Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

With the anniversary of William Shakespeare's death I was wondering which film based on his plays is my favourite. There are many great ones but I think it has to be the film version of Adrian Noble's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1996), starring Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan.

Do you have a favourite?

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

My favorite straight Shakespeare movie is Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. As for adapted Shakespeare it's a toss up between Titus with Anthony Hopkins and Richard III with Ian McKellen.

Titus is good – great title sequence as I recall. And Richard III's brilliant isn't it? I haven't seen Much Ado About Nothing.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

I really haven't seen many straight up adaptations, not counting stuff like The Lion King. I was planning on watching all of Branagh's ones soon.

Forbidden Planet's a great reinvention of The Tempest. A bit like Dickens and for that matter Conan Doyle, I like the stories that involve something supernatural best.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

I just saw The Chimes at Midnight on the big screen and really enjoyed it.

My favorite overall is Peter Greenaway's great, meta-textual adaptation of The Tempest, Prospero's Books.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

Either of the two Hamlet films, it's my favorite of his plays and is one of the best adapted works I've ever seen.

The Mel Gibson one is my favourite – I thought he was excellent.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

Oh yeah I forgot about the mel Gibson one, and there was another one wasn't there, with Ethan Hawke I believe.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

I have only seen Romeo + Juliet (1996), but I enjoyed it... so that I guess.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

I prefer my Shakespeare live (like my avatar portrait, Edwin Booth), so if the films are complete, they are too long and wordy to be a movie. On the other hand, if the play is cut, that's a travesty. Therefore, my list is short, but my most recent favorite was Joss Whedon's made-at-home version of Much Ado About Nothing (2012). It's a light play anyway and the movie presents a short version that is really enjoyable. If you've never seen The Bard before, or think that his plays are difficult and strenuous, this might be the one for you.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

Romeo + Juliet. My favourite part is when Juliet shoots herself in the head with a gun and absolutely no gore comes out.

Just kidding. The actual best one I've seen is a Japanese film called Ran, which is an adaptation of King Lear set in the feudal Japan. It's one of the only two I've seen that actually attempts to do something with the medium of film instead of just reciting the material and putting visuals to it, though it does have a few differences aside from the setting.

There was a documentary on yesterday about Shakespeare on film and both Throne of Blood and Ran were covered. They both look amazing, and there was also a Russian adaptation of Hamlet that looked great too.

I loved Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet and his 67 version of The Taming of the Shrew with the Burtons. I also actually liked Baz Luhrmann's take on the doomed teenage lovers. Also enjoyed Laurence Olivier's Oscar winning performance as Hamlet.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

Romeo + Juliet is my favourite. I used to absolutely love it. I still do, but it reminds me of a bad time in my life so it's not as easy a watch now.

Other than that, Macbeth (1971), Ran and Throne Of Blood are all pretty wonderful.

It's sad when that happens, because it might not even have anything to do with the film itself, it's just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Save "Love's Labour's Lost" for the very end. It is OK. But it isn't that good. At least I don't think so. If you want straight Shakespeare, this one isn't the choice because it was turned into a musical using popular music from the past (i.e. Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, et.c.). It just didn't do it for me. :shrug:

But, having said that, I am a huge Kenneth Branagh fan. And I would have the other 3 in my top 5. My #1 favorite Shakespeare is definitely Branagh's version of "Hamlet". I think the rest of my list would be (in order) Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Julius Caesar (1953), Henry V (1989) and Richard II (2012) - we are including TV in this, too, right? :) If not, I would replace "Richard II" with "Othello" (1995)

For performances, I think Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet is the best. But I loved Ben Whishaw as King Richard.


Has anyone seen "Macbeth" with Michael Fassbender yet? I just watched it last weekend.

He was fantastic wasn't he? I saw a bit of that last week when they were rerunning the first series. He was funny when he was sat on the stone wall because he did a head movement that reminded me of Ian McKellen:).

this one

I was just reading this article (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014...nedo-interview) about Sophie Okonedo, who plays Queen Margaret in The Hollow Crown Series 2. Disturbingly it seems she was instructed by the BBC to avoid questions about the part, which as the interview says, is that of a white Frenchwoman.

I must say that when the trailer came on I was baffled as to how Okonedo could be part of the production, and it's a troubling climate when we (and the actors themselves) can't talk about historical fact because of a drive to present a diversity of ethnicities on screen.

The interview also mentions Okonedo's contemporary Adrian Lester playing Henry V on stage – I remember seeing a clip at the time. My feeling is that on stage there's a greater sense of freedom about who can play a Shakespearean character and it's easier to buy into. In a film it's somehow more indelible and assertive on the part of the production if a character you know is a certain ethnicity – especially historically – becomes something else.

This comes not long after ITV's Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands which depicted an anachronistic mix of ethnicities for the setting and time period, and the worry is that we're starting to see our own history through an increasingly misleading lens.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

The Lion King is by far the best adaption of Shakespeare :D :D

Lenny Henry was funny the other day (remember when he was funny?:);)) talking about his character Theophilus P. Wildebeeste, whose albums included The Loin King.

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

The Ethan Hawke Hamlet (2000) is one of those weird ones where it's set in modern times, but the actors are still reciting the original script... making the whole thing seem quite bizarre.
But most bizarre is Bill Murray as Polonius! (And seriously, how many people know someone in modern day New York City named "Polonius" or "Laertes"?)

Oh I don't know;). Bill Murray's perfect casting for Polonius I would think.

But hearing him deliver the Shakespearean lines with his typical Murray / "Peter Venkman" tone - it's entertaining to say the least.
I never completed watching it, but it was a kick seeing Murray do Shakespeare!

Re: Favourite Shakespeare Play on Film?
 

I agree with Much Ado. Branagh trims the play with reluctance, and uses a razor. Franco Zefferelli trims with glee, and uses a chain saw. How could a director cut out the entire first scene of Hamlet?
There was a film version of King Lear starring Paul Scofield. His performance was fantastic, but the movie's concept didn't work. It was set it prehistoric England. And in it, I also liked The Fool who was played by...this actor played, in Tom Jones, the guy who turned out not to be Tom's father.

Prehistoric? How far back are we talking?

It is funny because when I first saw that she was in it (I'd only seen her name and photo), for some reason it didn't dawn on me that she is starring in a historical play. I don't know if I just wasn't thinking clearly enough, but I honestly didn't think about it at first.

Later on, when I was reading about it, I came to my senses about who she was playing. That kind of bothers me a little. I don't really get the point to having an actor portray someone from history who isn't of the same race as the actor. It just doesn't make sense.

I have always said that with Shakespeare, it really doesn't matter what your ethnic background is, anyone can act in one of his plays. I really do believe that.

My one exception is when it is a history. That just seems silly to me. She may be perfectly fine with her performance, but history is history. And that just seems silly.

I've said for years that I think, too, that there is more freedom with actors on stage. I think film/TV is much more intimate, and they should be a little more accurate when it comes to telling a story - particularly one that is historical.

Apparently (I didn't see it) there's a line about Margaret's children as well, but when you see them, they're played by white actors, rather than being mixed race.

It's more intimate but even if it wasn't they'd be wrong:p;). As you say, history is history but some of Shakespeare's plays are less fixed in terms of who can play the parts. Interestingly, Oberon and Puck in Adrian Noble's A Midsummer Night's Dream could have been more Indian than just their clothing, as the whole argument relates to Oberon and Titania fighting over an Indian boy (who was white!). The ethnicity of the actors could have reflected that, even if Puck stayed as a caucasian in keeping with his origins.