Unmasking Shakespeare

Director Roland Emmerichs Anonymous,is a drama set in the Elizabethan era that boldly questions the authorship of Shakespeares works

ARI KARPEL

Since his career began three decades ago,Roland Emmerich has let his movies speak for themselves. And they have done so,rather loudly. There was the alien-shot laser beam zapping the White House to smithereens in Independence Day. Then a superstorm partly buried the Statue of Liberty in ice in The Day After Tomorrow. Most recently tidal waves levelled Rio,New York and the White House (again) in 2012. Aside from incidental witty banter,dialogue isnt paramount in Emmerichs oeuvre. That makes it all the more surprising that the master of disasters latest release,Anonymous is at heart about words,their meaning and their true source. A drama set in the Elizabethan era,it boldly questions the authorship of Shakespeares works. In doing so,it prompts consideration of the intersection of art and politics and the role of the artist in society.

With Anonymous,he blows up received wisdom about Shakespeare. The film posits that Edward de Vere,17th Earl of Oxford,played by Rhys Ifans,was the true author of the works of Shakespeare (an argument called the Oxfordian Theory) and was the incestuous lover of Elizabeth I (a twist known in academic circles as the Prince Tudor Theory Part II). Emmerich used his long-running success with Sony Pictures to make Anonymous happen. He is a great partner to be in business with, said Amy Pascal,co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment,which produced Emmerichs Patriot,Godzilla and 2012. And because Pascal said Anonymous wouldnt have the draw of his previous films,Emmerich had to get it made for around $30 million. And that took some creativity. Rather than building Elizabethan exteriors on soundstages,which would require what Pascal called astronomical sums,Emmerich opted to make the costume drama as if it were a disaster movie. He shot actors in front of green screens,then his longtime visual effects team conjured up 16th-century London,complete with crane shots of entire neighbourhoods. In a nod to the directors disaster past,the Globe Theater burns to the ground,a feat accomplished through computer-generated imagery.

Story continues below this ad

Once the script brought the issue of Shakespeare authorship to Emmerichs attention,he did his own research,transforming the story into one about power and politics by adding the Prince Tudor Theory. There are questions of succession and incest. Emmerich remains fascinated by the authorship debate. At 55,lean and tan,he can seem reserved because he is self-conscious about the heavy German accent he retains from his youth. But once he relaxed,he showed himself passionate about the question of Shakespeares identity.

Nobody will ever know what really went on then, he said. But certain things are very hard to explain,like how this commoner wrote these 36or some say 38plays. And why does this most learned man have two illiterate daughters? (Some Shakespeare scholars dispute this description of the daughters.) He continued: Its crazy,right? But they say its crazy to doubt it. They are the Stratfordians,scholars who specialise in Shakespeare.

Joely Richardson who plays Queen Elizabeth in the film and who Emmerich had earlier directed in The Patriot,recalled,I dont think he would mind me saying this,but when we first worked together 10 years ago,he smoked a lot of cigarettes and wasnt very good at talking to the actors. But with Anonymous,she sensed a transformation,a change she attributes in part to his deep passion for this project.

But the project that interests Emmerich the most is Happy Birthday,Mr President,an experiment in digital re-creation,that he would apply to John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe as minor characters. Its the project nobody wants to do, he said of the script,which seeks to do for the Kennedy image what Anonymous tries to do for Shakespeare – that is to say upend reputations.