A Midsummer Night's Dream 1909

A Midsummer Night's Dream

1909 · United States · Directed by Charles Kent, J. Stuart Blackton · 12 min

FunnyStrange Great first watch · Moderate Fantasy comedy

Lovers, fairies, and amateur actors cross paths in a forest where enchantment makes affection change direction without warning.

What to expect

One of the earliest Shakespeare films to survive at substantial length, it turns stage magic into cinematic substitution, disappearance, and double exposure. Its brevity reveals which images early filmmakers considered enough to summon the play.

How to ease in

Do not try to recover every relationship from twelve minutes. Follow Puck and the magic flower, then watch how one intervention rearranges bodies into new pairs.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes magical coercion, romantic manipulation, period theatrical conventions, and a highly compressed adaptation.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →

Lovers, fairies, and amateur actors cross paths in a forest where enchantment makes affection change direction without warning.

The forest feels less like a place than a permission for editing to misbehave. I enjoy watching a cut or substitution perform the work that Shakespeare gives to a spell.

Open the note ↓

The forest feels less like a place than a permission for editing to misbehave. I enjoy watching a cut or substitution perform the work that Shakespeare gives to a spell.

— Momo

Momo guiding the way into this film

Credits & versions

Version map

Wikidata 12-minute listing12 min12 minutes reproduces the single duration stated by the source. The listing does not identify a cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration.Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-22

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