A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)

Set in Athens, a father (Nicholas Selby) objects to his daughter's (Helen Mirren) choice of husband (David Warner). He wants her to marry another man (Michael Jayston) but his daughter's best friend (Diana Rigg) is in love with him though he isn't with her. Based on the play by William Shakespeare and directed by Peter Hall (THREE INTO TWO WON'T GO). Hall was one of the most important figures in the British theatre. He also directed operas but his film output is small and erratic. This film adaptation (the second after 1935's Warner Brothers movie) is a mixed bag and I didn't think it was very successful. It's the most magical of Shakespeare's comedies (one could even call it an early example of a romantic comedy) but there's no magic here and MIDSUMMER'S DREAM without magic is tedious. For some reason, Hall thought to set it in modern times (Mirren and Rigg wear knee high boots and mini skirts) and the contemporary mixture with the faeries in the forest aspect of it just doesn't work. The acting is mostly good (especially Diana Rigg) but some of it is bad (Ian Holm's Puck). With Michael Jayston, Bill Travers, Barbara Jefford, Ian Richardson, Sebastian Shaw and Paul Rogers.