B.5
(out of 5)
Goodness knows there’s no one I trust more for revelations of history’s errors than the director of The Patriot and Independence Day. In this empty-headed drama, we find out that the many plays attributed to the pen of William Shakespeare (played as a drunken lout by Rafe Spall) were actually the handiwork of the Earl Of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), who has to keep his authorship secret because it would be unbecoming of his class to openly partake in the theatre, which the law frowns upon. We also discover, through numerous flashbacks, that Queen Elizabeth I has fathered many bastard children (because frequent months-long absences would never be noticed in the olden days before they had electric lights and day planners), including one whose parentage is a pivotal plot reveal as the film progresses. As usual with Emmerich’s films, there is no expense spared in gussying up the proceedings with gorgeous sets and costumes, but even the scantest knowledge of English history will find the film’s conspiratorial theories somewhere on the level of Obama birthers and UFO fanatics. If there was a clever or boldly worked out execution of its hypothesis, no matter how preposterous, this two plus hours of hot air would be a lot easier to take; its accusations, however, merely amount to portraying Elizabeth as a girl gone wild when young (played by Joely Richardson) and an incapable batty airhead when old (played by Richardson’s mother Vanessa Redgrave), while Shakespeare, we discover, couldn’t have written his plays because he was too trashy to think them up. Beyond such idiotic (and incorrect) class snobbery, its performances are strong but it’s too long and never particularly exciting. For a more detailed takedown of the project, see the terrific post by University of Toronto professor Holger Syme.
United Kingdom/Germany/USA, 2011
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Screenplay by John Orloff
Cinematography by Anna Foerster
Produced by Roland Emmerich, Larry J. Franco, Robert Leger
Music by Harold Kloser, Thomas Wanker
Production Design by Sebastian T. Krawinkel
Costume Design by Lisy Christl
Film Editing by Peter R. Adam
Film Festivals: TIFF 2011
Cast Tags: Alex Hassell, Alexander Flache, Alfred Hartung, Amy Kwolek, André Kaczmarczyk, Antonia Gerke, Axel Sichrovsky, Benjamin Plath, Christian Banzhaf, Christian Leonard, Christian Ludwig, Christian Sengewald, Claudius von Stolzmann, Craig Salisbury, Dafne-Maria Fielder, David Thewlis, Derek Jacobi, Detlef Bothe, Edward Hogg, Elisabeth Milarch, Erik Studte, Gode Benedix, Helen Baxendale, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Isaiah Michalski, James Clyde, James Garnon, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jasmin Mehling, Jasper Britton, Jean-Loup Fourure, Joely Richardson, Johann Hakob Wurster, Johannes Keusch, John Keogh, Jonas Hämmerle, Julian Bleach, Katrin Pollitt, Laura Lo Zito, Leonard Kinzinger, Lloyd Hutchinson, Lukas Hötzel, Luke Thomas Taylor, Mark Rylance, Martin Engler, Michael Brown, Mike Maas, Ned Dennehy, Nic Romm, Nino Sandow, Oliver Kube, Oliver Rickenbacher, Paolo De Vita, Patricia Grove, Patrick Diemling, Patrick Heyn, Paula Schramm, Rafe Spall, Rainer Guldener, Rhys Ifans, Richard Durden, Robert Emms, Robert Munzinger, Sam Reid, Sebastian Armesto, Shaun Lawton, Sophie Hichert, Stefanie Lanius, Timo Huber, Tjafke Biallowons, Tony Way, Trystan Gravelle, Trystan Pütter, Urban Luig, Vanessa Redgrave, Vera Kreyer, Vicky Krieps, Victor Calero, Victoria Gabrysch, Xavier Samuel
Academy Award Nomination
Best Costume Design (Lisy Christl)
