Decided that I should get a bit more into Shakespeare because I’ve heard he’s pretty pretty good at the whole writing thing
However films will always be my medium, so talk to me about your favourite on-screen versions of his work
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@xylo ?
10 Things I hate about you 
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Ran by Kurosawa
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also the Macbeth Roman Polanski made has Keith Chegwin in
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Footloose (The Tempest)
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Gnomeo & Juliet
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And is actually really great!
In terms of comedies, quite like both Kenneth Branagh’s and Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing.
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Seriously though, the best Shakespeare movie is unfortunately Polanksi’s MacBeth
Ian Mckellen’s Richard III is great mind you
Henry V if you want Olivier’s Churchill-commissioned WWII propaganda version of Shakespeare (though it’s a pretty unique production that looks & feels incredible)
The BBC did a great Richard II with Derek Jacobi in the lead
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet is…something. I like it personally, so visually stylistic … such a nice contrast to all the Branagh ones that are all so drab & boring apart from Emma Thompson
Want to add;
I saw Mark Rylance do Hamlet at the RSC Barbican years ago & it was so utterly incredible and totally captivating that it really brought it home how much stage-craft is involved (obviously) and how, as good as film can be, there’s something missing from the visceral experience of being in the room with the actors. I’d highly recommend going to see a top level Shakespeare theatre production
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If you want something a bit more obscure, quite a big fan of Omkara, an Indian adaptation of Othello. It’s not Bollywood, more of an intense Indian drama. Really good at capturing the tragedy of the story.
Quite a big fan of how visually spectacular and faithful Branagh’s Hamlet was when I watched it. Although I haven’t felt like rewatching it since it uses the whole thing uses the entire four-hour script!
homeward bound
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I know it’s the boring answer but I like the Kenneth Branagh ones. Othello is very good, as is Henry V (partially because of Kenneth Branagh’s amazing Henry V hairdo)
Laurence Fishburne in Othello is absolutely brilliant, there’s scenes of his from that that are still etched in my memory a decade and a half after I last saw it.
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Oh, what am I saying! This is one of the best:
The fight scenes are incredibly epic. There’s one bit where one of the characters is sitting calmly in a burning fortress whilst people lay siege with it with arrows before storming out to fight. Really intense, amazingly performed, and lush.
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Oh what a great thread idea.
Going to start off with Hamlet.
The Kenneth Brannagh one is the “complete text” (almost certainly never performed like this in Shakespeare’s day). It’s nearly four hours long so it’s a monster but it’s worth seeing for the cast alone. Kate Winslet makes a great Ophelia but is the amazing massive names in supporting roles that makes it jaw dropping. Robin Williams as Osric! Charlton Heston as the Player King! Richard Attenborough as the English Ambassador! Judy Dench is in it and doesn’t even have any lines…
There’s a terrible Mel Gibson one. Ho boy its bad.
There’s a modern Ethan Hawke version which is well worth a watch. Updated to modern new York setting, visually really interesting. Bill Murray makes a really watchable Polonius.
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My Own Private Idaho
Been meaning to watch this since the day it came out … one day
Been stated multiple times already but Polanski’s film adaptation of Macbeth is phenomenal. Studied it at A-levels and it completely changed my stance towards the Bard’s work.
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Macbeth
In terms of acting, if you can find it, Trevor Nunns production with Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth is the good shit. The leading pair are brilliant, the banquet scene (3,4) is the most visceral piece of acting ever; McKellen literally frothing at the mouth after seeing the ghost of Banquo.
Sadly, it’s almost unwatchable as a piece of cinema. It’s recorded in a bare studio, in monochrome and with only one light which means it’s dingy as fuck and often hard to make out. If you can cope with that, the performances make up for it.
Then there’s the Polanski mentioned upthread. I have to say i do love this version. It’s very faithful to the text (though they do chop out the tedious political stuff from act 4, thank god) despite having a really interesting and extra textual scene at the end. Francesca Annis is a great Lady M and there’s lots of blood and mud and sword fighting and it’s all suitably bonkers and over the top.
There is also an aussie version from about 15 years ago with your man out of Avatar in the lead. It’s… not great. It’s updated to be a modern gangland drama which… kind of works but the end is rushed and the decision to cast the witches as “sexy schoolgirls” has most definitely not aged well. Probably avoid this one.
I liked the fassbender one but it weirdly downplayed lady m iirc and felt slightly flat to me.
The most recent one is the Cohen (solitary, sans brother) one. I feel like this is an interesting failure. Its painfully arty, black and white and very moody. Denzel Washington is really introspective and gloomy, Frances Mcdormand is amazing as you’d expect as Lady M but the whole thing doesn’t really hang together.
Personally i think it’s an interesting failure. With the mood, set and aesthetic they chose, they could have done a really cool Hamlet (although Washington might be a bit old), but the moodiness doesn’t suit Macbeth which should be a play full of action and blood and very pacey (no subplots! )
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I really enjoyed the Cohen bros one tbh, though I am not an aficionado
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Good thread, have considered starting some Shakespeare chat on here a few times but never got round to it.
Probably sounds pretentious, but the Kozintsev 1971 film version of King Lear is the very best I have seen despite being in Russian (which I don’t speak).
I have the full box set of BBC adaptions from 1975 - 85 and they are largely excellent, although very much traditional and the sort of stereotypical Shakespearian acting that seems to rub a lot of people up the wrong way.
Prefer David Tennant’s Hamlet to Branagh’s or anyone else I’ve seen (which I did not expect at all), although Branagh’s Henry V tops Hiddelstone’s.
Some of the scenography in that Fassbender Macbeth is incredible but I feel it fell into the big trap of losing the humour of Shakespeare’s text, which is central to making his big tragedies so brilliant.
Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing was very good, and think Luhrmann’s R&J is brilliant. Watched it again at the outdoor cinema at Kew Gardens a few years back, was a very good evening.
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