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Since the invention of cinema,
over a century ago,

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Shakespeare's plays have often been
adapted for the big screen.

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But it took 50 years for his work
to be turned into a truly
cinematic experience.

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When audiences first saw
Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V

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they were presented with
a vision of Elizabethan London

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and a faithful recreation
of a stage performance in 1600.

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In the chorus's opening speech,
Shakespeare invites us

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to use the imagination of our
mind's eye to overcome

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the limitations of the theatre.

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O, for a muse of fire,

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that would ascend the brightest
heaven of invention, a kingdom for

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a stage, princes to act and monarchs
to behold a swelling scene!

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Then should the warlike Harry,
like himself,

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assume the port of Mars and at his
heels, leash'd in like hounds,

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would famine, sword and fire
crouch for employment.

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But pardon, gentles all,
the flat unraised spirits that

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hath dared on this unworthy scaffold
to bring forth so great an object.

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Can this cockpit hold the vasty
fields of France?

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Or may we cram within this wooden O
the very casques that did

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affright the air at Agincourt?

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As far as I was concerned, it
may as well be the first Shakespeare

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film so, as far as I was concerned,
it was the first Shakespeare film.

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Olivier used the camera's eye to
take us

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from a deliberately stylised
world of medieval sets...

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..to the glorious cinematic reality
of the fields of Agincourt.

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On location with a cast of hundreds
and filmed in rich Technicolor.

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Olivier's example
inspired film-makers worldwide

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to make boldly cinematic versions
of Shakespeare's plays.

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HE YELLS

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In Japan, Macbeth was reinvented
as a fantastical samurai drama

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with the clash of swords replaced
by a hailstorm of arrows.

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In Russia, Hamlet was interpreted as
one man's struggle

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against tyranny, filmed on an
epic scale,

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Soviet style,
with a towering ghost to match.

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And Romeo and Juliet was given
a sumptuous youthful treatment

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in sun-drenched Italy, in tune with
the rebellious spirit of the '60s.

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HE YELLS

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None of these films would have been
possible without Olivier

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leading the way.

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I was very snobby about films.

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I did them to make money
and said so, all over the place

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much to the disgust of the
Sam Goldwyns of this world.

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But the man who changed me
was the man I quarrelled with most

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bitterly of all, really,
and that was William Wyler.

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He told me that I must understand
there wasn't anything that

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could not be done in that medium,
if you found the way to do it

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and it was he who persuaded me

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that you could even do Shakespeare
successfully on film.

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Plane!

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When Olivier made Henry V, Britain
had survived the Blitz

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and the threat of invasion but was
still at war with Nazi Germany.

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Winston Churchill himself
instructed Britain's

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greatest actor to make the film
both to boost morale

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and to defend British culture.

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Olivier gave rousing speeches to
inspire the Armed Forces.

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His declamatory manner determined
how he would play Henry V.

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We will go forward,

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hearts, nerve and spirit steel,

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we were attacked,
we must smite our foes!

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We will conquer!

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I see you stand like greyhounds in
the slips, straining upon the start.

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The game's afoot.
Follow your spirit,

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and upon this charge, cry, "God for
Harry, England, and Saint George!"

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ALL: God for Harry, England,
and Saint George!

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Henry V was a massive success.

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Bringing Shakespeare to
people who had never

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seen his plays in the theatre.

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Olivier was encouraged to follow it
with the first feature

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film of Hamlet.

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Shakespeare's most
psychologically complex play.

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Filming in atmospheric
black and white,

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Olivier used even more ambitious
cinematic techniques to

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translate Shakespeare
uniquely for the screen.

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When Hamlet delivers the most
famous soliloquy of all,

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Olivier places himself high up
on a cliff above the sea, speaking

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both directly and in a voice-over
to allow us to enter

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the character's turbulent mind.

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To be...

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or not to be?

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That is the question.

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Whether it is nobler in the mind
to suffer the slings

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and arrows of outrageous
fortune or to take

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arms against a sea of troubles

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and by opposing...

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end them.

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Shakespeare's play at full length
runs four hours.

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Olivier found a thematic device
which enabled him

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to reduce the play to
a manageable cinematic length.

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Freud's psychology was
fashionable at the time

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and Olivier chose to interpret
the central story of Hamlet's

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mother marrying his murdered
father's brother

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through the Oedipus complex.

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A morbid obsession of a
son for his mother.

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Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
Hamlet. I pray thee, stay with us.

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Go not to Wittenberg. I shall in
all my best obey you, madam.

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Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply
be as ourself in Denmark.

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Madam, come.

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It at least gave one a central idea
which seemed to fulfil

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the great vacuum provided by all
the crossed ideas about Hamlet,

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what he really was,
what he really wasn't,

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whether he was a man of action,
whether he wasn't a man of action.

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Now, he could perfectly safely be
a man of action under

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the auspices of that
particular idea.

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Something is
rotten in the State of Denmark.

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I liked the atmosphere of this film.

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Somehow romantic.

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This mysterious geography,

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you could not determine
the shape of the castle,

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the floor on which this camera
gliding through these corridors.

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I loved the performances.
Every single one of them.

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I love the photography and the
music. Just everything about it.

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An inspiration to film-makers
around the world, Hamlet was a

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box-office success.

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And the first British production to
win the Oscar for best picture.

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In the same year, across the
Atlantic, the precocious actor

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and director Orson Welles made
a dark savage version of Macbeth.

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The maverick film-maker had become
ostracised in Hollywood,

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obliging him
to work on poverty-row resources.

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HE PRAYS

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Of course, the style of it was
entirely dictated,

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it was done as a...as a B
picture, quickie.

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I thought I'd have a great success
with it and then I'd be allowed to

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do all kinds of difficult things,
as long as they were cheap.

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But, it was a big
critical failure.

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The biggest critical failure
ever I'd had.

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Welles' passion for Shakespeare,

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which had begun by directing his
plays in the theatre, was unabated.

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Unloved by Hollywood, he moved to
Europe where his genius has

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always been recognised.

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He had no qualms casting himself
as Othello, the imperious Moor

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destroyed by jealousy,

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like Olivier, Welles realised
the potential cinema

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gave for location and with his
dynamic framing and rapid-fire

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editing, he brought an entirely new
energy to filming Shakespeare.

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General!

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I swear 'tis better to be much
abused than but to know't a little.
My Lord. Is my Lord angry?

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He went hence but now, Iago, and
certainly in strange unquietness.

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I will go seek him. There's matter
indeed if he be angry.

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When Iago goads Othello,
crashing waves underscore

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the intensity of the scene.

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Villain, be sure thou proves
my love a whore, be sure of it.

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Give me the ocular proof

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Or by the worth of man's immortal
soul, thou hadst been better

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have been born a dog than
answer my waked wrath!

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Oh, Grace!
Make me to see't, or, at the least,
so prove it, that the probation

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bear no hinge nor loop to hang
a doubt on, nor woe upon thy life!

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Never pray more. Abandon
all remorse.

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For nothing canst thou to damnation
add greater than that.

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O, monstrous world!

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Take note, take note, O world,
to be direct and honest is not safe.

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By the world, I think my wife be
honest...and think she is not.

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A large company,
biggest company I've ever

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had as a director on location of
about 70 people, I think it was.

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Besides the actors and everything.

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Came to Mogador
on the West Coast of Africa to shoot

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Othello and we arrived
and got a telegram the day after

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we arrived that Scalera,
the biggest Italian movie studio

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with whom I had a contract to make
the picture, had gone bankrupt.

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And we had no money, we were
in Africa and we had no costumes,

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nothing.

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Welles was not one to let
lack of funds

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and costumes inhibit
his imagination.

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While Shakespeare sets the murder
of Roderigo simply in a chamber,

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Welles filmed it in a local
bathhouse.

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Iago?

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Iago.

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While Welles struggled to find
financial backing,

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on the other side of the world, the
Soviet Union provided

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unlimited money and resources to
make an epic version of Hamlet.

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Under Khrushchev, the artistic thaw
supported a vision of the play

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which reflected the tyranny of the
former regime.

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SHE SOBS

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CANNON FIRE

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Director Grigori Kozintsev stressed
the oppressive scale of the castle,

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echoing Hamlet's poetic description
of Denmark as a prison.

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Like Olivier, Kozintsev greatly
reduced the original length of the
play,

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but his Russian translation remained
faithful to Shakespeare.

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'You know, every nation
has his own Shakespeare

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'and in Russia - there is a very
long tradition

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'in Russian literature from the
beginning of the 19th century -

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'all great Russian writers,

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'such as Pushkin, Dostoyevsky...

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'many, many were admirers of
Shakespeare.

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'But, of course, our own
understanding of Shakespeare,

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'we have many good school of
translations, different
translations.

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'I used the translation by Boris
Pasternak, it is a free version.

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'It is in contemporary Russian,
a modern Russian, without any

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'kind of declamation. But, of
course, it is translation of a great
poet.

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HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

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In Japan, another major film-maker,
Akira Kurosawa, showed it was

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possible to disregard
the verse entirely.

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He took the plot, principal
characters

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and the supernatural atmosphere of
Macbeth and placed them

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in a completely different
cultural context.

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HE SPEAKS JAPANESE

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HE SPEAKS JAPANESE

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Kurosawa replaces Macbeth and Banquo
encountering the three witches

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with his two warriors lost in an
eerie forest

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meeting a solitary ghost.

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A figure out of the classical
Japanese tradition of Noh theatre.

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HE SINGS IN JAPANESE

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HE SPEAKS JAPANESE

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Lady Macbeth has spurred her
husband into murdering the king

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in his sleep and anxiously waits
for his return.

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Kurosawa reaches beyond cinema
back into a theatre that is

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ancient and utterly
non-naturalistic.

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The music and gestures of Noh enable
him to penetrate the psychology

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of one Shakespeare's most complex
characters.

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Kurosawa's film with its marriage
of Japanese culture

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and cinematic power set a new
benchmark in world cinema.

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It showed that Shakespeare's
universal themes and imagery

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could be realised on the screen even
without a Western context

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or the English language.

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When cinema began, Shakespeare
provided a ready source

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of scenes and stories

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and gave respectability to a new
medium which was widely regarded

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as a passing fad.

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More than 400 silent films were
adapted from Shakespeare.

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The earliest to survive wasn't a
work in itself,

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but an advertisement for a stage
performance of King John,

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starring the great actor-manager
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

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As the cinema rapidly developed,

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Shakespeare was soon filmed all over
the world and on location.

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An Italian company made compressed
versions of the plays,

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including this King Lear,

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delicately hand-tinted for
cinematic effect.

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It was the magical and fantastical
plays that provided

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the richest source material.

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00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:55,960
This version of A Midsummer Night's
Dream shot in Brooklyn

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gives an early indication of
Shakespeare's cinematic potential.

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Puck flies, appears,

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00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:10,520
disappears and transforms Bottom
into a donkey with a simple cut.

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Without Shakespeare's words,

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film-makers could play around with
the themes and stories.

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The great silent star Asta Nielsen
became Princess Hamlet.

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Her androgynous appeal made her
believable as a woman in disguise,

237
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:34,640
hiding her secret from the man
she loves - Horatio.

238
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,320
Silent film was too limited to
produce a truly great

239
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:48,960
cinematic realisation of a
Shakespeare play.

240
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:53,480
The movie pioneer DW Griffith
presented a spirited performance

241
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:58,080
by Florence Lawrence as Kate
in The Taming Of The Shrew.

242
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,720
But without the banter between her
and her suitor Petruchio

243
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:04,640
the film could only go so far.

244
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,920
Hollywood would often return to
The Taming Of The Shrew

245
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:20,440
in different guises.

246
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:25,520
In fact, it could be said that the
turbulent relationship of Kate

247
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:30,960
and Petruchio was the foundation of
one of Hollywood's enduring genres -

248
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,280
the battle of the sexes comedy.

249
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:42,920
The very first sound film of
a Shakespeare play

250
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:46,280
was a heavily cut version of
The Taming Of The Shrew.

251
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,480
It starred Hollywood's most
glamorous couple,

252
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,320
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford

253
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,920
and allowed them to act out on
screen their perceived true life
relationship.

254
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:59,960
Oh, come, come, you wasp - you
are too angry.

255
00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:04,720
If I be waspish, best beware my
sting!

256
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:06,640
HE LAUGHS

257
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:10,800
Oh, come Kate, come. Why not be
friends? Let me go.

258
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:13,080
Let me loose, fool.

259
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:17,600
They told me that you were rough and
sullen, but no, I find you kind and
gentle.

260
00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:20,400
Thou canst not frown, nor look
askance,

261
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:25,400
nor bite thy lip as angry wenches
will. Thou art pleasant,

262
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,080
courteous,

263
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:29,200
and sweet as springtime flowers.

264
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:37,680
Shakespeare's play later became
a witty Cole Porter musical.

265
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:44,320
# I hate men

266
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:49,040
# I can't abide them
even now and then

267
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:54,640
# Than ever marry one of them,
I'd rest a maiden rather

268
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:59,600
# For husbands are a boring lot
and only give you bother

269
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:07,040
# Of course, I'm awfully glad that
Mother deemed to marry Father

270
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:12,320
# But I hate men. #

271
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:20,360
In McLintock! The Taming Of The
Shrew became a western.

272
00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:24,560
The film was produced by and starred
John Wayne.

273
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:30,000
The sexual politics now seem
alarming, but they do reflect the
original story.

274
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,720
You've been digging those spurs into
me for two years,

275
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,760
now you're going to get your
comeuppance. Oh, you...

276
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:37,640
Thanks.

277
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:39,200
SHE SCREAMS

278
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:41,200
My father would be proud of you.

279
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,160
# When you know I can't answer
the... #

280
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:50,280
That story has proved
over and over again

281
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,200
that it transcends changing times.

282
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,040
In a teenage romcom twist on the
play,

283
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,880
Kate is no longer a shrew, but
a modern feminist.

284
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:03,120
Excuse me, have you seen The
Feminine Mystique, I've lost my
copy?

285
00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:05,960
What are you doing here?
I heard there was a poetry reading.

286
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,800
You're so... Charming.

287
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:10,480
Wholesome.

288
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:12,320
Unwelcome.

289
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,040
You're not as mean as you think
you are, you know that?

290
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,400
And you're not as badass you
think you are.

291
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:21,720
Oh, someone still has her
panties in a twist.

292
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,080
Don't for one minute think that you
had any effect whatsoever on my
panties.

293
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:26,520
Then what did I have an effect on?

294
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:28,720
Other then my upchuck reflex,
nothing.

295
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,520
Hollywood was at its most successful
with Shakespeare

296
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:40,680
by absorbing elements of his stories

297
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,440
and characters into established
genres.

298
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:46,880
Hamlet became a film noir.

299
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,200
While King Lear was refashioned
as a Western.

300
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,680
And the Tempest made into a science
fiction movie.

301
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:09,280
Hollywood had no trouble with the
stories and magic of Shakespeare

302
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:12,360
that could be expressed in
its own language.

303
00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:15,680
The problem was Shakespeare's
language.

304
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:30,520
In the golden era of Hollywood,
the two most prestigious films

305
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:34,080
of his plays bombed at
the box office.

306
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:37,840
A starry cast and the skills of the
great German theatre director

307
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,880
Max Reinhardt failed to enchant
the critics or the public.

308
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,880
The spectacle might have been
lavish, but the performances

309
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,920
were incongruously theatrical
and old-fashioned.

310
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:57,280
Ill met by Moonlight, proud Titania.

311
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,200
What, jealous Oberon?

312
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,240
Fairies, skip hence.

313
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:06,080
I have forsworn his bed and
company.

314
00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:10,800
In MGM's Romeo and Juliet,

315
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:15,160
the star-crossed lovers were
somewhat mature, to say the least.

316
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:17,880
O, speak again, bright angel,

317
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,200
for thou art as glorious to this
night, being o'er my head,

318
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:23,560
as is a winged messenger of heaven

319
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,840
O, Romeo, Romeo,

320
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:30,880
wherefore art thou Romeo.

321
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,120
People said Shearer was much too
old? What do you think about this?

322
00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:39,960
Well, she wasn't, she wasn't a
child, as it was said.

323
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,200
she wasn't all that old at that
time. She was lovely looking.

324
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,680
I think there's a great
misconception that

325
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,320
because she was supposed to be 14,

326
00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:56,360
maybe an Italian girl of 14 of that
period was a little more mature.

327
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,800
Also, they say when an actress - the
tradition is when an actress

328
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,280
can play Juliet, she's too old for
it.

329
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:10,840
Goodnight, goodnight.

330
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:12,800
Parting is such sweet sorrow...

331
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:16,880
..that I shall say goodnight till
it be morrow.

332
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:27,600
It took an Italian director to cast
real teenagers as Romeo and Juliet

333
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:32,720
and repeat Olivier's success in
making Shakespeare widely popular
again.

334
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:37,760
Franco Zeffirelli forged his radical
approach in the English theatre.

335
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,440
His stage productions of Romeo
and Juliet

336
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:44,640
and Much Ado About Nothing were
praised more for their energy

337
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,200
than for their attention to the
verse.

338
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,040
When your purists say that
Shakespeare is based entirely

339
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,720
on the beauty of verses,
they're completely wrong.

340
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:55,680
Because otherwise, how do you
explain that Shakespeare is

341
00:29:55,680 --> 00:30:00,600
the greatest poet, playwright
in Italy, or in France, in Germany?

342
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,280
Because there is something
beyond poetry that really matters

343
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:05,880
and is essential.

344
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:08,560
..the moment that Juliet
will arrive...

345
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:11,640
INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

346
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,920
Zeffirelli proved his case
with Romeo And Juliet,

347
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,840
a British-Italian co-production
shot on location.

348
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,520
His young cast played the characters
in the naturalistic style

349
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,960
that had developed out
of the New York-based Actors Studio,

350
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,840
which has produced such dynamic
stars as Marlon Brando,

351
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,440
Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino.

352
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:43,400
Hold one moment.

353
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,920
This is a very important moment,
because it's the first time,

354
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,560
the first time you see Romeo
after the balcony scene,

355
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:53,360
which only took place
a few hours before.

356
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:57,160
So it was only a dream, a dream-like
planet, and now it becomes true,

357
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,880
so your first instinct is
to kiss him, "He is my man,"

358
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:02,760
he's going
to be my husband in a minute.

359
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:04,120
HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

360
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:06,240
'I selected two young people today

361
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:08,560
'that corresponded to
a certain image,

362
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,240
'a certain blend between
classical qualities'

363
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:15,360
and contemporary qualities
and these two kids have them.

364
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,680
And I asked them to do
a work of identification,

365
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,080
in a way, but only in a way,

366
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,440
the method of the Actors Studio.

367
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:28,360
'I constantly explained
them the scenes

368
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:34,280
'from a very matter-of-fact
point of start to them.

369
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:37,440
'"If you were in such and such
a situation,

370
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,080
'"how would you react and behave?"

371
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:43,520
'Then the words come later.
If I had started with the words,

372
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,640
'we would have been lost.'

373
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:49,480
What matters is that they feel

374
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:52,120
that they are living naturally
a moment of their life

375
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,440
and that moment of
their life coincides

376
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:56,920
with what Shakespeare wanted
from those characters.

377
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:58,400
Here comes the lady.

378
00:31:58,400 --> 00:31:59,800
O, so light a foot

379
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,360
Will ne'er wear out
the everlasting flint. Juliet!

380
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:09,880
FRIAR TUTS
Good even to my ghostly confessor.

381
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:12,520
Romeo shall thank thee,
daughter, for us both.

382
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:15,920
Ah, Juliet,

383
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:17,280
if the measure of thy joy

384
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:18,720
Be heaped like mine,

385
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:21,000
that thy skill be more to blazon it

386
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,680
then sweeten with thy breath
this neighbour air.

387
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,320
They are but beggars that
can count their worth.

388
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,240
But my true love is grown
to such excess

389
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:32,200
I cannot sum up sum
of half my wealth.

390
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:33,880
THE FRIAR TUTS

391
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,120
The case of Romeo and Juliet
is a very typical case

392
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:40,400
that shows how great
Shakespeare would have been

393
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:42,960
if he'd lived today
as a scriptwriter.

394
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,360
It's really the closest example
in classical theatre

395
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,520
to what a modern scriptwriter
should be for movies.

396
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:07,280
'Fear not, till Birnam Wood
do come to Dunsinane.

397
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,760
'And now,
a wood comes towards Dunsinane.'

398
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:21,400
During the shot, when I give
the cue, "Action, blue,"

399
00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:24,360
take some of those trees off
the front of that catapult,

400
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:25,880
special action for you.

401
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:28,280
Working on challenging locations,

402
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:32,400
another international director,
the Polish Roman Polanski,

403
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:36,280
filmed Shakespeare's bloodiest play
with gritty authenticity.

404
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:38,800
It's not cold today. You know, try.

405
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:40,160
OK?

406
00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:44,680
'It's a very bloody play, you know.

407
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:49,040
'As Jan Kott,
a Polish scholar, puts it,

408
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:51,920
'it's "steeped in blood" itself.'

409
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:55,400
INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

410
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,240
OK. All right.

411
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,520
Eyes wide open. Don't move. Action!

412
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,080
WOMAN SCREAMS

413
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,040
SCREAMING INTENSIFIES

414
00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:14,840
In underlining the darkness
and grotesque cruelty of the play,

415
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:19,880
Polanski drew on his childhood
memories of Nazi-occupied Poland.

416
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,080
GLASS BREAKS

417
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:24,680
This is another thing,
when they were raiding houses,

418
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,280
you always heard those
screams everywhere,

419
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,680
on the second floor,
on the ground floor,

420
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:32,960
you know, it was like stereo
around your apartment,

421
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:35,120
you have people screaming
in various...

422
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:36,680
They were beating someone,

423
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:40,280
or shooting someone, or
dragging someone out, so...

424
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:43,960
..I remembered that.

425
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:50,040
HYSTERICAL SCREAMING

426
00:34:53,720 --> 00:34:55,600
FLAMES CRACKLE

427
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:17,440
In King Lear, I try to show

428
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,600
the development of fire.

429
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:25,520
At first, there's a fire place. It's
something perhaps prehistorical.

430
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,520
A patriarchal fire.

431
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:32,320
HIGH-PITCHED TRUMPETS

432
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:40,400
After that is a fire, the king's
baggage train with torches.

433
00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:47,640
After that, soldiers put
fire on the countryside.

434
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,080
The town is burned
and the kingdom is burned

435
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:53,440
and the whole screen is on fire.

436
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:58,760
In the same time, on the soundtrack,

437
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:02,400
Shostakovich composed a requiem,

438
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:09,040
not the naturalistic
sounds of the battle,

439
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,880
but a kind of lament, a requiem.

440
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,200
A lament of human beings,

441
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:18,240
a great requiem at this
total catastrophe.

442
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:26,520
FLAMES CRACKLE

443
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,040
MOURNFUL CHORAL SINGING

444
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:53,560
In his second epic excursion
into Shakespeare,

445
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:58,080
Akira Kurosawa also saw
King Lear in apocalyptic terms.

446
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:03,840
Ran, his radical, visually stunning
adaptation of the play,

447
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,960
features a terrifying scene
of death and destruction

448
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,720
when his Lear is under siege.

449
00:37:09,720 --> 00:37:14,120
Kurosawa amplifies the emotional
effect of the images by replacing

450
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:18,920
the sounds of battle with Tour
Takemitsu's symphonic score.

451
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,320
DRAMATIC SYMPHONIC MUSIC

452
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,320
SHOUTING, CARRIAGE WHEELS RATTLE

453
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,080
DRIVER YELLS TO HORSES

454
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:01,440
King Lear is one of Shakespeare's
most challenging plays

455
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:04,000
to be produced in the theatre.

456
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:08,040
Yet it has given us three of
the greatest Shakespeare films.

457
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:15,520
Peter Brook directed a legendary
stage production in 1962.

458
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:19,400
He then sought to transfer
this stark

459
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:23,240
and alienated vision of King Lear
from the stage to the screen.

460
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:28,000
He filmed it in the frozen
wilderness of Denmark,

461
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,560
preserving for posterity the power

462
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,720
of Paul Scofield's
magisterial performance.

463
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,120
I put the emphasis in the film

464
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:42,040
on making the background
of it plausible,

465
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,160
which is why we made this, really,

466
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:48,280
in this wild, frozen
landscape in Denmark

467
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:52,840
so that you could feel the essence
of this prehistoric England.

468
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:54,920
WIND HOWLS

469
00:38:57,240 --> 00:38:59,920
The realism gave many things -

470
00:38:59,920 --> 00:39:02,920
it enabled one to be
very close to Paul.

471
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:08,840
For me, where you really feel
the essence of Paul's Lear

472
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:11,080
is at the very beginning,

473
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:15,760
that big close-up of Paul
when he says the first words

474
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:20,880
and there, immediately,
into the outer and inner man

475
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:23,640
he was playing as King Lear.

476
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:25,160
Know...

477
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:28,800
..that we have divided

478
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:31,000
in three

479
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:32,240
our kingdom...

480
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:39,120
..and 'tis our fast intent

481
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:44,600
To shake all cares and
business from our age...

482
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:49,680
..conferring them
on younger strengths

483
00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:53,480
while we, unburdened,

484
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:54,960
crawl toward death.

485
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,320
While in the theatre
great performances

486
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,600
are by definition evanescent,

487
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,800
on film,
they are captured for all time

488
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:10,560
and for all audiences.

489
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:15,240
No-one saw that more clearly
than Orson Welles.

490
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:18,560
His greatest Shakespeare film
was not the realisation

491
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,920
of one particular play,
but the realisation on film

492
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:26,520
of Shakespeare's greatest comic
character, Sir John Falstaff.

493
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:31,080
Chimes At Midnight is one film made

494
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:35,200
from the five historical plays
that feature Falstaff,

495
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,240
a comic figure who becomes tragic,

496
00:40:38,240 --> 00:40:40,640
unable to cope with
the changing times.

497
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:46,920
It's very rare that in literature
we have a fascinating character,

498
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:49,360
a work of fiction, a creation,

499
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,360
of a good man who is fascinating.

500
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:54,280
There are very few of those
in all literature.

501
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:58,280
Falstaff is certainly
pre-eminent in that respect.

502
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,880
Jesus, the days that we've seen!

503
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:04,000
Ha, Sir John, said I well?

504
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:08,440
We have heard the chimes at
midnight, Master Robert Shallow.

505
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,360
That we have, that we
have, that we have.

506
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:15,880
Merry England was dead
and gone in Elizabethan times.

507
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:18,520
It was a dream,
it maybe never existed,

508
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,840
but it was very real
in Shakespeare's mind.

509
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,120
Well, Falstaff, the king hath
severed you and Prince Harry.

510
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,800
Yes, I thank your pretty wit for it.

511
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:30,800
Prince John of Lancaster:

512
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:34,440
good faith, this same
sober-blooded boy doth not love me,

513
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:37,000
nor a man cannot make him laugh -

514
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,120
but that's no marvel:
he drinks no wine!

515
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:43,760
There's never any of these demure
boys come to any proof,

516
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:47,560
for thin drink doth
so over-cool their blood

517
00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:51,120
that they are generally
fools and cowards.

518
00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:53,320
Which some of us should be too,

519
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:56,440
but for...inflammation.
LAUGHTER

520
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:58,320
Do you feel nostalgic
for that world,

521
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:01,320
if you'd lived
in Shakespeare's England?

522
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,440
Uh, yeah, of course, I do now.

523
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:07,040
I think all Anglo-Saxons
feel nostalgic for it.

524
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:09,760
They apologise for it
and giggle self-consciously

525
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:13,400
and say it's all Christmas cards
and so on, but we know what we mean.

526
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:16,720
Something to do
with May time, and...

527
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:21,440
..a May time that never happened,
properly, a spring that never was,

528
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:24,840
but it has an extraordinary reality,
I admit.

529
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:27,080
SOLDIERS CRY OUT

530
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,800
Aside from his central performance,

531
00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:37,760
Welles the director gives the cinema
one of the great battle scenes.

532
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:39,920
He illustrated chivalric glory

533
00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,760
descending into
mud-splattered savagery.

534
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,280
SOLDIERS ROAR, STEEL CLASHES

535
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,040
The main battle, the idea of it,

536
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:05,280
is to show the poor foot soldiers'
viewpoint of a battle

537
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:07,720
which is being run
by people in armour

538
00:43:07,720 --> 00:43:12,480
and plumes. It's kind of Falstaff's
ragged army viewpoint.

539
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:35,720
KNIGHTS SHOUT AND CALL OUT

540
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:41,680
Shakespeare, in a way, belonged
to our modern world, really.

541
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:44,320
He was at the beginning of it,
I think.

542
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:45,960
MATCH STRIKES

543
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:52,160
O, for a Muse of fire,

544
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:56,400
that would ascend the brightest
heaven of invention.

545
00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:00,520
In the year Olivier died,

546
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:04,400
the young actor/director Kenneth
Branagh followed in his footsteps

547
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:07,600
to bring Shakespeare to
mainstream cinema audiences.

548
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:11,320
Beginning with Henry V,

549
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:15,560
he opened his version
not in an Elizabethan theatre,

550
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:16,760
but in a film studio.

551
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:20,880
A kingdom for a stage,

552
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:22,560
princes to act.

553
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,840
And monarchs to behold
the swelling scene!

554
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:33,640
By playing Henry, Branagh evoked
a direct historical comparison

555
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:36,000
with Olivier's heroic performance,

556
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:37,720
but made the role his own.

557
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:40,720
Olivier talked about
the whole process

558
00:44:40,720 --> 00:44:42,320
of soliloquies in Shakespeare,

559
00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:45,440
he believed that by the time you've
reached the climax of a speech,

560
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,600
that you had to be further
away from the actor,

561
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,840
because he believed the film medium
couldn't take the degree of passion

562
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,080
that often accompanied the climax
of a great Shakespearean aria

563
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:56,200
and I sort of believe the opposite.

564
00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:58,520
I see you stand like greyhounds
in the slips,

565
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:00,080
Straining upon the start.

566
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:01,280
The game's afoot.

567
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:04,320
Follow your spirit,
and upon this charge

568
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:11,560
Cry, "God for Harry, England,
and St George!"

569
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:15,880
SOLDIERS: "Harry, England,
and St George!"

570
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:20,400
'Shakespeare films of late have been
pretty bold with Shakespeare.'

571
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:23,040
We've come such a long way
in the development of cinema

572
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:25,400
that there are so many
interesting ways to do that,

573
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,120
ways to match images with words

574
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:29,560
that it becomes almost
like new territory,

575
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:31,840
it's as if with this
400-year-old play,

576
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:34,520
you can approach it as if it
was a completely new script.

577
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:42,720
The Taviani brothers brought the
political insights of Julius Caesar

578
00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:46,000
up-to-date by enacting
the drama in a prison.

579
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:50,520
The cast was mostly
real-life mafia convicts.

580
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:52,640
TRANSLATED FROM ITALIAN:

581
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:42,560
It's no surprise that of
all Shakespeare's plays,

582
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,280
the endlessly enigmatic Hamlet

583
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:47,560
is the most filmed around the world

584
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:49,880
and the one that has provoked
the most various,

585
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,960
not to say outlandish,
interpretations.

586
00:46:57,520 --> 00:46:59,480
TRANSLATION FROM ITALIAN:

587
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:04,800
In an Italian Western version,

588
00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:07,680
Gerty is surprised by
the return of her son,

589
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:08,920
Johnny Hamlet.

590
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:41,000
In the Chinese martial arts
film The Banquet,

591
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:44,840
the dumbshow revealing how Claudius
murdered Hamlet's father

592
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:47,480
is staged as a lavish
eastern pantomime.

593
00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:53,920
SPARSE, RHYTHMIC DRUMMING

594
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:16,400
Aki Kaurismaki's off-beat
Finnish sensibility

595
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:18,920
turns Hamlet into a noir comedy.

596
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,240
TRANSLATED FROM FINNISH:

597
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:31,200
LIGHT THUMP

598
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:06,600
In India, Vishal Bhardwaj has
made Bollywood crime movies

599
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:08,280
out of three tragedies -

600
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,480
Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet,

601
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:13,800
which became Haider.

602
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:16,600
His Hamlet is
a revolutionary in Kashmir,

603
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:20,440
putting a very political twist
on the prince's famous soliloquy.

604
00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:51,840
Hamlet's complexity is in contrast

605
00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:56,360
to the simplicity of cinema's
second-favourite Shakespeare play.

606
00:49:56,360 --> 00:49:59,480
INDIAN MUSIC

607
00:49:59,480 --> 00:50:02,720
Romeo And Juliet, with its story
of star-crossed lovers

608
00:50:02,720 --> 00:50:06,640
from feuding families has been given
the lavish Bollywood treatment.

609
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:38,280
The Romeo And Juliet story
lends itself readily

610
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:41,120
to innumerable cultural
settings and genres.

611
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:48,560
It was the basis for one of
the greatest of American musicals,

612
00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:50,400
set in 1950s New York.

613
00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:55,080
# Tonight, tonight

614
00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:57,920
# It all began tonight

615
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:03,600
# I saw you and the world went away

616
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,600
# Tonight, tonight

617
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:09,160
# There's only you tonight

618
00:51:09,160 --> 00:51:13,920
# What you are, what you do,
what you say... #

619
00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:16,800
That myth, that story
of Romeo And Juliet,

620
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:20,000
of two kids who fall in love,
but their adult world says,

621
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,960
"You can't love that person
because of their name,"

622
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:25,760
or, "You can't love that person
because of their skin colour,"

623
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:28,280
"You can't love that person
because of their sexuality

624
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:31,680
"or their religion," that idea
is something that touches us all,

625
00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:35,160
particularly touches young people,
because to be told who they can

626
00:51:35,160 --> 00:51:38,720
and cannot love is something
they find very hard to compute.

627
00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:42,480
"Why would that be?
Why is it wrong to love someone?"

628
00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:45,680
MUSIC: I'm Kissing You
by Des'ree

629
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:55,480
Baz Luhrmann reinvented
Romeo And Juliet for the 1990s.

630
00:51:55,480 --> 00:51:59,640
He set the story in a
visually dazzling Miami.

631
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:02,880
His gangland is a place
populated by the young,

632
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,640
where glamorous leads
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes

633
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,640
play out the tragic fate
of the teenage lovers.

634
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:16,600
The film is a cinematic
tour de force.

635
00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:19,040
TYRES SCREECH, MAN YELLS

636
00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:22,600
It's authentically anchored
by Luhrmann's bold choice

637
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:25,600
to retain Shakespeare's
text as the dialogue.

638
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:27,320
Go forth! I will back thee!

639
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:30,800
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

640
00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:32,280
I-I do bite my thumb, sir.

641
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:34,840
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

642
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:37,400
Is the law of our side,
if I say ay? No!

643
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:40,520
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at
you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.

644
00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:43,600
Do you quarrel, sir?
Quarrel, sir! No, sir.

645
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:46,880
But if you do, sir, I am for you:
I serve as good a man as you.

646
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:48,960
No better?
SAMPSON STAMMERS

647
00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:50,880
Here comes our kinsman -
say "better"!

648
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:53,080
Yes, better, sir. You lie!

649
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:55,160
GUN COCKS
Draw, if you be men.

650
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:56,920
WOMEN SCREAM

651
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:01,000
Part, fools!
You know not what you do.

652
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:07,080
That came directly from our analysis
of the Elizabethan stage.

653
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:10,840
In the text, Shakespeare had
stand-up comedy one minute,

654
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,280
comedians going,
"Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?"

655
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:16,360
Then a pop song.
He'd stick a popular song in.

656
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:18,600
Then you'd have high tragedy,

657
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:20,880
the lowest comedy,
all mixed up together.

658
00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:24,640
That mixing up of things,
because he was trying to entertain,

659
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:27,160
is Elizabethan, is Shakespearean,

660
00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:31,160
it's not necessarily MTV, although
MTV does use some of those devices,

661
00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:33,640
so it came directly
from Shakespeare,

662
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:37,000
that idea of kind of rough,
relentless, irreverent,

663
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:38,720
but damned entertaining.

664
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:45,440
Shakespeare's final testament,
The Tempest,

665
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:49,400
is a supernatural tale
of reconciliation and hope.

666
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:55,920
Its central character, Prospero,
is a great magician.

667
00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:59,760
At the end of the play,
he bids farewell to his powers

668
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:02,320
as Shakespeare did to his art.

669
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:04,120
It would be his last great work.

670
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:13,400
This silent, British-made
version of The Tempest begins

671
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:17,680
with Prospero demonstrating his
powers to his daughter, Miranda,

672
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:20,520
raising a storm that will
bring to their island

673
00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:22,200
the survivors of a shipwreck.

674
00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:30,360
The play has consistently attracted
the more adventurous

675
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:32,240
and experimental film makers.

676
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:39,760
ANXIOUS WHISPERING:
..my wife and children...

677
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:43,400
Working with a minimal budget,
the artist Derek Jarman

678
00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:46,480
brought a late-'70s punk
aesthetic to the play.

679
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:52,360
He created potent images with simple
means, such as tinted stock footage.

680
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:57,840
PANICKED GASPING AND WHISPERING

681
00:55:04,160 --> 00:55:05,600
In contrast,

682
00:55:05,600 --> 00:55:10,400
Peter Greenaway played with all
the tools of multimedia technology.

683
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,840
John Gielgud gave a bravura
performance as Prospero,

684
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:17,560
speaking all the roles as though
he were himself Shakespeare.

685
00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:22,880
- What, must our mouths be cold?
- Boatswain...

686
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:27,680
LINES OF DIALOGUE RAPIDLY OVERLAP

687
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:38,520
PROSPERA ROARS

688
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:49,400
And Julie Taymor broke with
convention by casting Helen Mirren

689
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:50,640
as Prospera.

690
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:54,440
If by your art, my dearest mother,
you have

691
00:55:54,440 --> 00:55:58,160
Put the wild waters in this roar,
allay them.

692
00:55:58,160 --> 00:55:59,840
Oh, I have suffered

693
00:55:59,840 --> 00:56:01,840
With those that I saw suffer.

694
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:03,040
A brave vessel

695
00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:06,080
Who had, no doubt,
some noble creature in her

696
00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:07,520
Dashed all to pieces.

697
00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:11,400
Poor souls, they perished.

698
00:56:16,240 --> 00:56:18,720
THUNDER RUMBLES

699
00:56:21,240 --> 00:56:23,360
Be collected.

700
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:24,640
No more amazement.

701
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:27,440
Tell thy piteous heart

702
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:29,240
There's no harm done.

703
00:56:29,240 --> 00:56:31,360
Oh, woe the day! No harm.

704
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:36,240
Our revels now are ended.

705
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:38,880
These our actors,

706
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:41,320
As I foretold you,
were all spirits and

707
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:45,480
Are melted into air, into thin air:

708
00:56:47,160 --> 00:56:50,720
And, like the baseless fabric
of this vision,

709
00:56:50,720 --> 00:56:55,080
The cloud-capp'd towers,
the gorgeous palaces,

710
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:59,160
The solemn temples,
the great globe itself,

711
00:56:59,160 --> 00:57:04,480
Yea, all which it inherit,
shall dissolve

712
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:08,680
And, like this insubstantial
pageant faded,

713
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:10,480
Leave not a rack behind.

714
00:57:13,520 --> 00:57:15,160
We are such stuff

715
00:57:15,160 --> 00:57:18,600
As dreams are made on,

716
00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:21,280
and our little life

717
00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:23,680
Is rounded with a sleep.

718
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:41,800
Through the movies,
Shakespeare's work takes us boldly

719
00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:44,400
where no great playwright
has gone before.

720
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:48,640
The writers of Star Trek

721
00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:51,720
have frequently mined
Shakespeare's works,

722
00:57:51,720 --> 00:57:55,640
suggesting that he is the
central poet and storyteller,

723
00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:58,200
not just of our globe,

724
00:57:58,200 --> 00:57:59,840
but of the universe.

725
00:58:02,440 --> 00:58:04,920
I offer a toast.

726
00:58:04,920 --> 00:58:06,800
The undiscovered country.

727
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:11,800
The future.

728
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:13,560
GUESTS RESPOND IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES

729
00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:15,600
Hamlet, Act III, Scene I.

730
00:58:15,600 --> 00:58:17,480
You've not experienced Shakespeare

731
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:19,760
until you have read him
in the original Klingon.

732
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:24,320
HE SPEAKS KLINGON

733
00:58:24,320 --> 00:58:27,640
KLINGONS CHUCKLE

734
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:30,640
# With the wife of
the British ambessida

735
00:58:30,640 --> 00:58:33,680
# Try a crack out
of Troilus And Cressida

736
00:58:33,680 --> 00:58:36,760
# If she says she won't buy it
or tike it

737
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:39,880
# Make her tike it,
what's more As You Like It

738
00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:43,120
# If she says your behaviour
is heinous

739
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:46,840
# Kick her right in the Coriolanus

740
00:58:46,840 --> 00:58:49,600
# Brush up your Shakespeare

741
00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:52,480
# And they'll all kow-tow

742
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:55,800
# Thinkst thou?
And they'll all kow-tow

743
00:58:55,800 --> 00:58:59,400
# Odds bodkins, all kow-tow. #