Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard 1999: Shakespeare in Love (The Screenplay)‪.‬

Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard 1999: Shakespeare in Love (the screenplay). London: Faber. Elizabethan England has always been popular in the Anglo-American movie industry. In 1998 two new films on the subject were released, namely Shekher Kapur's Elizabeth and John Madden's Shakespeare in Love. Both of them indulged in certain -otherwise predictable- chauvinistic prejudices. In Elizabeth, for instance, the highly positive features of the British are set against the extremely grotesque and exaggerated vices of the French and the Spanish. Shakespeare in Love, on the other hand, deals with the exploits and achievements--also with a fair amount of cliches- of Shakespeare and the Golden Age of English drama; Queen Elizabeth has a leading role in this second film too, as she appears as a deus-ex-machina who makes it possible for a woman to playa part on the stage. Judi Dench's Academy Award--one of the seven obtained by the film- as the best supporting actress, seems to be quite significant in that context. (2)