Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#176 Post by swo17 » Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:39 pm

I didn't even really participate in this thread but here was my list:

01 Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
02 Othello (Orson Welles, 1951)
03 Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, 1964)
04 Caesar Must Die (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, 2012)
05 Macbeth (Orson Welles, 1948)
06 Othello (Stuart Burge, 1965)
07 Hamlet (Michael Almereyda, 2000)
08 Julius Caesar (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1953)
09 The Tempest (Derek Jarman, 1979)
10 King Lear (Jean-Luc Godard, 1987)

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#177 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:50 pm

I'm glad someone else voted for the Godard!

My list:

1. King Lear (Godard)
2. Chimes at Midnight (Welles)
3. Throne of Blood (Kurosawa)
4. Macbeth (Polanski)
5. Yellow Sky (Wellman)
6. King Lear (Kozintsev)
7. Julius Caesar (Mankiewicz)
8. O (Tim Blake Nelson)
9. Viola (Piñeiro)
10. As You Like It (Branagh)
11. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Stoppard)
12. The Lion King (Allers and Minkoff)
13. Cymbeline (Almereyda)
14. The Bad Sleep Well (Kurosawa)
15. My Own Private Idaho (van Sant)
16. Othello (Welles)
17. Caesar Must Die (Tavianis)
18. King Lear (Brook)
19. Hamlet (Almereyda)
20. Macbeth (Welles)

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#178 Post by knives » Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:45 pm

swo17 wrote:
Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:39 pm
04 Caesar Must Die (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, 2012
Knew I forgot something.

User avatar
ando
Bringing Out El Duende
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:53 pm
Location: New York City

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#179 Post by ando » Tue Sep 24, 2019 3:05 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Tue Sep 24, 2019 11:17 am
I regret to inform everyone that with only seven lists received, it’s not even close. So, this is the first list project to actually fail. What a shame
How many lists were required? Can't you extend the time a bit? I barely got mine in (last night). To be honest, I felt there should have been more time allowed for discussion as (like many have pointed out) there are many films I'd just discovered because of the thread. So, it has not been a fail, with all due respect. Despite the contention (to be expected with a writer as universally beloved as Shakespeare) it's been one of the better thread discussions (imo) in which I've participated in a quite a while. Anyway, my top ten (please forgive the ranking omission):

Throne of Blood (Kurosawa)
Henry VIII (BBC, Billington)
Measure For Measure (BBC, Desmond Davis)
Prospero's Books (Greenway)
Henry V (Branagh)
Othello (Olivier)
King Lear (Peter Brook)
Cymbeline (BBC, Moshinsky)
Macbeth (Welles)
Ran (Kurosawa)

I say we keep the discussion going and reset the deadline (maybe invite new/non members to join in). Make it a major list project? The subject certainly deserves it.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#180 Post by domino harvey » Tue Sep 24, 2019 3:32 pm

If people couldn’t be bothered to make a top ten, they’re certainly not making a top fifty. This list’s running time was as long as all the other ones of similar scope— this just came down to a lack of interest. These threads are always open, so people can continue to use this thread to discuss these films in perpetuity

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#181 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Sep 24, 2019 4:15 pm

Here was mine:

1. Forbidden Planet
2. Ran
3. The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1984 BBC version)
4. Titus
5. Throne of Blood
6. Othello (1951)
7. Richard II (1978 BBC version)
8. Men of Respect
9. Joe MacBeth
10. The Merchant of Venice (1980 BBC version)
11. Cymbeline (1982 BBC version)
12. Pericles Prince of Tyre (1984 BBC version)

I would probably put Kenneth Branagh's musical version of Love's Labour's Lost next, though that illustrated the problem that I had with the project, which is that I feel still very early on with Shakespeare appreciation and not too confident as yet in being able to compare and contrast (although I know that Forbidden Planet is certainly the best version of The Tempest!), and often have only one version of a play that I have seen. Which is coming down to that big BBC set of the plays, since that is the most comprehensive one. There are only a couple of plays that I would feel confident comparing against each other, but I still have to sit down say with that darn Love's Labour's Lost adaptation in the BBC set to be able to compare with the Branagh, and at one point I will be really curious to see how the Ralph Fiennes Coriolanus compares against the BBC one that made such an impact when I saw it. I really think it is a bit too early for me to be able to do a compare and contrast between versions of Shakespeare plays whilst still seeing some of them for the first time, though give it another decade and hopefully I will have more of a view on such matters!

User avatar
Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#182 Post by Shrew » Tue Sep 24, 2019 10:19 pm

Here was my list, which was primarily cinematic adaptations per my own biases. That said, I did get to a few of the various BBC/RSC/Globe filmed play versions, and will try to delve deeper and see some the productions mentioned in this thread. I still went to 20 with my list to catch as many orphans as possible, and because I feel good about all of them.

1) Hamlet (Branagh)
2) The Chimes at Midnight
3) King Lear (Kozintsev)
4) Titus (Taymor)
5) Love's Labour's Lost (Branagh)
6) Julius Caesar (1953)
7) Hamlet (Almereyda)
8) O
9) Macbeth (Welles)
10) Cymbeline (Almereyda)
11) Caesar Must Die
12) Macbeth (Polanski)
13) Prospero's Books
14) Much Ado About Nothing (Whedon)
15) As You Like It (Branagh)
16) Othello (Welles)
17) Henry V (Branagh)
18) Throne of Blood
19) Henry V (Olivier)
20) Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Lubitsch)

I knew my number one would be somewhat controversial, though I didn't expect it to be a (would-be) orphan. I'll try to write up a defense of it later, but in the meantime all I'll say is it's the Hamlet with the most woooooorrrds.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#183 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:53 pm

This was a pretty easy list simply because there aren't many Shakespeare adaptations that really knocked me out (but not many I've seen that were flat out bad either - that may have more to do with me avoiding the ones that have a pretty lousy reputation):

1. Chimes at Midnight [Welles]
2. Othello [Welles]
3. Ran [Kurosawa]
4. Throne of Blood [Kurosawa]
5. Macbeth [Welles]
6. King Lear [Godard]
7. Hamlet [Svend Gade, Heinz Schall]
8. My Own Private Idaho [Van Sant] - I actually like this one quite a bit, but the scenes with the dialogue taken straight out of Henry IV aren't as strong as the others]
9. The Bad Sleep Well [Kurosawa]
10. Richard III [Olivier]

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#184 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Feb 04, 2020 8:32 pm

GoodOldNeon wrote:
Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:51 pm
It's been years since I last saw it, but since it hasn't been mentioned yet allow me to recommend Hamlet Goes Business, Aki Kaurismäki's darkly comic noir-Hamlet set in the cut-throat world of 1980s Finnish big business. Here's what one thoroughly misguided Empire reviewer had to say:

Utterly without redeeming features. If it were possible to earn zero stars, here is a contender for such a score.
I finally caught up with this, and like most Kaurismäki (save the last few which I’m not crazy about) I really enjoyed it. Particularly the surrealistic elements like the father’s ghost interaction are unapologetically perverse to the source. It’s a film that offers an arm to get on its very obvious wavelength and is confident enough where it doesn’t particularly care if you don’t take it. The idiosyncratic mannerisms are cheekily documented as expected from Kaurismäki but I enjoy how he doesn’t repeat himself much between films in this regard. He seems to have an eye for experimenting with human behavior and finding comedy in social exchanges yes, but also simple body language and individual tics. The noir vibe works as an extra framework on top of the capitalist one for the players to have fun with, but this is a satire on basic socialization through and through, using the Bard’s work as a foil to turn inside out while still reflecting his themes of the facades of meaning and ideologies in the most plain way possible. By turning Hamlet into a joke we take an opposite path toward the same ideas. This would have surely made my list had I seen it in time. Thanks GoodOldNeon for the rec!

GoodOldNeon
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:58 am

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#185 Post by GoodOldNeon » Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:24 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Feb 04, 2020 8:32 pm
GoodOldNeon wrote:
Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:51 pm
It's been years since I last saw it, but since it hasn't been mentioned yet allow me to recommend Hamlet Goes Business, Aki Kaurismäki's darkly comic noir-Hamlet set in the cut-throat world of 1980s Finnish big business. Here's what one thoroughly misguided Empire reviewer had to say:

Utterly without redeeming features. If it were possible to earn zero stars, here is a contender for such a score.
I finally caught up with this, and like most Kaurismäki (save the last few which I’m not crazy about) I really enjoyed it. Particularly the surrealistic elements like the father’s ghost interaction are unapologetically perverse to the source. It’s a film that offers an arm to get on its very obvious wavelength and is confident enough where it doesn’t particularly care if you don’t take it. The idiosyncratic mannerisms are cheekily documented as expected from Kaurismäki but I enjoy how he doesn’t repeat himself much between films in this regard. He seems to have an eye for experimenting with human behavior and finding comedy in social exchanges yes, but also simple body language and individual tics. The noir vibe works as an extra framework on top of the capitalist one for the players to have fun with, but this is a satire on basic socialization through and through, using the Bard’s work as a foil to turn inside out while still reflecting his themes of the facades of meaning and ideologies in the most plain way possible. By turning Hamlet into a joke we take an opposite path toward the same ideas. This would have surely made my list had I seen it in time. Thanks GoodOldNeon for the rec!
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Coincidentally, I've spent the last three nights rewatching Kaurismäki's films from Artificial Eye's wonderful Blu-ray box, and seeing your post is making me think I should add Hamlet to the list of films I still plan to revisit.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#186 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:31 pm

I doubt it would have counted for this project, but Shakespeare in Love is enough of a crossbreed between Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It to feel worthy of posting here. I hardly see an acknowledgement of the latter comparison anywhere on the 'net, and suppose much of my reading is in the less-manic comic energy of that play compared to the Bard's other comedies, except the Paltrow-in-male-disguise seals it enough for me. It's also a playful self-reflexive choice for Paltrow, who was skyrocketing to stardom at the time, to don a costume as the entryway into actualizing her passion for performing, a kind of self-preservation mirroring self-actualization instead of the literal sense in the play! I saw this when it came out, and I was far too young to appreciate it at the time, but a revisit following natural maturation and acclimation to Shakespeare's works make this experience quite pleasing as an adult. I'm still not convinced of its BP greatness, but at the very least it's a decently-witty lighthearted exercise encouraging Paltrow's movement into the center of a glaring spotlight. Whatever happened to her?

User avatar
ando
Bringing Out El Duende
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:53 pm
Location: New York City

Re: Shakespeare Adaptations Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#187 Post by ando » Wed Sep 09, 2020 12:20 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:31 pm
Paltrow... Whatever happened to her?
She's featured in the tv series, The Politician (2 seasons so far) currently on Netflix.

Post Reply