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A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968 Film)
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a 1968 British film of William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', directed by Peter Hall. Production It stars Derek Godfrey as Theseus, Barbara Jefford as Hippolyta, Diana Rigg as Helena, Helen Mirren as Hermia, David Warner as Lysander, Ian Holm as Puck, Ian Richardson as King Oberon, Judi Dench as Queen Titania, and Paul Rogers as Bottom, as well as other members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The film premiered in theatres in Europe in September 1968. In the U.S., it was sold directly to television rather than playing in theatres, and premiered as a Sunday evening special, on the night of 9 February 1969. It was shown on CBS (with commercials). The film was only the second, after Max Reinhardt's 1935 film, sound film adaptation of the play. It portrayed the fairies as "wild, near-naked creatures in a primitive, sinister wood." and "the subsidiary fairies were bedraggled child actors; the artisans authentic, almost cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Hall (theatre Director)
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE (22 November 1930 11 September 2017) was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in ''The Times'' declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director. In 1955, Hall introduced London audiences to the work of Samuel Beckett with the UK premiere of '' Waiting for Godot''. Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company (1960–68) and went on to build an international reputation in theatre, opera, film and television. He was director of the National Theatre (1973–88) and artistic director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (19841990). He formed the Peter Hall Company (19982011) and be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Rogers (actor)
Paul Rogers (22 March 1917 – 6 October 2013) was an English actor of film, stage and television. He was the first winner of the BAFTA TV Award Best Actor in 1955 and won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for ''The Homecoming'' in 1967. Early life and career Paul Rogers was born in Plympton, Devon, and attended Newton Abbot Grammar School. He later trained at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington Hall. From 1940 to 1946 he served in the Royal Navy during World War II, before returning to acting at the Bristol Old Vic. He went on to appear in many West End and Broadway productions, and won the Tony for Best Actor for his role in Harold Pinter's play ''The Homecoming'' in 1967. He played the role of Sir in the first Broadway production of Ronald Harwood's play ''The Dresser''. Later career Rogers was a long-serving member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His most notable performances with the Company included Nick Bottom in ''A Midsum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Eccles
Donald Eccles (26 April 1908 – 2 February 1986) was a British character actor. Donald Yarrow Eccles was born in Nafferton, Yorkshire on 26 April 1908 the son of Charles Henry and Constance Eccles; his father was a doctor. Eccles was educated at Highgate School and then worked in an insurance office. He made his stage debut in New York City in 1930, and later became known as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His debut in London was in ''Counsellor at Law'' in 1934 at the Piccadilly. During the Second World War he spent six years in the Royal Navy. In 1960 he acted in the film ''A Taste of Money'' and later appeared in many other films including ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1968), ''The Wicker Man'' (1973), ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1982), ''Coming Out of the Ice'' (1982), ''The Dresser'' (1983), ''The Master of Ballantrae'' (1984), ''A Private Function'' (1984) and '' Young Sherlock Holmes'' (1985). He also appeared in many television roles, such as Pollio in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clive Swift
Clive Walter Swift (9 February 1936 – 1 February 2019) was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for his role as Richard Bucket in the BBC sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances''. He played many other television and film roles. Life and career Swift was born in Liverpool on 9 February 1936, the son of Abram Sampson Swift, who owned a furniture shop in Bootle, and Lily Rebecca, née Greenman. His elder brother David was also an actor. Both were educated at Clifton College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where Clive read English literature. He was previously a teacher at LAMDA and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His family was Jewish. He appeared as Snug in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1968 film production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' as part of a cast that included Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren and Ian Richardson. During the 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Travers
William Inglis Lindon Travers (3 January 1922 – 29 March 1994) was a British actor, screenwriter, director and animal rights activist. Prior to his show business career, he served in the British army with Gurkha and special forces units. Early life Travers was born in the suburb of Jesmond in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the son of Florence (née Wheatley) and William Halton Lindon Travers, a theatre manager. His sister Linden (1913–2001) and her daughter Susan became actresses. Military service Travers enlisted as a private in the British Army at the age of 18, a few months after the outbreak of the Second World War, and was sent to India then under British Raj rule. He was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the British Indian Army on 9 July 1942. He served in the Long Range Penetration Brigade 4th Battalion 9th Gorkha Rifles in Burma, attached to Orde Wingate's staff, during which he came to know John Masters, his brigade major. (Travers later acted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sebastian Shaw (actor)
Sebastian Lewis Shaw (29 May 1905 – 23 December 1994) was an English actor, theatre director, novelist, playwright and poet. During his 65-year career, he appeared in dozens of stage performances and more than 40 film and television productions. Shaw was born and brought up in Holt, Norfolk, and made his acting debut at age eight at a London theatre. He studied acting at Gresham's School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Although he worked primarily on the London stage, he made his Broadway debut in 1929, when he played one of the two murderers in '' Rope's End''. He appeared in his first film, ''Caste'', in 1930 and quickly began to create a name for himself in films. He described himself as a "rotten actor""Sebastian Shaw Obituary", the ''Daily Telegraph'', 2 January 1995. as a youth and said his success was primarily due to his good looks. He claimed to mature as a performer only after returning from service in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Shaw wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compton Verney House
Compton Verney House () is an 18th-century country mansion at Compton Verney near Kineton in Warwickshire, England. It is located on the west side of a lake north of the B4086 about north-west of Banbury. Today, it is the site of the Compton Verney Art Gallery. Overview The building is a Grade I listed house built in 1714 by Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke. It was first extensively extended by George Verney, 12th Baron Willoughby de Broke in the early 18th century and then remodelled and the interiors redesigned by Robert Adam for John Peyto-Verney, the 14th baron, in the 1760s. It is set in more than of parkland landscaped by Lancelot "Capability" Brown in 1769. The house and its estate was sold by Richard Greville Verney, the 19th baron, in 1921 to soap magnate Joseph Watson who was elevated to the peerage as ''1st Baron Manton of Compton Verney'' only two months before his death in March 1922 from a heart attack whilst out hunting with the Warwicks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Oxford Shakespeare
''The Oxford Shakespeare'' is the range of editions of William Shakespeare's works produced by Oxford University Press. The Oxford Shakespeare is produced under the general editorship of Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor. Precursor Oxford University Press first published a complete works of Shakespeare in 1891. Entitled ''The Complete Works'', it was a single-volume modern-spelling edition edited by William James Craig. This 1891 text is not directly related to the series known as the ''Oxford Shakespeare'' today, which is freshly re-edited. ''The Complete Works'' The ''Oxford Shakespeare'' includes a ''Complete Works'' edited by John Jowett, William Montgomery, Gary Taylor and Stanley Wells, appeared in 1986. It includes all of Shakespeare's plays and poems, as well as a biographical introduction. Each work is given a single-page introduction. There are no explanatory notes, but there is a glossary at the back of the book. Two related books accompany the main volume: ''William ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Arden Shakespeare
The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been three distinct series of The Arden Shakespeare over the past century, with the third series commencing in 1995 and concluding in January 2020. Arden was the maiden name of Shakespeare's mother, Mary, but the primary reference of the enterprise's title is to the Forest of Arden, in which Shakespeare's '' As You Like It'' is set. First Series The first series was published by Methuen. Its first publication was Edward Dowden's edition of ''Hamlet'', published in 1899. Over the next 25 years, the entire canon of Shakespeare was edited and published. The original editor of The Arden Shakespeare was William James Craig (1899–1906), succeeded by R. H. Case (1909–1944). The text of The Arden Shakespeare, First series, was based on the 1864 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959 Film)
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' ( cs, Sen noci svatojánské) is a 1959 Czechoslovak animated puppet film directed by Jiří Trnka, his last feature length film before his death 10 years later in 1969. It is based on the Shakespeare play of the same name. Production Trnka, working under the Czech communist regime who had previously been denied in his wish to adapt ''Don Quixote'', worked for several years on his adaptation of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. The film established a new pinnacle of craftmanship. Beyond the artistic aspects the film was technically advanced. Trnka used expensive Eastmancolor stock* Every scene was shot with two cameras simultaneously—one shooting Academy ratio, and one shooting in the then new CinemaScope format, effectively producing an in-camera pan-and-scan version—all so Trnka could ensure that his widescreen production would not be presented letterboxed. The film thus exists in ''two'' definitive editions. The score was composed by Václa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jiří Trnka
Jiří Trnka (; 24 February 1912 – 30 December 1969) was a Czech puppet-maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director. In addition to his extensive career as an illustrator, especially of children's books, he is best known for his work in animation with puppets, which began in 1946. Most of his films were intended for adults and many were adaptations of literary works. Because of his influence in animation, he was called "the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe", despite the great differences between their works. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustrators in 1968, recognizing his career contribution to children's literature. Biography Formative years Jiří Trnka was born in Pilsen, in western Bohemia, where the family lived as middle class citizens. Although his father was a plumber and his mother a dressmaker, both remained very close to their peasant origins. As a child, young Jiří enjoyed sculpting puppets made of wood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound Film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. The primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid-to-late 1920s. At first, the sound films which included synchronized dialogue, known as "talking pictures", or "talkies", were exclusively shorts. The earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects. The first feature film originally presented as a talkie (although it had only limited so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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