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BACK TO THE BARD
After a series of career miscues, Kenneth Branagh returns to the scene of his success - Shakespeare, this time with music
By Marshall Fine, Gannett Press, June 2000
When Kenneth Branagh decided to make a musical out of a Shakespearean
comedy, he searched the canon of popular song, hoping to unearth
little-known gems with which to decorate the film. But, he finally decided,
a classic play demands classic tunes. And, the songs he chose were classics
for a reason.
"I didn't start out looking for famous ones," Branagh says, almost
apologetically, of the songs he selected for "Love's Labour's Lost." "But I
understood why these songs were so special after I tried to put other songs
next to Shakespeare."
Which is how "Cheek to Cheek," "There's No Business Like Show Business,"
"Let's Face the Music and Dance," "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and a
half-dozen other songs by Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and
Irving Berlin wound up in "Love's Labour's Lost," one of Shakespeare's
least-seen plays.
For Branagh, it's a return to his movie-making roots. "Henry V"
launched Branagh in 1989 as a cinematic Shakespeare interpreter. In the
intervening decade, he has directed film versions of "Much Ado About
Nothing" and "Hamlet" and hopes to make several more. Still, the wunderkind
status he enjoyed early on - when he was hailed as a fin de siecle Orson
Welles - was tarnished somewhat by a handful of missteps, both personally
and professionally.
His personal life hit the gossip columns when he divorced actress Emma
Thompson, thus rending England's golden couple. He subsequently became
involved with actress Helena Bonham Carter, though their relationship
reportedly ended last year.
He also suffered critical vitriol as a director for his much-derided
film "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."
As an actor, he was judged less culpable for such flops as "Theory of
Flight" and "Wild Wild West."
So Branagh is back where he started: making Shakespeare accessible to
the masses. Now 40, he has the same pinkish Irish complexion and sandy
blond hair; and though he's still trimly sturdy, there are a few more lines
around eyes that crinkle with conspiratorial amusement when he talks.
To get this particular movie made took his considerable powers of
persuasion. "The sales pitch went like this," Branagh says as he proceeds
to act out both sides of the conversation:
The idea, Branagh says, was to capture the frothy appeal of the kind of
1930's musical that made Fred Astaire a star. Indeed, on the first day of
rehearsal with his young cast, Branagh screened the Astaire classic "Top
Hat," to give them a feel for what they were about to do.
"He makes you feel you could do that," Branagh says of Astaire. "You
get carried away by the fantastic effortlessness and grace. You watch that
film closely and there are two or three numbers that were shot in one take.
It's a breathtaking feat of athleticism. And yet, while he's being
brilliant, he doesn't show off."
Branagh hopes some of that same sense of fun comes through in "Love's
Labour's Lost," in which he also stars. He felt music was the perfect
complement to this work because the plot reminded him of the lightweight
stories that served as the frameworks for movie musicals in their heyday.
In simplest terms, the play is about four male friends who take a vow of
chastity in order to concentrate on their studies - immediately before
meeting the four girls of their dreams. So each tries to woo his chosen
female without his friends finding out.
"Those musicals are always about romantic love, usually instantaneous,
where the fun comes not from what will happen next - you usually know - but
how," Branagh says. "I felt the essential daftness of the plot of this
play, for which I always had a lingering affection, resembled that of a
musical. It was a question of creating a cut version that could create an
organic musical structure."
His cast includes a variety of British and American actors, including
Nathan Lane, Mike Leigh favorite Timothy Spall, newcomers such as Alessandro
Nivola, Matthew Lillard and Adrian Lester - and Alicia Silverstone. Branagh
knows that some people may arch an eyebrow at that particular casting
choice, based solely on her performances in "Clueless" and "Batman and
Robin."
"But she has an immense spark and vitality," says Branagh, who is
rumored to be dating Silverstone, though he has denied it. "She was always
utterly present, which is a real gift."
As for his own singing and dancing, Branagh allows, "I'm not a natural -
but I do enjoy them very much."
Branagh knows the film will be a tough sell to contemporary audiences,
most of which have seen Fred Astaire only on TV, if at all. He's watched
the movie with audiences and knows exactly how they will react the first
time a character bursts into song.
"There's usually an audible gasp - with people looking around to make
sure everyone else is seeing the same thing they are, as though to say, 'Am
I really watching this?'" Branagh says.
"What I want people to come away saying is, 'Wouldn't it be nice to have
a romantic evening, and to be able to do a few moves that will sweep her off
her feet?'"
Branagh pauses, then wonders aloud what Shakespeare would think of this
version of his play. It's a subject to which Branagh, whose name is now so
inextricably linked with the Bard that he named his production group the
Shakespeare Film Company, has devoted a lot of thought.
"Because of the amazing elusiveness of William Shakespeare's biography,
we have no idea whether he was a stickler for having actors say the words
exactly as he wrote them, or whether he was a rewrite man all the way
through," he says.
"My sense is that he was a spectacular realist. He knew that, if a play
didn't work, it was off. So I believe he was probably a man who rewrote and
considered what would do good business - because that had an effect on his
own income."
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