Get in the line, rush to get a good seat and prepare yourself to dream. Shakespeare in Love premieres this week and it is that good. The movie is a hilarious version of Williams Shakespeare’s life at the time when he was writing Romeo and Juliet.

It all starts with any writer’s worst nightmare: writer's block. The young Will is due to finish a new comedy and the owner of the local theater is pressuring him. He already has a title, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter, the pen is in his hand but he has no ideas in his mind. His personal life is not in a good phase either: he is not speaking with his wife and his girlfriend is ignoring him.

Will is a nickname for William Shakespeare, the biggest poet and playwright of the English language. Shakespeare in Love shows, with plenty of humor and fiction, Will’s personal drama getting mixed with the Romeo and Juliet story line, all because of Viola De Lesseps, a rich and beautiful lady…but promised to another man.

Even though the story is set in 1593, the sense of humor is typical of our days: witty and fast. The costumes and settings are old but the way the characters handle their problems makes it possible for anyone to identify with them.

Of course your boyfriends are not going to admit right away unless you provoke them a bit and even then all they will probably say is that Joseph Fiennes is "cute" – He is actually gorgeous. Joseph is the younger brother of Ralph Fiennes, famous for his role in The English Patient. He already knew Shakespeare very well after having performed some of his plays many times in the theater. "I never felt like interpreting the writer, but the irresponsible Will," he says.

Irresponsible and irresistible. You can’t help noticing his eyes – and lips, and shoulders and his back – when he and Viola surrender to each other, heart and soul, to the passion that consume them, and together under the sheets start writing the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet.

If Shakespeare were alive, he would like to see himself portrayed by Joseph. Considered a genius, he certainly wasn’t a handsome man. All his portraits show an early baldness and a round face.

MORE ALIVE THAN EVER

Who was Shakespeare?

Shakespeare in Love reinvents William Shakespeare’s most celebrated play. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, in England, in 1564. Besides his work, which includes 154 sonnets and 38 plays, very little is known of his life.

Thanks to documents such as his will and marriage license, we know that he was married, had three kids – Susanna, the oldest, and the twin Judith and Hamnet, this last having died at the age of 11 – and became rich investing in real estate. Already successful, he helped to build the Globe Theatre, one of England’s most famous theaters. He never lived a love story like the one shown in this movie.

Unfortunately, because none of Shakespeare’s manuscripts survived the years, many researchers question the authenticity of his plays. Many of them believe that such a simple man could not have written complex tragedies like Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.

THE IRRESISTIBLE WILL

Interview by Alexandra Farah

Joseph Fiennes finds fame to be the worst part of being an actor.

When he was 17 years old, Joseph Fiennes was already involved in theater. After that he participated in a movie along with Liv Tyler called Stealing Beauty. Only now at 28 he got the world’s attention with Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth, another period movie. "Losing my privacy is the worst part of my profession," he says visibly irritated when we ask him how he feels being considered "the new sex symbol." "I see what happened to my brother," he says, referring to Ralph Fiennes, the most famous of his siblings. "Ever since his success with The English Patient (which earned him an Oscar nomination in 1996), Ralph cannot go anywhere without becoming news."

About His Family:

"My father is a photographer and my mother an artist. We moved fourteen times in England. My childhood was chaotic, messy and wonderful. When you are a child, you can adapt to everything. An actor has to do the same way."

About Gwyneth Paltrow:

“She is Will’s muse and she had to dress like a boy because at that time women could not be actors. Even like that the whole cast and crew fell in love with her, and so did I. Gwyneth is a real muse, she is a true inspiration."

About His Famous Brother:

"When Ralph’s became famous and couldn’t go anywhere without having a photograph taken, I realized that I didn’t want to become famous myself. What gives me pleasure is to find a different way to interpret each character. It is very rare that my family gets together, but when we do the last thing we talk is work."

Keep an Eye on Him:

When he looks his best in the movie

- When Will hears Viola’s voice for the first time during her audition for the play and he runs after her throughout the 16th century London.
- During their first kiss.
- In the final scene, after Romeo and Juliet ends and he starts writing a new play dedicated to his forbidden love.

MILK-SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare in Love mixes a lot of fiction with reality and makes a lot of jokes referring to Shakespeare’s life. Read the following notes so that you can understand some of the jokes.

Writing his signature – The beginning of the movie shows Shakespeare trying different signatures without being happy with any of them.

True story – There is no manuscript with Shakespeare’s signature which raised a controversy about him being the real author of his famous plays. In the last century, a Francis Bacon’s disciple (1561-1626) guaranteed that Bacon was the real author.

The crane – During Romeo and Juliet’s rehearsal a fight broke out and the theater’s owner protects himself by holding a crane.

True story – Only many years later, the crane would become famous during a monologue in Hamlet (1601). Romeo and Juliet was written in 1594.

Romeo and… - Shakespeare is having a hard time trying to finish his play then called Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter. It is his contemporary Marlowe who suggests him to write a play about a forbidden love.

True Story – There are no facts that show that Shakespeare had any help when writing Romeo and Juliet. Christopher Marlowe did exist and was considered Shakespeare’s biggest rival at that time.

The Real Romeo and Juliet

The story line of Shakespeare in Love is not real. There was no Juliet in Shakespeare’s life. His most renowned play was inspired on an Italian tale from the 16th century. If you want to know more about it, there are two versions made for the big screen: Franco Zefirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968), and Baz Luhrmann version in 1996 with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

The Movie’s Best Scene

The movie is all beautiful but one particular scene deserves special attention: It is when Will invades Viola’s bedroom and both surrender to love. But that is not all. As she was still dressed like a boy, Will takes off her wig and proceeds to unwrap the bandage that kept her breast tied. It is wonderful. The next morning when Viola’s maid announces the arrival of a new day, Viola’s corrects her by saying with a bright smile on her face: "It's a new world!"