Interpreting Shakespeare on Screen

by Deborah Cartmell

This is an exploration of Shakespeare films as interpretations of Shakespeare's plays as well as interpreting the place of Shakespeare on screen within the classroom and within the English curriculum. Shakespeare on screen is evaluated both in relation to the play texts and in relation to the realms of popular film culture. The book focuses on how Shakespeare is manipulated in film and television through the representation of violence, gender, sexuality, race and nationalism. Cartmell discusses a wide range of films, including Orson Welles' Othello (1952), Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books (1991), Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1996) and John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (1998).

170 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2000

Reviews

[Michael P.]

Easily the worst Shakespeare film book I have read, and I think I've read them all. Cartmell's sins are manifold. I wrote a full review for SHAKESPEARE BULLETIN at the time, so it would be unfair to the editors to go into detail here other than to warn you away from this trash and to reassert that Professor Cartmell still owes Reg Foakes an apology for calling him a bigot here when all he did was describe Caliban as the other characters in THE TEMPEST describe him. This putrid book gets no stars.