Love's Labour's Lost (2000) on Netflix
PG20001h 33mComedyMusicalRomance
The King of Navarre and his three courtiers swear off women for three years to study. A diplomatic visit from the Princess of France and her three ladies-in-waiting tests that oath.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.9/105,124 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes49%
Trailer
Plot summary
The King of Navarre has taken a vow to devote three years to study and contemplation and to keep away from romance. His chief courtiers join him in the oath, though Berowne warns that they will never manage to keep it. The Princess of France travels to Navarre to discuss the province of Aquitaine, but the King does not let her party inside his palace, so she and her ladies camp outside. There the men's resolve breaks down: each of the courtiers falls for one of the Princess's handmaidens, and the King falls for the Princess. Berowne's prediction proves right almost at once, and the four men set about concealing their feelings from one another while trying to find out what their friends are up to.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Love's Labour's Lost (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Kenneth Branagh had played the King of Navarre in a 1984 Royal Shakespeare Company season, and Harley Granville-Barker's essay on treating the play with a musical sense of rhythm led him to turn it into a musical, a bigger departure than in any of his earlier Shakespeare films.
- Branagh cast the film without much regard for singing or dancing ability, aiming for energy and enthusiasm rather than smooth competence; of the cast, only Nathan Lane was known primarily for musical work.
- The released film keeps only about a quarter of Shakespeare's lines; Branagh still included all seventeen of the original speaking roles, though some, especially the lower-class characters, are cut almost to nothing.
- After Love's Labour's Lost performed poorly commercially, Miramax shelved its three-picture deal with Kenneth Branagh, who did not return to Shakespeare on screen until As You Like It in 2006.
- Love's Labour's Lost was the first feature film made of Shakespeare's lesser-known comedy of the same name, and it was Kenneth Branagh's fourth film of a Shakespeare play.
