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Shakespeare in Love
Directed by	John Madden
Produced by	David Parfitt Donna Gigliotti Harvey Weinstein Edward Zwick Marc Norman
Written by	Marc Norman Tom Stoppard
Starring	Joseph Fiennes Gwyneth Paltrow Geoffrey Rush Colin Firth Ben Affleck Judi Dench
Music by	Stephen Warbeck
Cinematography	Richard Greatrex
Editing by	David Gamble
Distributed by	Miramax Films (USA) Alliance Atlantis (Canada) Universal Studios (non-USA/Canada)
Release date(s)	December 3, 1998 (premiere) 11 December 1998 (limited) 25 December 1998 8 January 1999 29 January 1999 11 February 1999 25 February 1999
Running time	137 min.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Shakespeare in Love is an award-winning 1998 romantic comedy film. The film was directed by John Madden and co-written by playwright Tom Stoppard, whose first major success was with the Shakespeare-influenced play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.

The film is largely fictional, although several of the characters are based on real people. In addition, some of the characters, lines, and plot devices are references to Shakespeare's plays.

Shakespeare in Love won a number of Academy Awards in 1999, including Best Picture and Best Actress (for Gwyneth Paltrow). It was the first comedy to win the Best Picture award since Annie Hall (1977).

Contents 1 Historical accuracy 2 References to Shakespeare's work 3 Controversy 4 Awards 4.1 Wins 4.2 Nominations 5 External links

The film is set in 1593. It makes no pretence at historical accuracy and features many comic anachronisms (such as a psychotherapist, a mug marked "A present from Stratford-on-Avon", a man leaping into a ferry and saying "Follow that boat!", and Henslowe anticipating the phrase "The show must go on!"). Some events contradict the historical record: for instance, it is unlikely that Lord Wessex and Viola would depart for the Americas in the 1590s, since the first successful English colony, Jamestown, was not established until 1607.

The main source for much of the action in the film is Romeo and Juliet, which the events in the film ultimately inspire Will to write. Will and Viola play out the famous balcony and bedroom scenes; like Juliet, Viola has a witty nurse, and is separated from Will by a gulf of duty (although not the family enmity of the play). In addition, the two lovers are equally 'star-crossed' — they are not ultimately destined to be together.

Many other plot devices used in the film are common in various Shakespearean comedies and in the works of the other playwrights of the Elizabethan era: the Queen disguised as a commoner, the cross-dressing disguises, mistaken identities, the swordfight, the suspicion of adultery (or, at least, cheating), the appearance of a 'ghost', and the 'play within a play'.

The film also features numerous sequences in which Shakespeare and the other characters utter words that will later appear in his plays:

• On the street, Shakespeare hears a Puritan preaching against the two London stages: "The Rose smells thusly rank, by any name! I say, a curse on both their houses!" Two references in one, both to Romeo and Juliet; first "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" Act II, scene ii, lines 1 and 2, second "a plague on both their houses" Act III, scene i, line 94.
• Backstage of a performance of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare sees Will Kempe in full make-up, silently contemplating a skull (a reference to Hamlet).
• Shakespeare utters the lines "Doubt thou the stars are fire, / Doubt that the sun doth move" (from Hamlet) to Philip Henslowe.
• As Shakespeare's writer's block is introduced, he is seen crumpling balls of paper and throwing them around his room. They land near props which represent scenes: in his several plays: a skull (Hamlet), and an open chest (The Merchant of Venice).
• At the end of the film, Shakespeare imagines a shipwreck overtaking Viola on her way to America, inspiring the opening scene of his next play, Twelfth Night.
• Shakespeare writes a sonnet to Viola which begins: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" (from Sonnet 18).

Christopher Marlowe appears in the film as the master playwright whom everyone in the film considers the greatest English dramatist — this is humorous, since everyone in the audience knows what will eventually happen to Shakespeare. He gives Shakespeare a plot for his next play, Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter ("Romeo is Italian...always in and out of love...until he meets...Ethel. The daughter of his enemy! His best friend is killed in a duel by Ethel's brother or something. His name is Mercutio.") Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is quoted ad nauseam: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/ And burned the topless towers of Ilium?"

The child John Webster who plays with mice is a reference to the leading figure in the Jacobean generation of playwrights. His plays are known for their blood and gore, which is why he says that he enjoys Titus Andronicus, and why he says of Romeo and Juliet "I liked it when she stabbed herself".

When the clown Will Kempe says to Shakespeare that he would like to play in a drama, he is told that "they would laugh at Seneca if you played it", a reference to the Roman tragedian renowned for his sombre and bloody plotlines which were a major influence on the development of English tragedy.

Will is shown signing a paper repeatedly, with six relatively illegible signatures visible. This is a reference to the fact that several versions of Shakespeare's signature exist — no two alike.

The actor Ned Alleyn is upset that his lines as Mercutio are too short. After he recites his single line of "Oh I see Queen Mab hath been with you," he then complains that Mercutio disappears "for the length of a Bible." Shakespeare will then respond by lengthening his speech, for in reality, Mercutio's famous "Queen Mab" monologue is the longest in all of Shakespeare's plays.

After the film's release, publications including Private Eye noted strong similarities between the film and the 1941 novel No Bed for Bacon, by Caryl Brahms and S J Simon, which also features Shakespeare falling in love and finding inspiration for his later plays.

In a foreword to a subsequent edition of No Bed for Bacon (which traded on the association by declaring itself "A Story of Shakespeare and Lady Viola in Love"), Ned Sherrin mentioned that he had lent a copy of the novel to Stoppard after he joined the writing team, but that the basic plot of the film had been independently developed by Marc Norman, who was unaware of the novel.

• Academy Award for Best Picture
• Academy Award for Best Actress — Gwyneth Paltrow
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress — Judi Dench
• Academy Award for Best Art Direction — Martin Childs & Jill Quertier
• Academy Award for Costume Design — Sandy Powell
• Academy Award for Original Music Score — Stephen Warbeck
• Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay — Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard
• BAFTA Award for Best Film
• BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role — Judi Dench
• BAFTA Award for Best Editing — David Gamble
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy — Gwyneth Paltrow
• Golden Globe Award Best Screenplay - Comedy/Musical Film - Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay — Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard

• Academy Award for Directing — John Madden
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor — Geoffrey Rush
• Academy Award for Best Cinematography — Richard Greatrex
• Academy Award for Film Editing — David Gamble
• Academy Award for Makeup — Lisa Westcott & Veronica Brebner
• Academy Award for Sound — Robin O'Donoghue, Dominic Lester, Peter Glossop
• BAFTA David Lean Award for Direction — John Madden
• BAFTA Award for Best Actress — Gwyneth Paltrow
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role - Joseph Fiennes
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role — Geoffrey Rush
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role — Tom Wilkinson
• BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography — Richard Greatrex
• BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay — Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard
• BAFTA Award for Best Make Up/Hair — Lisa Westcott
• BAFTA Award for Best Sound — Robin O'Donoghue, Dominic Lester, Peter Glossop, John Downer
• BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music — Stephen Warbeck
• BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design — Sandy Powell
• BAFTA Award for Best Production Design — Martin Childs
• Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — John Madden
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture — John Madden
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture — Geoffrey Rush
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture — Judi Dench

Shakespeare in Love at the Internet Movie Database

Preceded by Titanic	Academy Award for Best Picture 1998	Succeeded by American Beauty
Preceded by As Good as It Gets	Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy 1998	Succeeded by Toy Story 2
Preceded by The Full Monty	BAFTA Award for Best Film 1999	Succeeded by American Beauty

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