Beyond The Mask: Benedick And Beatrice In Kenneth Branagh's ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ 1993 Film

'Much Ado About Nothing' 1993 Film Poster

The variety of characteristics including hysterics, comedy, and wit are the few of many pieces that Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 Film, ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ portrays between the characters of Benedick and Beatrice. Within the high energized world that he creates that is along the sunbathed area of the Tuscan countryside, Branagh manages to similarly adapt his visions of the two characters to William Shakespeares original vison. Including, similar to exact setting, rhythmed dialogue, and in-depth core dynamics, Branagh stays within the vision, but goes  beyond the original piece. However, by doing so, he excellently limits himself towards using Shakespeare’s original formats when it came down to executing a plot and going forward with those core dynamics between Benedick and Beatrice, as well as other concepts and dynamics outside of those two characters as well. When displaying constant bickering and sharp wit between these two characters, Branagh brought out one of the concepts of their dynamic, with this being their continuous “merry war.” As for making it stay as original as possible to Shakespeare’s idea, he displays this film in a way that shows the audience how he took what Shakespeare made verbal and turned it into a visual. With Shakespeare’s, he started out the beginning portion of his play showcasing the bickering between Benedick and Beatrice. 

BENEDICK: “If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all of Messina, as like him as she is.”

BEATRICE: “I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick, nobody marks you.” 
BENEDICK: “What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?
BEATRICE: “Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain if you come in her presence.” (1.1.119-121)

            With this, Branagh opened his film in a similar way by having Beatrice voice over lyrics as a portrait of a painted house is shown on an easel in the home of Leonato. As for the lyrics she is singing, they represent the nature of men and romantic relationships. This is then similar to Shakespeare’s words (displayed above) since the conversation Benedick and Beatrice are having involve Beatrice (a female) being feisty towards Benedick (a male), representing how she views Benedick as an incompetent male. After dissecting the dialogue, setting, and plots that Shakespeare uses while considering Branagh’s adaptation of the characters Benedick and Beatrice, it can be easily seen that Branagh adapted the film to fit the play’s main dynamics, including the core dynamic between both of these characters. This is what start’s Branagh off in the right direction regarding his film. 

William Shakespeare’s Characters vs. Branagh’s Embodiment Of Benedick And Beatrice

Beatrice And Benedick Speaking At The Masquerade

In Shakespeare’s play, both Benedick and Beatrice are verbally represented to be sharp- tongued and fierce acquaintances that ultimately turns into a diverse sense of love, forming them into a romantic a couple. Their chemistry is to be visualized as magnetic characters who are equals. Even though they are equals, their constant antagonism of one other mask a pre-existing romantic connection. His play verbally includes that “merry war” like concept of the repeated insults that both characters are consistently firing back at each other time, after time again. With their merry war, it also pulls at their character dynamic by showcasing their mutual terror. This mutual terror being the first one to surrender their pride and/or independence to romance. There are many turning points within his play that include the comedic devices being used between both characters, where each is tricked into believing in the possibility that the other is distressfully in love with them. Cinematically speaking, Branagh takes all of these verbal cues from Shakespeare’s play and makes them into visuals. In which, these visuals are as similar as they can be seen to be. For example, Branagh tries to use different mediums to adapt their dynamic. He includes a very sun-drenched setting for these two characters to showcase the core of their dynamic and how it is changing. His film still includes those given verbal cues but scatters them out through the dialogue while utilizing the different plots and setting that he uses for these two characters. Likely enough, both the play and film show their change in bickering to solidarity at the famous altar scene. Both versions have Beatrice stating to “Kill Claudio” (4.1.303) & (1:04:00), while Benedick is making the attempt to challenge Claudio. 

The Film Dissection Of Act II, Scene 1 

With my chosen scene featuring Benedick and Beatrice, (Act II, Scene 1), I heavily focused on the minimal portion of the scene where we see Bendick and Beatrice conversating with each other at Leonato’s house, during the masquerade party. In the film, it is seen that Beatrice had been following around Benedick (whose identity was hidden with a mask), questioning him if he has seen a man named Benedick anywhere around. Obviously, we know that Beatrice isn’t aware that Benedick is ironically the one under the mask whom she is speaking to. Which is partially showcased through the scene. 

Beatrice's Reaction To Benedick's Response 

But, it is interesting to visually look at how Branagh showcased Beatrice’s body language and dialogue when conversing with Benedick. As shown, she is very vocal with the words she uses and really active with how she moves her body. It even makes you question if she was aware or not that she had been speaking about Benedick to Benedick himself. Even though through her body language, that the film clearly shows she in-fact isn’t aware that it’s him. Continuing on, Beatrice then starts bashing Benedick to the masked man (Benedick) with one of the comments she ends up making being the following. “Did he ever make you laugh?” The masked man (Benedick) then replied to her in a disguised voice, “Not I, believe me.” She then replies with.” Why, he is the Princes's jester, a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising impossible slanders.” (0:25:24) As being shown, it’s noticeable within the visual change in dialogue, how when Beatrice mimics the masked man’s voice when saying the word “why,” that she is heavily annoyed with even the concept of Benedick. During this interaction, Branagh focuses a lot on close and individual camera angles. And with these camera angles, we were able to see Benedick fidgeting with his mask constantly as Beatrice continued attacking and insulting his character. 

Beatrice Taking A Bite Of The Apple

This is an amazing portrayal on Branagh’s part because we are getting that physical reaction to how Benedick is feeling regarding the comments that are being made about him. It’s also seen at the end of their interaction how Beatrice then acquires an apple and takes a bite out of it in a feisty yet satisfying manner. The purpose of this is to add a comedic metaphor while also representing what the action of taking a bite out of an apple means. The concept of the apple itself dates back to the story of Adam and Eve. When Eve (who is female) takes a bite out of the forbidden fruit (the apple), it marks her to be depicted as disobedience and notes the transition for her loss of innocence. It also infers the idea of seizing the opportunity, while at the seduction of lucrative actions of a female. In the end, Adam eventually is persuaded by Eve to take a bite of this apple, showcasing the deception of a woman. In this case of this scene, Beatrice taking a bite out of that apple visualizes her threshold of knowledge. Meaning, it symbolizes Beatrice pulling away from being naïve and running towards the state of truth. It also gives her the self-dependency to claim her own desires, which partially can pertain to the romance between her and Benedick. 

Conclusion 

The film itself contains a lot of similarities to Shakespeare’s original play, thanks to the interpretation of Kenneth Branagh. It can be seen that the core dynamic of Benedick and Beatrice was showcased through this film not just through using the same format but from visual cinema, similar dialogue, and an amazing plot that details to the original.

 The characters of Benedick and Beatrice are both still depicted to be a part of the enemies to lover’s trope that both versions play out for its audience. So, by Branagh going beyond the original piece of work, he laid out a format that exhibited the character dynamic that the characters were able to show up-close and in action. And with that, he went beyond the mask of Benedick and into the individual dynamic of Beatrice.