Abstract
The mainstream Shakespeare film occupies a complex and precarious space at the intersection of high and popular culture. This essay explores the ways in which two recent Hollywood Shakespeares, John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Michael Hoffman's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), negotiate this space. In particular, it examines both films' deployment of an over-emphasized romantic love narrative as a perceived point of continuity between the Shakespearean play and the Hollywood blockbuster, and discusses the extensive referencing of high culture that characterizes these films. It also assesses the extent to which each film is able to embrace the popular and dispense with the oppositional system of differentiation by which high and popular culture are identified.
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