Much Ado About Nothing

The Look

'Much Ado About Nothing' has to be one of my favourite films. Director/star Kenneth Branagh really accomplished what he set out to do, bringing the true joys of Shakespeare to a wider public. This particular play, and movie, has a universal appeal, interweaving romance, comedy and intrigue. The storyline is still relevant today, so much so that it's easy to forget that you're watching Shakespeare.

The characters, and most of the performances, are the keystone to the movie's success but there is so much more to it than that. There is a special atmosphere to this movie. Quite simply, 'Much Ado About Nothing' is one of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen.

Kenneth Branagh, and his regular production designer Tim Harvey, put great care & planning into the overall appearance of the film. The 14th Century Villa Vignamaggio in Tuscany became the films production base as well as the location of the film. 'Much Ado...' was shot over seven weeks, making the most of temperatures up to 100 degrees. Branagh believes that the sun changes the way people act, and wanted to go back to nature in this way.

The Villa's gardens, chapel and bath-house were created for the film. One thing I particularly like is the symmetry of the whole visuals. This is not merely reflected by the layout of the gardens but by the way the actors were filmed. It was only on a later viewing of the film that I noticed that the congregation, at the first wedding, are sitting in the shape of a bell! It's staged but not in an un-natural way.

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Branagh (and his Director of Photography, Roger Lanser) also makes the most of overhead shots, including that wonderfully joyous dance scene that closes the movie. In the documentary 'Chasing The Light' (made for the BBC who co-funded the film) we see the filming of this sequence. It took 15 takes in 106 degree heat to get the perfect shot. Imagine being Steadicam operator Andy Shuttleworth carrying that heavy load for all that time. One aspect of movie making that few of us would envy. By the way, the docu was called "Chasing The Light" because they only had a certain time to film the shot over the roof of the villa. If they left it too long they would have been shooting straight into the sun. [The Actors]

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