In the interest of acquiring myself some culture and upping my binge-watching game, I thought I’d make a project of working my way through as many films of Shakespearean plays as I can find. I’m not as knowledgeable about The Bard as I’d like to be. Can y’all recommend to me some good film versions?
The one that I’ve watched over and over (and love) is the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson version of Much Ado About Nothing. I saw the new Josh Whedon version and thought it was okay, but not as good. That scene of Branagh in the garden with the lawn chair was priceless. I’ve also seen the Branagh *Hamlet *(loooong, but very good) and Henry V. His St. Crispin’s Day speech makes you want to go out and enlist in something. Oh yeah, and the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor *The Taming of the Shrew *years ago.
I’ve probably seen a few others, but they didn’t make much of an impression. Thanks in advance.
The Olivier Henry V is still a classic, and is wonderful. The business where it starts out on a small Shakespearean stage, as if performed at the Globe…and then the scale begins to swell, and you see carriages and ships…all culminating in the cavalry charge at Agincourt…is a brilliant bit of moviemaking.
I’m partial to the 1972 NY Shakespeare Festival version of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, with Sam Waterson as Benedick and aired by CBS. I own a DVD, but I’m sure it’s viewable online.
It’s set at the turn of the 20th century, with the soldiers returning to small town America from the Spanish-American war and Beatrice as a bicycle-riding suffragette. And “Hey Nonny Nonny” done as ragtime.
Also very fond of the 1935 Hollywood A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. You want to reach into the screen and WHACK Mickey Rooney (Puck) after a while, but Olivia de Havilland is a luminous Hermia and Jimmy Cagney is a shockingly excellent Bottom. Also more Mendelssohn than you could shake a stick at.
Olivier’s Hamlet, if only to have a benchmark. And actually set in medieval Denmark, unlike Branagh’s. Welles’ Macbeth. The Merchant of Venice with Joseph Fiennes and Al Pacino. Pacino’s Looking for Richard is interesting, but it’s more behind-the-scenes with some actual scenes from Richard III interspersed.
The BBC project to put out all the Shakespeare plays in the 1980s was hit-and-miss, but I loved their Midsummer Night’s Dream with Helen Mirren as Titania. There’s also a Royal Shakespeare on film of MND with Helen Mirren as Hermia, Diana Rigg as Helena, and Judi Dench as Titania: it’s from the late 60s or early 70s. Helen Mirren does a very good Rosalind with Angharad Rees (Poldark) as Celia in the BBC’s As You Like It.
There’s a gender-swapped version of The Tempest from, IIRC, 2010, with guess who (Helen Mirren) as Prospera.
Akira Kurosawa’s wonderful Ran is a retelling of King Lear, if you are interested in that sort of thing.
I once saw the Bolshoi do Romeo and Juliet as a ballet, and it was gorgeous. Years later, I saw that you can buy it on DVD. Maybe also not what you are looking for, though.
ETA: Mel Gibson may be nuts, but he did a helluva Hamlet. Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia and Glenn Close as Gertrude.
Baz Lurhmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet is surprisingly good. Yes, the art direction is eye-popping and the musical numbers astounding. But the words are pure Shakespeare & I really cared about the silly star-crossed lovers…
That film was unfairly derided by critics. Roger Ebert thought it was pointless in that it was too modern for traditionalists and too traditional for average moviegoers. When I finally saw it on cable I thought it was great. Claire Danes was only like 16, it was her first starring role, and she was amazingly good (and cute!).
I like the films that modernize the setting and costumes but keep the Elizabethan dialog (West Side Story is not Shakespeare). Ian McKellen’s Richard III was pretty awesome as well.
The 2006 Australian film of MacBeth (which recasts it as a mob war) is also great, among the resettings.
Ran’s already been mentioned, but I think Throne of Blood, Kurosawa’s version of MacBeth, is better.
The 2010 Tempest (which cast Helen Mirren as Prosper[del]o[/del]a) is very good, or at least as good as the frankly fairly meandering play allows. It’s gorgeous, and the cast deliver solid performances.
Titus, also directed by Julie Taymor, is gorgeous (and gruesome)…and it’s got a hell of a cast - Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming…
The 2009 BBC production of Hamlet with David Tennant in the title role and Patrick Stewart in a dual role as both Claudius and the Ghost of King Hamlet astutely captures the dark humor in the play in a way that few productions manage. Tennant suits the role of the agonized, indecisive Hamlet exceptionally well, and is arguably better in the role than either Olivier or Branagh were in their respective films.
I have to take exception to the recommendation for the Zeffirelli Hamlet with Mel Gibson; while pretty uniformly well-acted (particularly Ian Holm as Polonious), the abridgment of the story and inclusion of novel elements that are nowhere to be found in the text really damages the story and makes it a poor representation of thr Bard’s intent.
The other Hamlet worth seeing is the BBC TV version with Derek Jacobi, Patrick Stewart, Claire Bloom, and Lalla Ward. It’s cheaply done, with only two sets–the interior of Elsinore and a big curvy thing that serves as the battlements and whatever else is required. But Derek’s Hamlet is my favorite.
It’s not actually a Shakespeare adaptation per se but I high recommend Looking for Richardwhich takes a look at the research you would do if you were going to try to direct a Shakespeare play. It’s really good.
Similarly if you can track down the documentary about Julie Taymor making the stage play version of The Tempest (not her 2010 film which was sort of meh) you get a lot of insite into the play as well as the thought process behind producing it. I’ll see if I can track down a link.
