fair presence of musicians and songs for the sake of entertainment, beauty and tempo, and of course a setting that oscillates between some Italian fantastic château and some dark nightly forest with "the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar" roaming around and a band of runaway castaway outlaws who will be pardoned at the end of the play. We could thus analyze all the allusions to Shakespeare's society and find out that the play and all its poetic charm and humoristic fun is also a slightly satirical and slightly caustic reflection of the society of his time and the history of England, probably to the utmost pleasure of Skakespeare's audience.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

Veilchen "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's weaker plays and when I read it I thought the turn of the action was psychologically so improbable that it couldn't be pulled off credibly. However, I find the acting in this film is excellent and especially the final scene is very well done. I really enjoyed watching it. Maybe the contrition of Proteus could have been a little stronger but I think there really was a convincing show of shame and regret when the meeting with Valentine made him realize how grossly he had betrayed his friend. There is a fine balance of tragical and comical elements throughout the play and the setting is lovely. I was particularly impressed by the performance of Tony Haygarth. His Launce is funny but not exaggeratedly clownish. The play cannot even begin to compare with masterpieces like "Twelfth Night" oder "Much Ado about Nothing", but this adaptation for the screen is great.

tonstant viewer If "Two Gentlemen" isn't the first of Shakespeare's plays, it might as well be. There are many themes here that are rough sketches for later, more fully developed works, but the play as a whole is a misfire, and this performance can't redeem it.The physical production is beautiful, and Crab, the dog, is an unfailing source of warmth and enjoyment. The human actors, however, are much more of a mixed lot, with none outstanding, some good, a handful perplexing and more than a few excruciating.A wise man once said, "Never tell an English actor he's in a comedy," and the first, sunny half of the play is a chore to sit through with all the mugging, rolling eyeballs and forced laughter. Once things get serious at about the midpoint the young cast is on a firmer emotional footing, however preposterous the plot. Shockingly, the final Shakespearean resolution, in which everybody forgives everybody and all the couples are united, for once does not produce the requisite spinal tingle.You may remember the beautiful sets. You will remember the dog. But you won't have that wonderful feeling of two or three hours in the exquisite company of Shakespeare, because this one just doesn't work.