Shakespeare in Love would go on to win seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Gwyneth Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), and Best Original Screenplay. In 1593 London, William Shakespeare is a sometime player in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and poor playwright for Philip Henslowe, owner of The Rose Theatre. Shakespeare is working on a new comedy, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter". Suffering from writer's block, he has barely begun the play, and is further distracted by attempts both to seduce Rosaline, the mistress of Richard Burbage, owner of the rival Curtain Theatre and to convince Burbage to buy the
Love Torn in a Dream trademarks of Ruiz’s work to any seasoned fan. "Variety" identified it as "witty diversion for upscale auds," perhaps hinting at the lofty, enigmatic narrative games it plays, praised it as "another sly, spry intellectual game", but complained about the excessive length of the film. "Les Inrockuptibles" found it impossible to summarize, and suggested it was a kind of self-parody of Ruiz's earlier films. Dennis Schwartz, of Ozus' World Movie Reviews, gave this "idiosyncratic film" a B- on Rotten Tomatoes, and described it as "an acting exercise to show-off the film-makers rich imagination." "Love Torn in a Dream" won the FIPRESCI