In
the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, Queen Elizabeth
is played by Judi Dench, who won an Oscar for best supporting
actress. The premise of the film is much less serious than
Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen, namely, that Shakespeare
must have written love sonnets and the play Romeo and Juliet
because he was himself in love at the time. Very little is
known about Shakespeare, so the film is pure fantasy, with
a lot of feel-good twists and turns. However, the law at the
time prevented women from acting in a public performance.
One star in the film was a woman secretly dressed as a man
in order to play a part in the first production of Romeo and
Juliet. When authorities find out, the dramatic troupe is
unable to proceed. Ultimately, Shakespeare's lover (Gwyneth
Paltrow, who received an Oscar for best actress in the role)
substitutes in the performance, but Queen Elizabeth emerges
from her disguise in the audience to pardon the woman for
the infraction, as if Queen Elizabeth was an early feminist
trying to remove barriers for women in English society. Whether
you buy the plot or not, and there is no reason to do so,
the film does make a statement about discrimination against
women. However, most of the film is delightful fantasy, and
the thought is unfortunately lost. MH
I
want to comment on this film
