A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)

Kevin Kline              Nick Bottom
Michelle Pfeiffer        Titania
Rupert Everett           Oberon
Stanley Tucci            Puck
Calista Flockhart        Helena
Anna Friel               Hermia
Christian Bale           Demetrius
Dominic West             Lysander
David Strathairn         Theseus
Sophie Marceau           Hippolyta
Roger Rees               Peter Quince
Max Wright               Robin Starveling 

Directed by:             Michael Hoffman
Produced by:             Nigel Goldsack, Michael Hoffman, Arnon Milchan


Shakespeare's intertwined love polygons begin to get complicated from the start--Demetrius and 
Lysander both want Hermia but she only has eyes for Lysander. Bad news is, Hermia's father wants 
Demetrius for a son-in-law. On the outside is Helena, whose unreturned love burns hot for Demetrius. 
Hermia and Lysander plan to flee from the city under cover of darkness but are pursued by an enraged 
Demetrius (who is himself pursued by an enraptured Helena). In the forest, unbeknownst to the mortals, 
Oberon and Titania (King and Queen of the faeries) are having a spat over a servant boy. The plot 
twists up when Oberon's head mischief-maker, Puck, runs loose with a flower which causes people to 
fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Throw in a group of labourers preparing a 
play for the Duke's wedding (one of whom is given a donkey's head and Titania for a lover by Puck) 
and the complications become fantastically funny.

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With William Shakespeare now a hot commodity at the box office (and his body of work conveniently 
out of copyright), the usual trickle of film adaptations of the Bard's work is becoming a small flood, 
and director Michael Hoffman has assembled a cast of leading stage and screen actors for this 
whimsical film version of one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies. This interpretation of A 
Midsummer Night's Dream moves the action to Tuscany near the turn of the 20th century, as both 
mortals and enchanted creatures deal with romantic problems. Among the flesh-and-blood crowd, 
Duke Theseus (played by David Strathairn) is preparing for his wedding to Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau), 
while having to counsel Egeus (Bernard Hill), who has promised the hand of his daughter Hermia 
(Anna Friel) to Demetrius (Christian Bale). Hermia, however, wants to elope with her true love, 
Lysander (Dominic West), while her best friend Helena (Calista Flockhart) is mad about Demetrius. 
Meanwhile, fairies living in the forest are watching these romantic misadventures. Puck 
(Stanley Tucci) serves up love potions that mix and match the already confused lovers, while the 
Queen of Fairies, Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer), and her King, Oberon (Rupert Everett), have to deal 
with a group of hapless actors rehearsing a play in the forest -- one of whom, Bottom (Kevin Kline), 
has fallen under Puck's spell and becomes Titania's new lover. Will anyone end up with the person 
they really love? Who will get hurt riding their bicycles in the woods? Will Helena sit down and eat 
a square meal? Director Hoffman, a longtime Shakespeare buff, appeared as Lysander in a production 
of the play while a college student, and has since spearheaded a campaign to build a new $3 million 
theatre for his alma mater in Boise, ID.