HOW BARD BOUNCED BACK; `SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE' TELLS HUMAN TALE ABOUT PLAYWRIGHT.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Staff Writer

When ``Shakespeare in Love'' opens, all is not well in Will's world.

The Bard, suffering from a paralyzing bout of writer's block and pressured by financiers and theater owners, just can't seem to work up much enthusiasm for his latest play, ``Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter.''

The witty, fast-paced ``Shakespeare in Love,'' nominated for six Golden Globes last week, portrays the young Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) as a largely unknown playwright without inspiration or material who falls for a woman who draws him into a dramatic - and very funny - tale of star-crossed love.

Much like a play by the Bard, the film, which goes into wide release Christmas Day, is a story of mistaken identities, mixed messages and ill-gotten desires in which Will finds his voice through a love affair with Lady Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), a woman who is Shakespeare's mental match.

``Viola is very sensory, very passionate, very open, and it's not until the second half of the film that she becomes really aware of herself and how life can be solemn and serious,'' Paltrow said. ``At the beginning, everything is enchanted for her - her life is a fairy tale.''

Of course, the real William Shakespeare's life and how he created his plays are mostly a mystery. The fictional plot of ``Shakespeare in Love'' falls between the few solid facts we know about the Bard. Mostly the film, which was co-written by Tom Stoppard, seeks to answer how Shakespeare made the artistic leap between his early, flawed plays and his romantic masterwork, ``Romeo and Juliet,'' first performed in 1594.

``You can argue that `Romeo and Juliet' is the first time Shakespeare really becomes Shakespeare,'' said Marc Norman, the film's co-writer who devised the plot almost 10 years ago after one of his sons called with the idea of the Bard as a struggling playwright.

``Up until then, he'd written a bunch of plays that were good but not much better than anybody else's work,'' Norman said. ``But with `Romeo and Juliet,' that's when he becomes Shakespeare and leaves the rest behind. And I began to wonder why that happened, what could've caused that.''

The cast includes Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush as theatrical producer Philip Henslowe; Paltrow's real-life beau, Ben Affleck, as Ned Alleyn, the actor playing Mercutio in the film's version of ``Romeo and Juliet''; Rupert Everett as playwright Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's rival; plus such top British character actors as Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I; Imelda Staunton as Viola's nurse; and Colin Firth as the Earl of Wessex, Viola's gruff fiance.

The film's Golden Globe nominations, viewed as a barometer for the Academy Award nods in February, include top musical or comedy film, Paltrow for best actress, Dench and Rush for supporting actors, John Madden for director and Norman and Stoppard for screenwriters of the year.

``It's usually a no-no to make a film that's about language, but I felt this story had such tremendous cinematic possibilities, which was an amazing challenge,'' said British director Madden, whose ``Mrs. Brown'' explored the relationships between Queen Victoria and her employees.

``Mainly, I didn't want to get out of Shakespeare's world once I was in it. There's something so intoxicating about this story, which is partly about the intoxication of theater but also the transformation that art can bring about. People are always surprised how contemporary Shakespeare can feel, but if you spend any time with his work, the psychological observations and feelings and emotions are astoundingly contemporary.''

The film has a long history. After Norman wrote his first script in the early '90s, Stoppard came aboard for rewrites, and the movie went into pre-production. The project, initially owned by Universal, then fell into sudden limbo with a large price tag attached.

``A lot of people were interested in making it, but it cost so much to buy because of the money Universal had already incurred,'' Norman explained. ``If there's a hero to this story, it's (Miramax Films co-chairman) Harvey Weinstein. He stepped up, said he wanted the project and wrote a check.''

On the eve of production, Universal opted to partner with Miramax to co-produce the film, which has received raves from nearly every critic in the nation.

Paltrow, already one of Hollywood's leading ladies for her star turn in ``Emma,'' was Weinstein's first choice to play Viola. The selection of an actor to play Will proved more challenging.

``The search for Will was quite a long one, and the thing we looked for was you had to instantly believe that this guy wrote the plays,'' said Stoppard, whose screenplays include ``Empire of the Sun'' and ``Brazil,'' while his internationally acclaimed drama ``Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' unfolds between two minor characters in Shakespeare's ``Hamlet.''

``I wondered whether, after `Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,' it might be a bad idea for me to return to this theme,'' Stoppard said. ``Once I got to work, I was carried away by the ideas and possibilities of the story. I started with Marc's screenplay and added characters and dialogue. We worked sequentially. Basically, he built the vessel, and I filled it.''

British-born Fiennes, the brother of Ralph, had appeared in just three feature films, including ``Stealing Beauty'' and, most recently, as Dudley in ``Elizabeth,'' also with Rush. But he has an impressive career in theater, including seasons at the Royal Shakespeare Company and on London's West End.

``To a certain extent I had to put aside my own reverence about the writer of such great works of English literature and just get on with it,'' Fiennes, 28, said. ``I had to adopt the attitude that as soon as I put on those tights, I am Will Shakespeare.''

It's the love affair with Viola that gives Will the impetus and material to finish his play, which ends up as `Romeo and Juliet,' the play-within-the-film that gives ``Shakespeare in Love'' much of its poetry. At several points, Stoppard has Shakespeare uttering lines from his plays as dialogue in his daily life.

Rush and others believe that ``Shakespeare in Love,'' like Baz Luhrmann's ``William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet,'' could provide a door-opener for people who might not be terribly familiar with the Bard and his world.

``Baz found a way to make a movie version of very complex poetic text that was very richly true to Shakespeare,'' said Rush, whose Henslowe runs the Rose Theatre and is one of the new film's many memorable comic characters. ``This one, in its mock-Tudor way, could be a great invitation for people. When I read the script it seemed to scream `be in this,' `do this movie.' It was like being invited to the party of the year.''

Co-writer Norman said he considered Luhrmann's film, hoping the two movies with ``Shakespeare'' in their titles could co-exist.

``The idea was to kind of knock Shakespeare off his pedestal and kick him around in the dirt for a while and have some fun with him and then restore him to his pedestal maybe with a better idea of why he belongs there,'' Norman said.

``I never wanted this to be an elitist film, an `in' film or an art film. I didn't want it to be anything but a completely popular film.''

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color--Cover) Playing around; `Shakespeare in Love' takes the measure of a lusty young Romeo

Photo illustration by Traci Wooden/Daily News

(2) Gwyneth Paltrow plays the Lady Viola De Lesseps, muse to the young Bard (Joseph Fiennes), in ``Shakespeare in Love.''

(3) ``Shakespeare in Love'' director John Madden previously made ``Mrs. Brown.''