Shakespeare on Film; a global odyssey by Ellen Cheshire (film writer and lecturer)
Although Ellen’s talk came at the end of our Shakespeare Day, she stimulated our interest and held our attention throughout. Her examples selected from over 600 films of different lengths and approaches as well as adaptations, including some in other languages, provided an informative talk and reflected the enduring appeal of William Shakespeare.
Using the screen to illustrate her points she suggested film developed from Punch & Judy shows of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. The earliest clip, ‘King John’ (1899) lasts one minute (available on YouTube). It and others with well-known Victorian actors, that followed were rather like what we would recognise today as trailers. In 1914 the first full length Shakespeare film ‘The Merchant of Venice’ directed by Lois Weber, appeared in the United States. By 1929 Sam Taylor was casting celebrities Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to appear on screen in the first film adaption of ‘Taming of the Shrew’. Celebrities Micky Rooney and Olivia de Haviland featured in Max Reinhart’s 1935 faithful film adaptation of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’. This trend to cast celebrities continued with Zeffirelli’s 1967 ‘Taming of the Shrew’ with Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton and is still common today.
Screen Adaptations of ‘Taming of the Shrew’ have been especially popular since ‘Kiss me Kate’ (1953) and have proliferated to include send-ups e.g. ‘10 Things I hate About You’ (1999) and Deliver Us from Eva (2003).
Off-beat productions of Shakespeare have probably been around since the Punch and Judy versions. Of note though is the 1959 Czech puppet film of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ directed by Jiri Trenka with sound, music, puppets, animations and footnotes (available on YouTube). So too is the 2006 American animated romantic fantasy comedy-drama ‘Sealed with a Kiss’ loosely based on ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Other faithful productions are also available on YouTube, including the 1968 Peter Hall film with Judy Dench.
After a short break for tea Ellen talked about, and where possible treated us to scenes from her favourite films. She started with Macbeth; first a 1911 silent, elaborately costumed adaptation set in Scotland with Beerbohm Tree. Then the highly rated 1948 Macbeth starring Orson Wells. Of the many adaptations of Macbeth that followed she drew our attention to foreign adaptations. In particular her long carefully selected clip made it clear that the Japanese version ‘Throne of Blood’ (1957) directed by Kurosawa is very well worth watching both for the acting and the take on the play. Another recommended adaptation is the 2004 ‘Maqbool’ directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and set in the Mumbai underworld. She also recommended Rupert Gould’s 2010 TV film based on his CFT production and Joel Coen’s 2021 minimalist historical thriller version.
Her selection of favourites included the 1936 production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Zeffirelli’s 1968 version and the 1996 romantic crime version by Baz Luhrmann. For ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ it was the 2009 film of the Barcelona stage production with Benjamin Britten’s music. Her current favourite adaptation is of ‘Kiss Me Kate’ at the Barbican which she illustrated with a fun dance clip of ‘Brush up your Shakespeare’.
Finally, from the many adaptations of ’Hamlet’ Ellen selected those that are not traditional, namely the Clement Maurice 1900 film with Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet and Asta Neilson in the 1920 German silent film The Bad Sleep Well’ in 1950s followed by the 1987 modern Finish ‘Hamlet Goes Business’. Box office successes of Hamlet directed by Olivier 1948, Zeffirelli 1990 and Branagh 1996, and the 2000 noir version were all noted. Other Hamlet offshoots mentioned were ‘Shakespeare in Love’, ’Rosencrantz & Guildenstern’; ‘Ophelia’ and ‘Roseline’ (Romeo’s ex). She ended by noting that stage versions of Hamlet remain popular as is evident from the four productions being staged in and around Chichester this summer.
Our thanks to Gillian Matravers for these notes. I am sure some of us will be tracking down the productions that we have not yet seen!