Can you guys help me, please? I have presentation to do on Shakespeare’s comedies, and as a visual aide, I’m planning to show clips from some of the movies based on the comedies.
What are some of the best examples?
Which would be most appealing to my class of 16-17 year-olds?
Also, any help on what should be said in the presentation itself is appreciated.
One of my favorites is Keth Branagh’s adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing”.
Very funny, great acting, and I think every teenager can identify with love, so this gets my vote.
I LOVE the Midsummer Night’s Dream with Kevin Kline.
Incidentally, the professor of my Shakespeare class used to say, “All Shakespeare’s plays are tragedies. At the end of the tragedies, everyone’s dead, and at the end of the comedies, everyone gets married.” 
Love this movie!
Forbidden Planet was based on The Tempest. A picture of Robby the Robot could go over well. A picture of Anne Francis would really appeal to about half the class, I would expect.
I second the Branagh Much Ado About Nothing. And 10 Thing I Hate About You is a modern version of Taming of the Shrew which is quite recent and would proabbly go over well.
Hold on hotshot. Keanu Reeves had a role in that one. It almost dropped the whole thing to stinker city.
I always did think that introducing high schoolers to Shakespeare would be better done with the comedies.
Measure for Measure is good too, the first Shakespeare I acually enjoyed. Lots of sex jokes, some sleeping around, a sexual harasser who gets him comeuppance(although Angelo also gets reformed). Bawdy stuff that would appeal to teenagers, but some moments that make you think, about honesty and loyalty.
And the funny thing is, Keanu apparently would agree with you on that count.
I forgot another of my favorites: Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor. Verra funny.
Peter Fonda’s Tempest, set in the antebellum south, is outstanding.
Both Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing would make a great introduction to the comedies, particularly for teens. Much Ado is the one I used to introduce my husband to Shakespeare. He was instantly hooked, despite having apparently never met anything by Shakespeare that he liked or understood until after we were married (he was 30 by then).
Enjoy! What a fun assignment!
Yes but Keanu plays the villian and he is not in any of the comic scenes.
The baiting scene where Benedict ‘overhears’ how Beatrice is in love with him is pretty funny.
Avoid Ken’s Love’s Labor’s Lost though.
I’ll second 10 Things I Hate About You.
Oh come on the “Love Kills Sheep” part was funny, what with the fakeness of the sheep 