It’s rare that we see a list of “Shakespeare Stuff You Didn’t Know” and we don’t already actually know most of it. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this list of Shakespeare Adaptations You Haven’t Seen and, honestly, I haven’t seen any of them. I’ve *heard* of several of them – Ran being the most obvious example – but I can’t say I’ve ever watched that one through from start to finish, only seen clips.
But then again I’m not the one who runs a “Shakespeare and film microblog”. Luckily, I know who does.
Putting you on the spot here Bardfilm! How many have you seen?
I've seen six out of ten of those. I've heard of eight out of ten. I think I wish I'd seen nine out of ten.
I'll leave it to your readers to debate the Venn Diagram that could accurately represent those three sentences.
It's a good list–they were (mostly) right!
I do show good segments of the 1929 Taming in my Shakespeare and Film class. There's some great stuff worth talking about there.
Thanks!
kj
Kurasowa's "Ran" is outstanding, and I also recommend his earlier "Throne of Blood," inspired by the Scottish Play. The ending, when the protagonist is killed by "the wood" is iconic, even for non-Kurasowa viewers.
There is also a first-class Soviet adaptation of "Hamlet" ("Гамлет", 1964) directed by Grigori Kozintsev and starring Innokenty Smoktunovsky in the title role. The musical score is by Dmitri Shostakovich. I've seen it and it's terrific. The text is —translated by Pasternak—much abridged, but still, it's very effective and interesting take on Hamlet. Kozintsev also directed a "Lear" —also with a Shostakovich score—but I haven't seen that one yet.
Cheers,
Reed