The Tempest (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
The Tempest is a 2010 American comedy-drama film based on the play of the same name
by William Shakespeare
, featuring Helen Mirren
in the principal role of Prospera
, David Strathairn
as King Alonzo, Djimon Hounsou
as Caliban
, and Russell Brand
as Trinculo. The film is directed by Julie Taymor
and premiered at the Venice Film Festival
in September 2010.
Sandy Powell
received an Academy Award for Best Costume Design nomination for this film, her ninth nomination.
, is usurped by her brother Antonio and is cast off on a raft to die with her four-year-old daughter Miranda. They survive, finding themselves stranded on an island where the beast Caliban is the sole inhabitant. Prospera enslaves Caliban and claims the island. After 12 years, Alonso, the king of Naples, sails back to his kingdom from the marriage of his daughter to the prince of Tunisia, accompanied by his son Ferdinand and Antonio. Prospera, apprehending her chance for revenge, causes a tempest, wrecking the ship and stranding those on board on her island.
by William Shakespeare
, is written and directed by Julie Taymor
. The play's main character was Prospero
, and Taymor changed the character's gender to cast Helen Mirren
as Prospera. Taymor explained the casting decision, "I didn't really have a male actor that excited me in mind, and yet there had been a couple of phenomenal females—Helen Mirren being one of them—who [made me think]: 'My God, does this play change? What happens if you make that role into a female role?'" Taymor held a reading and found that the story could accommodate the change of gender without being gimmicky.
In Shakespeare's play, Prospero was the Duke of Milan. In the adaptation, Prospera is the wife of the duke. She is "more overtly wronged" than Prospero; when the duke is killed, his brother Antonio (played by Chris Cooper) accuses her of killing him with witchcraft. Antonio makes the accusation to be rid of Prospera and claim her royal title. Taymor said, "She had her whole life taken away from her because she was a woman." Prospera wants to prevent the same thing from happening to her daughter.
Principal photography took place around volcanic areas of Hawaii
.
on September 11, 2010 as the festival's closing film. When Disney sold Miramax Films
to Filmyard Holdings,LLC , they
took over distribution through its division Touchstone Pictures
. The film was released to the public on December 10, 2010.
maintains that 30% of 81 reviewers gave a positive review with an average score of 4.7/10. Entertainment Weekly said the movie – "theatrically ambitious, musically busy, and in the end cinematically inert – clearly reflects the authorship of myth-loving director Julie Taymor." USA Today
found that "Mirren keeps the film on track. But incomprehensible shouting and pointless shenanigans obscure subtle moments." In a similar vein, Newsweek
said "the film's special effects, to a surprising extent, add little to the story," and that "next to the concise power of [Shakespeare's] language, the screen wizardry of even a resourceful director like Taymor seems like rough magic indeed," though The New Yorker
's David Denby
pointed out the film's strengths, most particularly Helen Mirren's performance as Prospera: "Mirren has the range and power to play a woman with unprecedented control of the elements, and over men, too.. Sandra Hall in The Sydney Morning Herald
is more generous toward Taymor's vision, saying:"In the scene that explains the circumstances of mother and daughter's banishment from the dukedom of Milan, Taymor has skilfully tweaked Shakespeare's lines to take account of her new scenario," and praising the film's visual elements.
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, featuring Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
in the principal role of Prospera
Prospero
Prospero is the protagonist in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.- The Tempest :Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, who was put to sea on "a rotten carcass of a butt [boat]" to die by his usurping brother, Antonio, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda survived,...
, David Strathairn
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
as King Alonzo, Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Diaw Hounsou is a Beninese actor and model. As an actor, Hounsou has been nominated for two Academy Awards.-Early life:Djimon Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1964, to lbertine and Pierre Hounsou, a cook. He emigrated to Lyon in France at the age of thirteen with his brother, Edmond....
as Caliban
Caliban
Caliban is a character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.Caliban may also refer to:* Caliban , a moon of Uranus* Caliban , a metalcore band from Germany* Caliban , an acoustic Celtic folk duo...
, and Russell Brand
Russell Brand
Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...
as Trinculo. The film is directed by Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
and premiered at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
in September 2010.
Sandy Powell
Sandy Powell (costume designer)
Sandy Powell OBE is a British costume designer who has been nominated nine times for the Academy Award . She won the Oscar in 1999 for the film Shakespeare in Love, in 2005 for The Aviator, and in 2010 for The Young Victoria. She has received nine BAFTA nominations, winning in 1999 for Velvet...
received an Academy Award for Best Costume Design nomination for this film, her ninth nomination.
Plot
Prospera, the duchess of MilanMilan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, is usurped by her brother Antonio and is cast off on a raft to die with her four-year-old daughter Miranda. They survive, finding themselves stranded on an island where the beast Caliban is the sole inhabitant. Prospera enslaves Caliban and claims the island. After 12 years, Alonso, the king of Naples, sails back to his kingdom from the marriage of his daughter to the prince of Tunisia, accompanied by his son Ferdinand and Antonio. Prospera, apprehending her chance for revenge, causes a tempest, wrecking the ship and stranding those on board on her island.
Cast
- Helen MirrenHelen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
as ProsperaProsperoProspero is the protagonist in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.- The Tempest :Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, who was put to sea on "a rotten carcass of a butt [boat]" to die by his usurping brother, Antonio, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda survived,...
– the main character. Miranda's mother and a sorceress. - Felicity JonesFelicity JonesFelicity Jones is an English actress from Birmingham. She is best known to television audiences for her role as the school bully Ethel Hallow in the first series of The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College...
as Miranda – Prospera's daughter who falls in love with Ferdinand. - Reeve CarneyReeve CarneyReeve Carney is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He appears in the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark as the character of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.-Early life:...
as Ferdinand – Alonzo's son who falls in love with Miranda. - Alfred MolinaAlfred MolinaAlfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...
as Stefano – Alonzo's butler who along with Trinculo joins forces with Caliban to plot against Prospera. - Russell BrandRussell BrandRussell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...
as Trinculo – Alonzo's jester who along with Stefano joins forces with Caliban to plot against Prospera. - Djimon HounsouDjimon HounsouDjimon Diaw Hounsou is a Beninese actor and model. As an actor, Hounsou has been nominated for two Academy Awards.-Early life:Djimon Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1964, to lbertine and Pierre Hounsou, a cook. He emigrated to Lyon in France at the age of thirteen with his brother, Edmond....
as Caliban – Prospera's slave who along with Stefano and Trinculo plots against her. - Chris CooperChris Cooper (actor)Christopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Capote, The Town, The Kingdom, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and...
as Antonio – Prospera's brother and Miranda's uncle. - Alan CummingAlan CummingAlan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
as Sebastian – Alonzo's brother - Tom ContiTom ContiThomas "Tom" Conti is a Scottish actor, theatre director and novelist.-Early life:Born Thomas Conti in Paisley, Renfrewshire, he was brought up Roman Catholic, but he considers himself anti-religious...
as Gonzalo – a counsellor who gave aid to Prospera and Miranda. - David StrathairnDavid StrathairnDavid Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
as Alonzo, King of Naples – Ferdinand's father and Trinculo and Stefano's employer. - Ben WhishawBen WhishawBenjamin John "Ben" Whishaw is an English actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Whishaw is perhaps best known for his breakthrough role as Hamlet, and his role as the lead character in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.-Early life:Whishaw was born and raised in...
as ArielAriel (The Tempest)Ariel is a spirit who appears in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Ariel is bound to serve the magician Prospero, who rescued him from the tree in which he was imprisoned by Sycorax, the witch who previously inhabited the island. Prospero greets disobedience with a reminder that he saved...
– a spirit who aids Prospera. - Jude Akuwudike as Boatswain
Production
The Tempest, based on the play of the same nameThe Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, is written and directed by Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
. The play's main character was Prospero
Prospero
Prospero is the protagonist in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.- The Tempest :Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, who was put to sea on "a rotten carcass of a butt [boat]" to die by his usurping brother, Antonio, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda survived,...
, and Taymor changed the character's gender to cast Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
as Prospera. Taymor explained the casting decision, "I didn't really have a male actor that excited me in mind, and yet there had been a couple of phenomenal females—Helen Mirren being one of them—who [made me think]: 'My God, does this play change? What happens if you make that role into a female role?'" Taymor held a reading and found that the story could accommodate the change of gender without being gimmicky.
In Shakespeare's play, Prospero was the Duke of Milan. In the adaptation, Prospera is the wife of the duke. She is "more overtly wronged" than Prospero; when the duke is killed, his brother Antonio (played by Chris Cooper) accuses her of killing him with witchcraft. Antonio makes the accusation to be rid of Prospera and claim her royal title. Taymor said, "She had her whole life taken away from her because she was a woman." Prospera wants to prevent the same thing from happening to her daughter.
Principal photography took place around volcanic areas of Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
.
Release
The Tempest premiered at the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
on September 11, 2010 as the festival's closing film. When Disney sold Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
to Filmyard Holdings,LLC , they
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
took over distribution through its division Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...
. The film was released to the public on December 10, 2010.
Reception
The Tempest has received negative reviews from critics. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
maintains that 30% of 81 reviewers gave a positive review with an average score of 4.7/10. Entertainment Weekly said the movie – "theatrically ambitious, musically busy, and in the end cinematically inert – clearly reflects the authorship of myth-loving director Julie Taymor." USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
found that "Mirren keeps the film on track. But incomprehensible shouting and pointless shenanigans obscure subtle moments." In a similar vein, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
said "the film's special effects, to a surprising extent, add little to the story," and that "next to the concise power of [Shakespeare's] language, the screen wizardry of even a resourceful director like Taymor seems like rough magic indeed," though The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
's David Denby
David Denby (film critic)
David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
pointed out the film's strengths, most particularly Helen Mirren's performance as Prospera: "Mirren has the range and power to play a woman with unprecedented control of the elements, and over men, too.. Sandra Hall in The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
is more generous toward Taymor's vision, saying:"In the scene that explains the circumstances of mother and daughter's banishment from the dukedom of Milan, Taymor has skilfully tweaked Shakespeare's lines to take account of her new scenario," and praising the film's visual elements.
Accolades
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards 83rd Academy Awards The 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2010 and took place February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, Academy Awards ... |
February 27, 2011 | Best Costume Design | Sandy Powell Sandy Powell (costume designer) Sandy Powell OBE is a British costume designer who has been nominated nine times for the Academy Award . She won the Oscar in 1999 for the film Shakespeare in Love, in 2005 for The Aviator, and in 2010 for The Young Victoria. She has received nine BAFTA nominations, winning in 1999 for Velvet... |
|
| Satellite Awards Satellite Awards 2010 The 2010 Satellite Awards, honoring the year's outstanding performers, films, television shows, DVDs, and interactive media, were presented by the International Press Academy at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Sunday, December 19, 2010... |
December 19, 2010 | Best Actress | Helen Mirren Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:... |
See also
- The Tempest (1911 film)The Tempest (1911 film)The Tempest is an American silent film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play The Tempest. It was directed by Edwin Thanhouser, and starred Ed Genung and Florence La Badie, and released by Thanhouser Film Corporation...
- The Tempest (1979 film)
- Tempest (1982 film)Tempest (1982 film)Tempest is an American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky. It is a very loose adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, The Tempest....
- Prospero's BooksProspero's BooksProspero's Books , written and directed by Peter Greenaway, is a cinematic adaptation of The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. John Gielgud is Prospero, the protagonist who provides the off-screen narration and the voices to the other story characters...
(1991 film) - List of William Shakespeare film adaptations