Midsummer Night's Dream

The 1935 Reinhardt/Dieterie film of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the 1999 movie version of the play, directed by Michael Hoffman, offer two very different views of the fairies and their fairylands. The 1935 film is portrayed in a very mystical way. The fairies of this film are seen as a non-human and more magical in appearance. They have some human characteristics but do not act in a humanistic way. This film is set in a black and white setting theme, portent to the time era and to identify their positioning within the film. The black portraying evil or the dark side versus white portraying the pure and good. This film also shows the purpose of films in this time- to escape the realities of life in the 1930’s, during the Great Depression,

and having an outlet to do so. Whereas, the 1999 movie version portrays the fairies and their land as having more human-like behavior but more corrupt, which is also reflective of the time in which this movie was produced. The fairyland also has a more modern, the realistic situations of the Victorian age and can be related to more today. The situations portrayed are more believable too. The fairies do not fly as in the 1935 film, but drink, party and be merry. The effect of color in the film also lends to a more believable movie. The color leads the viewer to wonder less about the setting’s symbolism and focus more on the character and what is being said. Each version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream depicts Shakespeare’s writing in an unique way, based on the knowledge and efforts of the director at the time of production. However, each one portrays a different fairyland and the fairies that occupy that land.