Cinematic Shakespeare

Zestfully and engagingly written, informed by a commanding knowledge of performance and cinematic traditions, Michael Anderegg’s overview of the twentieth century’s approaches to bringing Shakespeare to the screen is consistently fresh and provocative. His sharply-etched assessments of a remarkable range of films emphasize the ways in which Shakespearean actors and directors have used (and abused) the cinematic medium and its generic conventions. Anderegg’s insightful commentary on the relatively neglected topic of Shakespeare on TV is especially welcome. His is a valuable and important contribution to the scholarship on Shakespeare’s afterlife in moving pictures. — Douglas Lanier, University of New Hampshire

This volume will be valuable to those interested in both Shakespeare and film adaptation. Recommended. ― CHOICE

A valuable guide to the ongoing challenge of “representing” Shakespeare as a textual and cultural classic. ― Cineaste, Fall 2009

Michael Anderegg follows up his wonderful book on Orson Welles and Shakespeare with an engaging and wide-ranging account of Cinematic Shakespeare. Anderegg casts his lively and judicious critical intelligence over film and television adaptions of Shakespeare from the big Hollywood studios to the Maurice Evans/George Schaefer Hallmark ‘Hall of Fame’ productions to the more recent films of Branagh, Nunn, Loncraine, Hoffman, and Noble. He has interesting and discerning ‘takes’ on all of these productions and his book is an important and welcome addition to the growing critical literature devoted to Shakespeare on Film. — Samuel Crowl, Ohio University