What do you think?
Rate this book
Shakespeare On Screen
The best of the Bard on the silver screen! Cinema's love affair with Shakespeare began almost with the start of moving pictures and has continued passionately and unabated to this day. From the most faithful adaptations (Kenneth Branagh's uncut Hamlet) to versions musical (West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate), modernized (Ian MacKellen's WWII Richard III, Baz Luhrman's hallucinogenic William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet), and otherwise transformed (Forbidden Planet, a low-budget yet compelling sci-fi retelling of The Tempest), see how the greatest of plays became the finest of films. Among the brilliant artists whose work receives special homage here are Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, and Branagh--who did double-duty as Shakespearean actors and directors--as well as Akira Kurosawa, Franco Zeffirelli, and John Gielgud. With numerous stills and quotations.
- GenresShakespeareFilm
207 pages, Hardcover
First published June 30, 2001
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 28, 2022
This is not your average coffee table book.
At first glance, this looks like one of those coffee table books that people buy to look like they'd know what they're talking about. But upon further examination, you'll find that it has everything you ever want to know about "Shakespeare on screen.” There is a comprehensive table of contents and its index. Today, if the film is an adoption of Shakespeare or just inspired by Shakespeare, is in this book, grouped under the different plays of Shakespeare. For example, under chapter two of Hamlet, seven different entries are starting with the famous Lawrence Oliver 1948 classic down to the infamous Michael Almereyda 2000 modern adaptation. Be sure to look for my review of most of these.
In each section or chapter, there is a breakdown of the basic play and some background information on that play. Then for each movie, there is a list of the Cast, directed, Produced, Photography, and music. Beach movies are then further broken down into their elements.
Even though all this information is available in different books, Daniel Rosenthal was able to design this comprehensive and beautiful book to make you feel that you know all there is to know about Shakespeare in the movies.
At first glance, this looks like one of those coffee table books that people buy to look like they'd know what they're talking about. But upon further examination, you'll find that it has everything you ever want to know about "Shakespeare on screen.” There is a comprehensive table of contents and its index. Today, if the film is an adoption of Shakespeare or just inspired by Shakespeare, is in this book, grouped under the different plays of Shakespeare. For example, under chapter two of Hamlet, seven different entries are starting with the famous Lawrence Oliver 1948 classic down to the infamous Michael Almereyda 2000 modern adaptation. Be sure to look for my review of most of these.
In each section or chapter, there is a breakdown of the basic play and some background information on that play. Then for each movie, there is a list of the Cast, directed, Produced, Photography, and music. Beach movies are then further broken down into their elements.
Even though all this information is available in different books, Daniel Rosenthal was able to design this comprehensive and beautiful book to make you feel that you know all there is to know about Shakespeare in the movies.
August 10, 2018
Enjoyable, but pretty outdated now.
February 25, 2024
Lavish review of Shakespeare movies. Only wish it didn’t stop at 2000….
July 30, 2013
Not at all a bad book, just lightweight as most film picture books are. There are a few minor inaccuracies.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews