Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englisch Philologie), course: Shakespeare and Cinema, language: English, abstract: There can hardly be two more different genres than a classical 16th century Shakespearian drama and a 20th century motion picture. But despite the enormous differences, many screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays have been produced. The purpose of this paper is to show how a classical Shakespearian tragedy such as Othello can be used as a basis for a 20th century motion picture and what changes the directors made in order to attract a modern audience with a Shakespearian play. There are many adaptations of Othello, which are quite different. They range from word for word almost theatrical realisations of the play as for example the BBC version with Anthony Hopkins to modern adaptations such as the teenager movie “O” where only the main theme of Shakespeare’s Othello is kept and which is probably not recognised as a Shakespearian adaptation. In order to be able to compare the adaptations, this paper focuses on the adaptations of Othello by the directors Orson Welles, Serge Yutkevich and Oliver Parker. They are all fairly close to Shakespeare’s original but at the same time have some individual traits, which can only be found in these special versions of Othello. It should also be interesting to see how they can be distinguished according to the time when they were made, since the view and interpretation of Shakespeare’s play will differ depending on the time when the movie was directed. According to the topic of this paper, a summary of Shakespeare’s Othello is not necessary since the general plot and a detailed knowledge of Shakespeare’s play is not crucial for the analysis of the motion pictures. The first main part of this paper gives descriptions of each adaptation. Selected key scenes will be illustrated in order to show the most distinctive features the adaptation has compared to the other adaptations. Then in the second main part the gathered information will be used in order to compare and contrast the different adaptations. A final conclusion restates and combines the facts in order to show how a classical drama can be used as a basis for a motion picture and in which way the directors made changes in order to create an interesting movie for the modern viewers.

Story of cinema -- How movies are made -- Movie genres -- World cinema -- A-Z directors -- Must-see movies.

This first book published on film noir established the genre--a classic, at last in translation.

With more than 250 images, new information on international cinema—especially Polish, Chinese, Russian, Canadian, and Iranian filmmakers—an expanded section on African-American filmmakers, updated discussions of new works by major American directors, and a new section on the rise of comic book movies and computer generated special effects, this is the most up to date resource for film history courses in the twenty-first century.

From Oscar-winning British classics to Hollywood musicals and Westerns, from Soviet epics to Bollywood thrillers, Shakespeare has inspired an almost infinite variety of films. Directors as diverse as Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh, Baz Luhrmann and Julie Taymor have transferred Shakespeare's plays from stage to screen with unforgettable results. Spanning a century of cinema, from a silent short of 'The Tempest' (1907) to Kenneth Branagh's 'As You Like It' (2006), Daniel Rosenthal's up-to-date selection takes in the most important, inventive and unusual Shakespeare films ever made. Half are British and American productions that retain Shakespeare's language, including key works such as Olivier's 'Henry V' and 'Hamlet', Welles' 'Othello' and 'Chimes at Midnight', Branagh's 'Henry V' and 'Hamlet', Luhrmann's 'Romeo + Juliet' and Taymor's 'Titus'. Alongside these original-text films are more than 30 genre adaptations: titles that aim for a wider audience by using modernized dialogue and settings and customizing Shakespeare's plots and characters, transforming 'Macbeth' into a pistol-packing gangster ('Joe Macbeth' and 'Maqbool') or reimagining 'Othello' as a jazz musician ('All Night Long'). There are Shakesepeare-based Westerns ('Broken Lance', 'King of Texas'), musicals ('West Side Story', 'Kiss Me Kate'), high-school comedies ('10 Things I Hate About You', 'She's the Man'), even a sci-fi adventure ('Forbidden Planet'). There are also films dominated by the performance of a Shakespearean play ('In the Bleak Midwinter', 'Shakespeare in Love'). Rosenthal emphasises the global nature of Shakespearean cinema, with entries on more than 20 foreign-language titles, including Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood and Ran', Grigori Kozintsev's 'Russian Hamlet' and 'King Lear', and little-known features from as far afield as 'Madagascar' and 'Venezuela', some never released in Britain or the US. He considers the films' production and box-office history and examines the film-makers' key interpretive decisions in comparison to their Shakespearean sources, focusing on cinematography, landscape, music, performance, production design, textual alterations and omissions. As cinema plays an increasingly important role in the study of Shakespeare at schools and universities, this is a wide-ranging, entertaining and accessible guide for Shakespeare teachers, students and enthusiasts.

This book is the first in-depth cultural history of cinema's polyvalent and often contradictory appropriations of Shakespearean drama and performance traditions. The author argues that these adapatations have helped shape multiple aspects of film, from cinematic style to genre and narrative construction.

“Nicole Galland is exceptionally well versed in the fine nuances of storytelling.” —St. Petersburg Times “Galland has an exceptional gift.” —Neal Stephenson The critically acclaimed author of The Fool's Tale, Nicole Galland now approaches William Shakespeare's classic drama of jealousy, betrayal, and murder from the opposite side. I, Iago is an ingenious, brilliantly crafted novel that allows one of literature's greatest villains--the deceitful schemer Iago, from the Bard's immortal tragedy, Othello--to take center stage in order to reveal his "true" motivations. This is Iago as you've never known him, his past and influences breathtakingly illuminated, in a fictional reexamination that explores the eternal question: is true evil the result of nature versus nurture...or something even more complicated?