III. Shakespeare on Film and Television
In the last few years there has been an explosion of interest in Shakespeare
on the large and small screen at the same time that there have been a number
of new films and television productions of the plays. Scripts from or histories
of major motion pictures (such as the two films by Kenneth Branagh and Peter
Greenaway's Prospero's Books) are often published (I list two rare
Kozintsev volumes in Section IV.B). There are also,
usually, numerous newspaper and magazine reviews. It is impossible to keep
up with the latter kind of material, and I do not attempt it here. There
are several general accounts; the more recent are more theoretically inclined.
Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film. New York: Theater
Arts Books, 1968. Hard to believe that it existed, I know, but there was
extensive silent film Shakespeare. Ball's book is the only resource for
this phenomenon.
Buchman, Lorne M. Still in Movement: Shakespeare on Screen. Oxford:
Oxford U.P., 1991.
Bulman, J.C. and H.R. Coursen, eds. Shakespeare On Television. Hanover:
University Press of New England, 1988. A fascinating volume, the first to
take TV Shakespeare seriously.
Davies, Anthony. Filming Shakespeare's Plays. Cambridge: Cambridge
U. P., 1988. New, useful.
Davies, Anthony, and Stanley Wells, eds. Shakespeare and the Moving Image:
the plays on film and television. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994. A collection of essays by noted scholars, usefully follows Bulman
and Coursen's lead in its attention to television.
Donaldson, Peter S. Shakespearean Films/Shakespearean Directors.
Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990. Contains the only readily available essay I know
of that discusses Liz White's difficult to obtain Othello, of particular
interest for those with a psychoanalytic bent.
Eckert, Charles W., ed. Focus On Shakespearean Films. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, 1972. One of the earliest collections of essays. Surprisingly
useful and full of facts.
Jorgens, Jack J. Shakespeare On Film. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1977. Useful for factual information but I frequently quarrel with
his interpretations.
Manvell, Roger. Shakespeare and the Film. New York: A. S. Barnes
and Company, 1979. The first major work on the subject and still one of
the best.
McKernan, Luke, and Olwen Terris, eds. Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in
the National Film and Television Archive. London: British Film Institute
Publishing, 1994. This is a deceptive book: its primary use is as an advertisement
for the holdings of the British National Film & Television Archive,
but the volume also contains a number of essays. Not only does it list full
productions, but also snippets, parodies and scenes. One example is the
1940 cartoon "Shakespearian Spinach," with Popeye as Romeo and
Olive Oyl as Juliet.
Pilkington, Ace G. Screening Shakespeare from Richard II to Henry
V. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1991.
Willis, Susan. The BBC Shakespeare Plays: Making the Televised Canon.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
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