Love's Labour's Lost is a 2000 adaptation of the comic play of the same name by William Shakespeare, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. It was the first feature film to be made of this lesser-known comedy. Branagh's fourth film of a Shakespeare play (he did not direct the 1995 Othello, although he did play Iago), it was a box-office and critical disappointment.
Branagh's film turns Love's Labour's Lost into a romantic Hollywood musical. Se...
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Love's Labour's Lost is a 2000 adaptation of the comic play of the same name by William Shakespeare, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. It was the first feature film to be made of this lesser-known comedy. Branagh's fourth film of a Shakespeare play (he did not direct the 1995 Othello, although he did play Iago), it was a box-office and critical disappointment.
Branagh's film turns Love's Labour's Lost into a romantic Hollywood musical. Set and costume design evoke the Europe of 1939; the music (classic Broadway songs of the 1930s) and newsreel-style footage are also chief period details. The cast includes Shakespearean veterans such as Timothy Spall, Richard Briers and Geraldine McEwan, alongside Hollywood actors Alicia Silverstone and Matthew Lillard and Broadway and West End stars such as Nathan Lane.
Critics and audiences responded coolly to Branagh's attempt to combine a rarely-produced play with the long-moribund genre of musical film. As a result of its poor commercial...
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