In Search of Shakespeare . Comparing Film Adaptations Introduction The late twentieth century marked a resurgence of Shakespeare on film. Directors and actors with styles as diverse as Kenneth Branagh, Baz Luhrmann and Mel Gibson strove to popularize "Hamlet" on the big screen, and students became used to seeing adaptations of Shakespeare arrive at their local Cineplex. The tradition in teaching has been to review the play by showing the entire movie. Viewing clips of the same Shakespeare scene in different film versions offers students the opportunity to engage in close critical analysis and to compare interpretations and visual styles. This technique also inspires students to value and create their own interpretations of Shakespeare. Objectives Estimated Time This lesson should take two to four 45-minute class periods or parts of two separate 90-minute block periods. The two parts of this lesson may be discontinuous. Materials - Branagh, Kenneth, dir. Procedure Part One Play the second version of the same scene. Part Two Assessment 1. 2. McRel
Hamlet: A Small Rewrite (Back to Shakespeareana page) "A Small Rewrite" (video link) is a Rowan Atkinson skit, depicting Shakespeare and his agent(?) / editor(?) / producer(?). The "agent" is decidedly Blackadder-ish, although never explicitly named as Blackadder. The text of the skit follows. [Blackadder is looking through some papers. BA: Come. BA: Bill! WS: Sorry I was late -- the traffic was a bitch! BA: Good to see you. WS: Well, it, er, seems to be OK, yeah. BA: They always seem to go for the ones with the snappy titles: "Hamlet". WS: Act Three may be a bit long, I don't know... BA: Act Three may be a bit long... in fact, generally, I think we've got a bit of a length problem. WS: Oh? BA: It's five hours, Bill, on wooden seats, and no toilets this side of the Thames. WS: Yeah, well, I've always said the Rose Theatre is a dump, frankly. BA: Exactly. WS: "Dead wood"? BA: Yeah, you know: some of that standup stuff in the middle of the action. WS: You mean the soliloquies? WS: [getting upset] Oh? BA: Erm... WS: No!
“A Small Rewrite” – Rowan Atkinson & Hugh Laurie on Hamlet | Snarky Shakespeare Ever wonder what Shakespeare’s editor thought of the original draft of Hamlet? Let the Editor (Rowan Atkinson) and William Shakespeare (Hugh Laurie) give you an idea as they struggle between a more philosophical, long-winded (!) version of the play, and a play that delivers the laughs that an audience supposedly wants above all else. Editor: . . . just start, “To be or not to be!”Shakespeare: You can’t say that, it’s jibberish! This is an absolutely brilliant little sketch to get you thinking about the way that performance impacts on the way that a play is written. Editor: . . . it’s five hours, Bill. A play’s presentation can also change the meaning of its content. Change the tone of the performance and you change the play. Like this: Like Loading...