Studying Shakespeare on Film

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This introductory guide to analysing and discussing Shakespeare on screen establishes the differences between Shakespeare on stage and film. It provides an historical introduction and explores the key modes and genre conventions used in film. Featuring a series of critical essays, students are provided with critical knowledge and vocabulary.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations/Acronyms
• Introduction
• Part I Shakespeare and the Language of Film
• Filming and Staging Shakespeare: Some Contrasts
• The Audience: Individual and Collective Experience
• The Space of the Movie Screen
• Imagery: Verbal and Visual
• Putting It All Together
• Part II The History of Shakespeare on Film 1899-2005
• Silent Shakespeare
• The Thirties: Hollywood Shakespeare
• The Forties: Olivier and Welles
• The Fifties: Postwar diversity
• The Sixties and Seventies: Cultural Revolution, Filmic Innovation
• The Nineties: Branagh's Renaissance and the Shakespeare on Film Revival
• 2000 and Beyond: Shakespeare on Film in the New Millennium
• Part III Communicating Shakespeare on Film: Modes, Styles, Genres
• The Theatrical Mode
• The Realistic Mode
• The Filmic Mode
• The Periodising Mode
• Film Genre: Conventions and Codes
• Genre conventions and the Shakespeare Film Adaptation
• A Cross-cultural Shakespeare Adaptation: Kurosawa's Kumonosu-Djo (The Castle of the Spider's Web: Throne of Blood)
• Part IV Shakespeare on Film: Critical Essays
• Comedies: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Histories: Henry V, Richard III
• Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth
• Part V Shakespeare on Television
• Film and TV: the Key Differences
• The BBC-TV Series: Shooting the Complete Canon
• TV Shakespeare: the Stage/Screen Hybrid
• Appendix 1 Box Office Data for Selected Shakespeare Film Adaptations on Theatrical Release in US Movie Theatres from 1989
• Appendix 2 Kenneth Brannagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993): Structure of Emotional Registers and Rhythms
• References
• Suggested Further Reading
• List of Films Discussed
• Some Useful Websites
• Glossary of Terms
• Index
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations/Acronyms
• Introduction
• Part I Shakespeare and the Language of Film
• Filming and Staging Shakespeare: Some Contrasts
• The Audience: Individual and Collective Experience
• The Space of the Movie Screen
• Imagery: Verbal and Visual
• Putting It All Together
• Part II The History of Shakespeare on Film 1899-2005
• Silent Shakespeare
• The Thirties: Hollywood Shakespeare
• The Forties: Olivier and Welles
• The Fifties: Postwar diversity
• The Sixties and Seventies: Cultural Revolution, Filmic Innovation
• The Nineties: Branagh's Renaissance and the Shakespeare on Film Revival
• l2000 mand Beyond: Shakespeare on Film in the New Millennium
• Part III Communicating Shakespeare on Film: Modes, Styles, Genres
• The Theatrical Mode
• The Realistic Mode
• The Filmic Mode
• The Periodising Mode
• Film Genre: Conventions and Codes
• Genre conventions and the Shakespeare Film Adaptation
• A Cross-cultural Shakespeare Adaptation: Kurosawa's Kumonosu-Djo (The Castle of the Spider's Web: Throne of Blood)
• Part IV Shakespeare on Film: Critical Essays
• Comedies: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Histories: Henry V, Richard III
• Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth
• Part V Shakespeare on Television
• Film and TV: the Key Differences
• The BBC-TV Series: Shooting the Complete Canon
• TV Shakespeare: the Stage/Screen Hybrid
• Appendix 1 Box Office Data for Selected Shakespeare Film Adaptations on Theatrical Release in US Movie Theatres from 1989
• Appendix 2 Kenneth Brannagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993): Structure of Emotional Registers and Rhythms
• References
• Suggested Further Reading
• List of Films Discussed
• Some Useful Websites
• Glossary of Terms
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In spite of the fact that it calls Richard Loncraine's film Richard III a "fine adaptation"--a questionable contention--this is a reliable and valuable introductory guide to Shakespeare on film. Hindle (Open Univ., UK) assumes that readers will be familiar with Shakespeare; accordingly, he aims to show how Shakespeare's "plays communicate as film texts, rather than as plays on the page" (or stage). The author divides the book into five parts: "Shakespeare and the Language of Film," "The History of Shakespeare on Film 1899-2005," "Communicating Shakespeare on Film: Modes, Styles, Genres," "Shakespeare on Film: Critical Essays," and "Shakespeare on Television." Appendixes offer box-office dates for selected Shakespeare films in US movie theaters from 1989, a structure of emotional registers and rhythms in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado about Nothing, references and suggestions for further readings, and useful Web sites. The book is clearly formatted for easy referencing; technical filmic terms (supported by the glossary) are helpfully recognizable in bold print. Hindle's is not a comprehensive study, but it is useful as a quick guidebook for the reader interested in basic information. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates and general readers. J. S. Carducci Winona State University