Shakespeare on Film

Abstract

Since the very earliest years in the development of the motion picture, film-makers have found the plays of William Shakespeare to be continually tempting as subject matter for films. As early as 1899 Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was performing scenes from King John for the camera, to be followed in 1900 by a Hamlet starring, somewhat unexpectedly, Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. Before the coming of sound, over fifty films, ranging from a few minutes to several hours in length, had been made using Shakespearean plots and titles. Since the arrival of sound this pace has slackened somewhat, but still each decade adds at least two or three titles to the list of Shakespearean films. That film-makers should turn to Shakespeare for material seems clearly inevitable. The narrative film, to be sure, has produced countless completely original narratives, conceivable only as films. It has also, however, continually drawn from every other source of narrative. Novels, short stories, epics, the Bible, legends, narrative poems, history, and, of course, drama all have been adapted to the requirements of the screen. The greatest master of the drama the English language has produced could scarcely have been ignored. In addition to the dramatic greatness of the plays of Shakespeare, the plays suggest themselves as material for film because, in many ways, they are similar to film scenarios. One writer has gone so far as to say that Shakespeare's lesser plays, like Henry V, in which the poetry is closely bound up with a variety of immediate actions and quick glimpses of characterisation, are far easier to adapt to film than