Movie review: Shakespeare in Love (1998)
After having been shot in 1998, the British romantic tragicomedy Shakespeare in Love won not only popular affections but also seven Oscars. Being a fiction, the film showed the true love between William Shakespeare and Viola de Lesseps. The lines, characters and plot perfectly depict the times of Queen Elizabeth.
It is London, 1593. William Shakespeare is a young and talented writer who, unfortunately, undergoes a protracted crisis because of losing his inspiration. So, he is in need of a muse. He is like a lone wolf looking for new feelings and impressions.
He was asked to write a comedy entitled Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter that after all was renamed Romeo and Juliet and turned into the tragicomedy. One day fine lady Viola de Lesseps and Shakespeare met and fell in love with each other. They also became mutually obsessed with one another and spent all the possible time together. At the rehearsals, she acted as a boy actor. By the way, that epoch was famous for male theaters. No woman was allowed to play.
So, according to the film, The Rose Theatre was the first one to welcome a female player on its stage. Finally, Viola acted a part of Juliet and William played Romeo, and Queen Elisabeth who secretly attended the show was amazed at the love story.
Unfortunately, William and Viola could not be together because of her obligation to marry Lord Wessex and sail with him to the Colony of Virginia. Nevertheless, Shakespeare decided to immortalize her in his next work as she stayed his muse forever: “For she will be my heroine for all time, and her name will be Viola.”
