William Shakespeare Movies

Kenneth Branagh makes his feature film directorial debut with this adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V. After the Chorus (Derek Jacobi) introduces the play, young king of England Henry V (Kenneth Branagh) begins an angry dialogue with King Charles of France (Paul Scofield). The king's son, Dauphin (Michael Maloney), insults Henry and the argument escalates into war. In flashback, Henry is seen as a young man drinking in a tavern with Falstaff (Robbie Coltrane), Bardolph (Richard Briers), Nym (Geoffery Hutchings), Pistol (Robert Stephens), and Mistress Quickly (Judi Dench). Meanwhile, Henry and his captain, Fluellen (Ian Holm), assemble an army and invade France. The French greatly outnumber the British troops, yet Henry leads them to victory in the Battle of Agincourt after delivering his famous St. Crispin's Day Speech. Throughout this struggle, Henry also courts Katherine (Emma Thompson) and eventually wins her over. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

A performance of the Shakespearean opera about fairies, love, and trickery. Filmed at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. ~ All Movie Guide

Two highly talented and innovative directors -- filmdom's Jean-Luc Godard and the theatre world's Peter Sellars -- join forces in this unusual (to say the least) slant on Shakespeare's King Lear. This offbeat adaptation gives the viewer a postmodern taste of Shakespeare through the eyes of a deliberately obscure auteur. The film is set some time after Chernobyl has wiped everything out, and the world is trying to set itself right again. William Shakespeare Jr. the Fifth (Peter Sellars) is faced with the task of restoring his famed ancestor's lost works. He visits a resort in Switzerland and becomes fascinated with a visiting gangster, Don Learo (Burgess Meredith) and his lovely daughter, Cordelia (Molly Ringwald), who converse in actual Shakespearean lines. That's as close to the bard as this King Lear gets. It also includes appearances by Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, and director Godard himself as "The Professor," a deranged individual who seems fascinated with Xeroxing his own hand. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide

This production of the Bard of Avalon's famous stage comedy is based on a successful Australian stage production from the mid-1980s. It is a story of love, shipwreck, disguises and mistaken identities, and relies for much of its wit (and believability) on the willing suspension of disbelief. This is, by all accounts, much more easily achieved in the live theater than on film, which is such an intensely visual and "realistic" medium. Thus, the mistaken identify of the twins Viola and Sebastian, the crux of the plot, becomes somewhat difficult to credit when the role is played by the impeccably feminine Gillian Jones -- despite which, Ms. Jones won great praise from the critics for her acting. Aside from that small complaint, this is a spirited and lively production which is set in a present-day never-never land, performed by some of the keenest thespians on any side of the globe. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Ran is Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's reinterpretation of William Shakespeare's King Lear. The Lear counterpart is an elderly 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai), who announces that he's about to divide his kingdom equally among his three sons. In his dotage, he falls prey to the false flattery of his treacherous sons (Akira Terao and Jinpachi Nezu), while banishing his youngest son (Daisuke Ryu), the only member of the family who loves him enough to tell him the unvarnished truth. Thanks to his foolish pride, his domain collapses under its own weight as the sons battle each other over total control. Kurosawa's first film in five years, Ran had been in the planning stages for twice that long; Kurosawa had storyboarded the project with a series of vivid color paintings that have since been published in book form in England. The battle scenes are staged with such brutal vigor that it's hard to imagine that the director was 75 years old at the time. This 160-minute historical epic won several international awards, but it was not a hit in Japan, and it would be five more years before Kurosawa would be able to finance another picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This off-beat interpretation of Shakespeare's similarly off-beat play is a low-budget, cinematic version of the Lindsay Kemp Company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Not just a reproduction of Shakespeare, the players use mime, songs, and dances to make their happy way through the long night -- with a certain amount of bare skin and even ambiguous slants on gender (is Titania male or female or both?). Inventive and outrageous in parts, this unique film does quite well, especially considering that it was shot in less than two weeks. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This video contains a performance of the ballet Romeo & Juliet by The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. Combining Shakespeare's immortal tale of star-crossed lovers with the legendary score by Prokofiev, the production features choreography by the world renowned Sir Kenneth MacMillan and features Wayne Eagling and Alessandra Ferri as the title characters. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Shakespeare buffs might be quite surprised to learn that his Midsummer Night's Dream had been turned into a rock musical, but here it is. The early '80s Italian rock star Gianna Nannini plays Titania, and belts out a raucous score, missiles flash by, Oberon dances through a woman's shower room, and in a modern twist, Demetrius and Lysander do not fall in love with their traditional ladies, but with each other. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Part of a television series entitled "The Shakespeare Plays," this episode shows the events surrounding the beginning of the civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

A superb performance of Prokofiev's ballet, choreographed and performed by Nureyev and the ballet company of La Scala in Milan. ~ All Movie Guide