MOVIE DIALOG OF THE DAY ― MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993)

Connection with the previous post (THOR: THE DARK WORLD): Kenneth Branagh co-produced both films and starred in and directed MUCH ADO.

RATINGS: IMDB ― 7.4/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 85%, ME ― 80%



Benedick: Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?

Beatrice: Yea... and I will weep a while longer.

Benedick: I will not desire that.

Beatrice: You have no reason. I do it freely.

Benedick: Surely, I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.

Beatrice: How much might the man deserve of me that would right her!

Benedick: Is there any way to show such friendship?

Beatrice: A very even way, but no such friend.

Benedick: May a man do it?

Beatrice: It is a man's office... but not yours.

Benedick: I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?

Beatrice: As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you. But believe me not. And yet I lie not. I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin.

Benedick: By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.

Beatrice: Do not swear, and eat it.

Benedick: I will swear by it that you love me, and I will make him eat it that says I love not you.

Beatrice: Why, then, God forgive me!

Benedick: What offense, sweet Beatrice?

Beatrice: You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest I loved you.

Benedick: And do it with all thy heart.

Beatrice: I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

Benedick: [Kisses Beatrice] Come. Bid me do anything for thee.

Beatrice: Kill Claudio.

Trivia (From IMDB):

First theatrical film of Kate Beckinsale, who shot this film, during her summer break, from studying Russian and French at New College, Oxford, England.

The entire final scene, showing the whole cast singing and dancing to "Hey Nonny Nonny", is a single shot.

Like Much Ado About Nothing (1967), this film casts a real-life married couple in the leads. In the earlier, made-for-television film, it was Robert Stephens and Dame Maggie Smith. In this film, it is Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Both couples later divorced.

During the Oscar season in early 1994 the Samuel Goldwyn company spent ten million dollars campaigning the film to garner Oscar nominations. They sent bulky packets to all members of the Academy, and played up the film, in hopes of getting it on the final ballot. The effort was all for naught; the film, though highly acclaimed and (unusually for William Shakespeare) a box-office hit, received no Oscar nominations.

Much of the singing was not re-recorded.

Keanu Reeves claimed in an interview on British radio, that during filming, Brian Blessedbefriended him, and taught him how to meditate.

A tricky sell to any studio, many felt that the reason the film got green-lit, was not so much because of Kenneth Branagh, or all-star cast, but because Keanu Reeves has a shirtless scene early in the film.

Set in Messina, Sicily, but filmed in Chianti, Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

This is the first of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespearean films to have a pre-credits opening sequence. The only other such film is As You Like It (2006). The sequence is actually part of Scene I of the play.

Three "Harry Potter" Professors have roles in this movie. Kenneth Branagh was Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Emma Thompson was Sybil Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), and Imelda Staunton was Dolores Umbridge, also in "Phoenix".

Phyllida Law (Ursula) is the mother of Emma Thompson (Beatrice). At the time that the film was made, she was the mother-in-law of Kenneth Branagh (Benedick).

This is one of two 1993 films to star both Kenneth Branagh (Benedick) and Robert Sean Leonard (Claudio). The other is Swing Kids (1993).

Dame Judi Dench was offered the role of Ursula.

The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Emma Thompson and Denzel Washington; and three Oscar nominees: Michael Keaton, Imelda Staunton, and Kenneth Branagh.

The film marked the first screen kiss for Kate Beckinsale, when she locked lips with co-star Robert Sean Leonard.

Director Trademark ―  

Kenneth Branagh: [Patrick Doyle] The frequent Branagh composer is cast as Balthasar.