Much Ado About Nothing: A Screenplay

by Kenneth Branagh

Depicts the humorous mishaps which follow when young Claudio is duped into believing his fiancee has been unfaithful

Genres: Shakespeare, Film, Plays, Theatre, Nonfiction, Literature, Drama

131 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1993

About the author

Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is an Emmy Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated Northern Irish actor and film director.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edition is the the tie-in for the Kenneth Branagh movie, so it is the movie script - some of the play has been cut. It includes photos of the shot, including the names of the horses the men rode.

Much Ado is my favorite Shakespeare play and I could write a wonderful essay about it (I did in college after all). Kenneth Branagh, however, says it best in the introduction:

"In short, the play presents a whole series of emotional and spiritual challenges that we - young, old, male, female - continue to face when we love. And all throughout this comic debate about everything and nothing, there is life-giving, wisdom-bearing, humour and warmth. The piece is harsh and cruel as people can be. It is generous and kind as they can also be. It is uplifting but never sentimental. It 'holds the mirror up to nature' and allows us inside its wonderful warts-and-all world of human nature, to understand and perhaps even to forgive ourselves for some of our oft-repeated follies". (Branagh on page xvi).


To which I say - WORD.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Branagh's text, about 38% of Shakespeare's--not good; compare his Hamlet, which is almost all of Sh's text.
It appears a delightful film, with well cast leads including Dogberry, and maybe even Keanu as Don John though he can be off-putting quite beyond his role.
Many of the great lines in Sh. are Leonato's, and I think many of them B. cuts, though I cannot right now say which, ten years after teaching this. Leonato shows the same regret over his daughter as Capulet, Juliet's dad. Leonato on his only child, "Grieved I I had but one? / Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?/ O one too much by thee! Why had I one? / Why ever wast thou lovely in mine eyes..." Leonato's daughter Hero is falsely accused of a premarital affair as we might now call it, a minor offense in most parts of modern America.

Leonato's self-pity is engorging. When his brother Antonio tries to comfort him, the heart of Shakespearean wisdom emerges:"Brother, men / Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief / Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it/ Their counsel turns to passion, which before / Would give perceptial medicine to rage, / Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, / Charm ache with air and agony with words....No, no, 'tis all men's office to speak patience /...But no man's virtue nor suffieciency / To be so moral when he shall endure / The like himself." (5.1.30ff)
Five lines later, Shakespeare sums this up helpfully; Leonato to his brother, "I pray thee peace. I will be flesh and blood, / For there was never yet philosopher / That could endure the toothache patiently,/ However they have write the style of gods, / And made a push at chance and sufferance."
Later in the same scene, this profound Shakespearean wisdom is spiced by the humor of Dogberry's legal complaint against Borachio to Leonato, "this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me an ass..." "And masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass."
Though almost completely incompetent, Dogberry does in fact catch the bad guys.
As for toothache references in Shakespeare, there are several, and do not forget the barber's chair, "which fits any buttock," in Taming I believe.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I watched his movie version (ehhhnn) and I read this screenplay because I was playing Don John the bastard brother on stage back in high school.

In case anyone's interested, Joss Whedon's version of it that just came out is excellent. Better than Branagh's, for sure.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

We shall not cease from exploring

We shall not cease from exploring, and the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot-

We can now have voice-over narration with movies that make DVDs well worth buying and we can enjoy the mover more after seeing what the artist or writer or director was trying to accomplish. I myself need someone to tell me when my shoe is untied.

You may notice a few drawbacks to the DVD extra route that this book addresses. First, even if the media lasted forever the DVD will become unreadable with newer technology. Unless you have, a portable device about the size of a book a DVD can be clumsy to carry around. People that are book-oriented can get more pleasure from this medium.

The book itself is conveniently divided into logical sections:
Introduction
Synopsis
The screenplay
The cast
The film
The shoot

All the movements and dialog are clearly written. There are plenty of color pictures as visual aids. After enjoying, the different views of both Shakespeare and the movie, this book makes a great conversation item.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gift from my husband. So much fun to read the screenplay and compare it to the finished product. Also great notes and pictures.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare – The Comedies, Histories and Tragedies are ranked 128th on The Greatest Books of All time site, although he was once celebrated as the nec plus ultra, things have changed apparently, I was stupefied to read in The Economist that people know about Dan Brown – less than mediocre, when set against the luminaries – while Nineteen Eighty Four, Jane Eyre are lower than eighty, in the works hoi polloi have heard of, and The Da Vinci Code is somewhere near ten in this survey, ou sont les neiges d’antan, as Francois Villon said – nevertheless, you find more than five thousand reviews of magnum opera from the GOAT and other lists, together with notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made compilation and others on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... maybe you even have feedback



9 out of 10

This note refers to the adaptation for the big screen directed by Kenneth Branagh, who wrote the screenplay and stars in the film, with an incredible cast, the crème de la crème, Denzel Washington, Emma Thompson, Keanu Revees, Michael Keaton, Imelda Staunton, Kate Beckinsale, Brain Blessed and many others

Shakespeare has been an inspiration for me ever since I was a teenager https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... although not in the sophisticated manner specific to erudite folks, more on the animal level, I saw, heard the characters and felt they were noble

These knights, kings seemed worth emulating, they stood up with pride, were riding horses and looked imposing, it felt as if this is what men act and look like, the speech was impressive, they suggested strength – there was that small matter of ‘frailty thy name is woman’ from Hamlet, but these were different times
There is humor in Much Ado About Nothing and in the…sonnets: ‘Past cure I am, now reason is past care…For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night’ https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... but at the center there is romance and drama

Indeed, I was reminded of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the splendid play by Edward Albee, especially the version in which Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fight each other, and the result is tumultuous, mesmerizing, some of the best acting I have seen, meanwhile, Kenneth Brannagh must have been married to Emma Thomspon when filming Much Ado About Nothing, and I wonder what the impact has been
https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... come to think of it, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor separated, there is also the example of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman doing Eyes Wide Shut with another god of cinema, Stanley Kubrick, his last master work, and as they clash on screen, they would also separate in real life, just like Emma Thomspon and Kenneth Brannagh would

ergo the conclusion that thespians should avoid such features, or maybe there is correlation not causation, furthermore, the rate of divorce in this environment might be among the highest – I used to know that lawyers are the most depressed, suicidal, and with highest rates of divorce, some years back, and in America
to be an actor is dangerous, especially when they embrace method acting, as say Daniel Day Lewis – Brian Cox criticized this style and underlined that Day Lweis has burned out at fifty, only he is back now in a film directed by his son, Lewis, not Cox- and I had some proof recently, as Jim Caviezel came to…our club

he was in the gym, then in the sauna, and I said I know him from some films – could not place him with the Passion of The Christ, rather gruesome suffering there – and then he introduced himself to the men there and started on a series of conspiracy theories, explained how convinced he is Trump is excellent, even Putin is a good guy in his telling, by this point I had enough and left the enclosure, saying Jesus Christ almighty!

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book to accompany the movie. I found it at a cinema book store in Seattle, as well as the cloth edition of Beginning. There’s nothing new here, really, although one can take the screenplay and check it against the play to find out the changes that were made to the text.

Branagh says in the foreword that having the American actors was his idea. Perhaps. I had heard a rumor that he had included them for a wider U.S. distribution. In any case, it’s worth noting that the Americans, with the possible exception of Denzel Washington, just can’t hold a candle to even the meanest bit parts played by the British. I still think Keaton was way too “Beetlejuice” for Dogberry, although the explanation for his interpretation herein gave me new insight into it. If you’re a Branagh admirer as I am, you shouldn’t pass this book up.

[Brittney · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love the movie than you will love this too! It was a super quick read and a fun glimpse behind the scenes of the 1993 adaption of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The pictures were lovely, Kenneth Branagh's screenplay adaption was hilarious to read (I'm looking at you "Benedick in Hamlet Mode") and his insights into the play were a treat to read. I highly recommend this book.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with every nasty thing I have read about this film and its screenplay but love them both anyway. Charm is the word that most applies.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick read. Always loved the film and enjoy the behind the scenes photos in the book.

[Ryutaro Hamada · Rating 4 out of 5]

1.OXEORD, Stage2
2.7/3; 90 minutes
3.love, Italy, party, trouble, surprise, criminal, wedding
4.What is the biggest party have you ever attended?
- It is my aunt wedding party when I was six years old. It was great party!
5.This story was made by Shakespare. He is very famous person but I did not know this story. I think there are too many characters in this story so I think this story is a little bit difficult for me. But many pictures in this book help me to enjoy reading. It was very interesting!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preparing for Josh's version, I saw Kenneth's version, it was great.