TSMS_Assignment3

**Theresa Stratmann**
 * Assignment 3 – The role of the director. **

The director is responsible for interpreting the play by shaping the character interpretation, costuming, sets, and script selection. This means, no two productions of the same play will ever actually be the same. Each director wishes to highlight different themes and sometimes uses the play to comment on current events. The role of the director is best examined in comparing two productions of the same play. Olivier and Branaugh’s film productions of Shakespeare’s Henry V serve well for this purpose.

Olivier’s film was produced in 1944 during the Second World War, and this context heavily influenced how the play was interpreted. As in WWII, Henry V, pits the English against the French. Olivier, an Englishmen, therefore used this play to reflect England’s dislike of France. This was done mainly through costuming, cutting lines, and character representation.

Olivier presents the French as cocky, gaudy, and pompous. To do this he first cuts most of the Constable and Grandpre’s lines, giving the French only a few lines, the lengthiest of which sounds very self-confident and cocky:

“Mount them, and make incision in their hides, That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, And dout them with superfluous courage, ha!”

To add to this cocky manner the director has chosen to put them in very gaudy, rich, pompous clothing (lots of flashy blue), so heavy that they have to be lifted onto their horses by men or crane, which looks absolutely absurd. Then before the battle - to emphasize how carelessly and confidently they approach the battle - they are seen drinking wine.

Opposite the French, the English come out shining. Olivier paints them as heroic in the face of adversity. They are in very subdued costumes, mostly brown, showing just simple insignia. Instead of drinking before the battle they are seen working diligently and assiduously to prepare the battlefield. The scene depicting this English preparation is also much lengthier with fewer lines cut. Henry V talks of values like honor and sacrifice, acknowledging that the circumstances are against them, but that they will nonetheless put up a gallant fight. Although determined to win, the English therefore come off as much more noble and tactful than the hotheaded French.

Branaugh breathes a very different interpretation into the play. It was produced in 1989 during the Falkland War against Argentina. In this war, the French aided the English. There was therefore no overwhelming political context or motivation to portray the French in a particularly bad light. Hence, Branaugh cuts less of their lines, gives them simpler costumes, and a fierce, stoic demeanor. Branaugh’s English do not differ much from Olivier’s. Again, the English are in simple, brown costumes, and Branaugh makes almost the same cuts to the English camp scene. Therefore the same sense of honor, sacrifice, bravery, and gallantry surrounding the English is preserved. Branaugh does add another level of gallantry by playing very dramatic, emotional music during Henry V’s famous speech and then having all the soldiers drop to their knees and kiss the Earth in a sort of prayer, showing that they are God fearing men.

The fact that Branaugh does not aim to negatively portray the French is especially emphasized in the scene with the French messenger, Montjoy. In Olivier’s version of this scene Montjoy is on foot and Henry is on his horse, clearly conveying to the audience that the English are above the French. Yet in Branaugh’s version Montjoy remains on his horse and Henry V, on foot, nonetheless takes such a firm stand and makes such a passionate speech that Montjoy takes off his hat to Henry. Such an act speaks more powerfully and has so much more meaning than Oliver’s interpretation.

Besides taking different approaches in portraying the French, the two directors also make different choices for the setting. Olivier’s is a very story-book-like setting: a wide-open, sunny field for the battlefield, and a collection of tents (flashy white for the French) with waving flags for both the camps. Branaugh chooses to add more realism to his production. The British are camped in a forest and it’s a cold, dreary day (you can see the actors, breath as they talk). This emphasizes the carnal, wild, cold, dirty nature of war.

Through the interpretation of the director the audience is left with two very different impressions of the characters and events of these two same scenes of the same play. Olivier, influenced by the current events of his time, portrays the French as pompous, gaudy, and over-confident. The whole play is produced like a story out of King Arthur. Branaugh, without political motivations to dislike the French, chooses to focus instead on more realistically presenting the play with the French as the fierce, stoic enemy. And so it seems as if these two productions are from two different plays, simply through the choices the directors made in costuming, script selection, character portrayal, and setting.