Feb - March 2002
Newspaper reviews resulting from the two week season at Film Forum,
an art house in the West village, NY in Feb 2002.
NY Times. Will the real Shakespeare please stand
up? Mr. Rubbo is an old fashioned rabble rouser and he knows
a good story when he finds it. And he's got one in this case
with its adherents to the cause and their whipsaw articulation
of thoughts.....Much Ado About Something is a
film of ideas, well, notions anyway, that are bound to stimulate
discussion, an aspect long missing in documentary.
Elvis Mitchell
New York Post. Three stars. Shaking things up.
Brush up on your Shakespeare. Much Ado About Something
is an entertaining documentary that freshly considers arguments
that the Bard's immortal plays were written by someone else.
All the world's a scam?
Lou Lumenick
Village Voice. Much Ado About Something.
Australian, Michael Rubbo's humorously tendentious intervention
into the "who wrote Shakespeare," controversy. Rubbo,
who made a memorable portrait some time back of France's then
"New Philosophers," has a fondness for enthusiastic
intellectuals riding their hobby horses.
Time Out. It's a literary controversy with legs......Move
over Ripperologists and Kennedy assassination buffs, team Marlowe
has a conspiracy for you... The enthusiastic Rubbo lines up
an endearingly eccentric set of experts who argue that Shakespeare's
work teems with clues pointing to Marlowe.
Maitland McDonagh
BBC History magazine. Michael Rubbo takes a rather
weary topic....and gives it and gives it a hugely entertaining
new lease of life.
Critics Choice Sunday Times, London.
Why this outlandish theory should be easier to accept than the
idea of one true Shakespeare is unfathomable, but there are
few things more entertaining than to watch academics squabble.
Slant magazine. (four stars) Visually there isn't
much to Rubbo's video document. No matter, the material couldn't
possibly be more engaging, the implications of a "by Marlowe"
verdict are positively earth shattering. Even when the Shakespeare
camp seem to take charge, a new piece of evidence threatens
their complacency.
Ed Gonzalez
New Republic. One of the chief nominees for the
laurels is Christopher Marlowe, and now there is a lively documentary
on the Marlovian putsch. Much Ado About Something
was made by Michael Rubbo for Australian broadcast, and is shown
at Film Forum where, with bright interviewees, brisk editing
, clean photography, and good questions by the unseen Rubbo,
it sparkles along. Clips from Shakespeare films, season the
mix nicely... it makes for a crackling 94 minutes.
Stanley Kaufman
The Star Ledger. (three stars) Much ado about
the Bard's authenticity. This is as about as lively as literary
criticism gets. And although Rubbo's film making is amateurish,....
his subjects are wonderful.
Stephen Whitt
Salon.com. It was Michael Rubbo's new Video Documentary,
which has just completed a two week run at Film Forum, that
smashed my paradigm.
Gavin Mcnett
IGNY.com. The delightful Ms. Marple like mystery
tale is a documentary by Australian, Michael Rubbo. Much
Ado About Something will both challenge and amuse you
as you meet a collection of English and American eccentrics
who refuse to allow Willie to claim what they think are actually
Marlowe's work.
Feb 2002
These comments are from academics who filled in a questionnaire
after a public screening at a Shakespeare conference in Launceston,
Tasmania. Mostly anonymous.
Surely it’s a satiric doco. Gets sad towards the end.
Seems to start taking itself seriously. Not the film of a sensitive
writer film maker. Argues a patently weak case with increasing
desperation. Viewer 1.
A very silly and poorly researched documentary. A collection
of anecdotes, unsubstantiated hypotheses, and evangelical faith.
A fairly useless piece of work. Viewer
2.
Entertaining but occasionally infuriating in its “proof.”
Viewer 3.
Yes, it certainly made me wonder about a few things. A lot
of the time, I thought it was just a bunch of scallywags in
love with a bullshit story, but a few times I actually found
myself believing the whole thing. Viewer
4.
Well made, but just a beat up. No new evidence whatsoever presented.
I would suggest that Michael Rubbo should read Park Honan’s
Shakespeare: A Life. But I suppose that would have spoilt
his fun. Viewer 5.
I enjoyed the film very much and think is should be widely
shown to students. I would love to show it to mine. Viewer
6.
Nov - Dec 2001
Selected quotes from Australian Academics to whom the tape was
sent in Nov. 2001. The replies were not collected anonymously,
but sent back to the film maker.
I'm a 'Stratfordian"..... Nevertheless the film was totally
gripping as a speculation about Marlowe, who had a more exciting
life than any of his contemporary poets. I long to know if those
alleged letters about Marlowe in Italy will ever turn up and
be proved genuine!'
Prof. Penny Gay, Chair, dept of English.
Univ. of Sydney.
All in all, though, you've struck quite a blow for skepticism
on the
authorship question
Pat Buckridge. School of Humanities,
Griffith University, Queensland.
Congratulations--I think it's very well made and you've put
together a great mix of people, from official experts like Wells
& Bate to all the
Marlovians. As you say, Bate and Wells didn't simply dismiss
the questions you raised but it was interesting to see how something
deep within stops them changing their minds. I like the way
the tension builds up through the film, and the mix of doco
style, dramatizations, and old footage is very effective too.
The most interesting thing for me about the film is the way
so many people have this deeply vested interested in preserving
Shakespeare as author.Others equally invested in elevating Marlowe.
The way these literary & historical questions become central
to people's lives, not only with academic/intellectual interests
but with moral, psychological and emotional overtones, is fascinating.
There is an almost religious side to it all.
Personally I can't really see that there's any convincing evidence
to
suggest that Marlowe survived, lived in Italy or wrote the plays....but
who can predict what documents might turn up somewhere?
Lloyd Davis, Reader in English. Univ.
of Queensland.
Your marshalling of the evidence and the argument are very
impressive. But I guess I have trouble trying to think WHY people
want to argue for Marlowe. The idea of joint authorship is very
clever.
Prof. Bob White. Univ. of Western Australia.
For me, the most notable feature is the way you communicated
the
personalities of the Marlovians in all their single mindedness
and
quirkiness...I also thought the film was interesting in it's
variety. The
actors, readings and the excerpts from performances combine
well with the talking heads element, and the settings in Canterbury,
Deptford, Stratford Church, and so on, are arresting, not picture
postcard.
The investigative persona that you constructed for yourself
works well. it does not have the effect of someone mounting
a case, but someone investigating a series of questions, adding
his own, taking on a range of opinions. I have to add that I
am not at all convinced by the anti Shakespearean arguments.
Prof. Anthony Miller, Univ.
of Sydney
When I first heard about this documentary I thought, 'Oh no.
Not that old chestnut. Are people still falling for that nonsense.'
Consequently I began watching 'Much Ado About Something'
with all my prejudices set against enjoying it. Within a few
minutes it was clear that this was not some po-faced conspiracy
theorist at work.
I found myself being utterly beguiled by the humor and by the
celebration of the eccentricities of the people being interviewed.
Their daffiness is captured with real affection and in such
a way that before the film had run its course I was a convert
to the possibility that Shakespeare did not in fact write his
plays.
'Much Ado About Something' is a classic example
of knowledge and scholarship being imparted by stealth. The
construction of the argument is so entertainingly achieved that
I was seduced into abandoning my previously rigid refusal to
examine the evidence.
What I loved about this film was its ability to convey the
excitement which the authorship issue arouses. The devotees
of Marlowe hold their positions fiercely and argue passionately,
and Mike Rubbo's gentle camera preserves the integrity of those
passions and at the same time manages to reinvigorate the debate
by allowing us to feel that this can be fun.
This is a hugely satisfying film. As a teacher of English Literature
I would not hesitate to show it to my class. It reveals a great
literary mystery and unfolds with all the drama of a first class
detective story. I loved it.
Robert Gott. High school teacher.
Sept 2001
Reviews resulting from screening at Toronto Film Festival 2001.
Much Ado About Something is a very tasty inquiry
into the authorship of the world's most enduring literary classics.
If it all sounds like a dry argument, it isn’t the way
Rubbo handles it. For a rather academic subject, the film bubbles
with humor. Experts disagree, there’s even dissention between
a husband and wife. He’s for Marlowe. She’s for Will.
David Stratton. Variety
What a joy to find Michael Rubbo behind the camera and in fine
form. Way back in 1974, while toiling for our own National
Film Board (a Canadian review) he made Waiting for Fidel
the original Stalk-umentary which greatly influenced the work
of Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield. Here he has turned his
playfully intelligent mind to the most stubborn of Questions."Did
Shakespeare write Shakespeare."
Globe & Mail, Toronto
Jan 2001 - Feb 2002
Academics who appear in the film.
Yes, the tone was excellent - and the editing quite superb.
Jonathan Bate Univ. of Liverpool.
Congratulations -- I think it's brilliant. Very pacey and atmospheric.
Charles Nicholl, author of The Reckoning.
I enjoyed the film. Stanley Wells.
Playful and compelling. Mark Rylance.
