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Bending the Bard: Cinematic Twists on Shakespeare
With well over 400 film and TV adaptations made of his works—more than 80 of Hamlet alone—
William Shakespeare is credited as being the world’s most filmed author. And though they’re now
synonymous with “high” culture, his works were always intended as popular entertainment, which is
perhaps why Shakespeare and cinema have always so successfully aligned. Even when his words are
amended, transposed, or pared away entirely, Shakespeare’s stories, characters, and imagery are able
to translate seamlessly between countries and cultures around the world.
In this spirit, and to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death, Bending the Bard: Cinematic
Twists on Shakespeare presents seventeen “unconventional” cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare’s
plays. Freed from restrictions of a certain time, location, or even language, the filmmakers in this series
have created works that both reflect and transcend their immediate cultural origins. The films span
eight countries and seven decades of filmmaking, with genres ranging from sci-fi, Western, queer
cinema, war propaganda, musical, and horror. . . to a samurai Macbeth, a Bollywood Othello, and a
Finnish neo-noir Hamlet set in a rubber duck factory. Bringing together well-known classics alongside
lesser-seen adaptations, Bending the Bard celebrates these unique, inventive films as well as the
powerful way in which Shakespeare’s universal stories have become a shared global language.
Friday, September 9, 8 pm
Throne of Blood, Japan, 1957
dir. Akira Kurosawa (111 mins., Action/Drama, 35mm)
One of the most enduring cinematic “twists on Shakespeare” is Akira Kurosawa’s take on Macbeth,
which relocates the play to 15th century feudal Japan. Two warriors returning from battle encounter an
eerie spirit in the forest who promises them great fortune upon their return. Spurred on by the spirit’s
prophecy—and the power-hungry manipulations of his conniving wife—one of the warriors, Washizu
(Kurosawa favorite Toshiro Mifune), decides to betray and murder his warlord to fulfill his foretold
destiny as the Lord of Spider Web Castle. Kurosawa’s brilliantly staged set pieces—the chilling
encounter with the forest spirit, the fog-suffused battle sequences, the tangle of arrows at the
devastating finale—elevate the film far beyond the realm of mere adaptation. Shot on the slopes of
Mt. Fuji and filled with moody, atmospheric cinematography, Throne of Blood “remains a landmark of
visual strength, permeated by a particularly Japanese sensibility, and is possibly the finest
Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to the screen.”—The Guardian. In Japanese with English
subtitles.
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Saturday, September 10, 4:30 pm
All Night Long, UK, 1961
dir. Basil Dearden (91 mins., Drama, DCP)
All Night Long takes the tragic sweep of Othello and narrows it into a brilliant drawing room thriller set
in the stylish swinging ’60s jazz scene of London. Wealthy jazz aficionado Rod Hamilton (Richard
Attenborough) hosts a star-studded anniversary celebration for bandleader Aurelius Rex and his wife
Delia, a recently retired singer. What starts out as a lively night of drinking and music rapidly turns
sour when ambitious drummer Johnnie Cousin, hoping to coax Delia out of retirement and into his
own band, sets a plan in motion to split the couple apart. Unfolding its story of passion and deceit
over the course of a single smoke-filled, booze-soaked night, All Night Long features a refreshingly
matter-of-fact approach to the protagonists’ mixed-race marriage, slick black-and-white
cinematography, and show-stopping performances by the party’s “guests”: jazz legends Dave
Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Johnny Dankworth, and Tubby Hayes (all playing themselves.) “The smoky
interiors and musical interludes only add texture to the increasingly volatile atmosphere… [Dearden
provides] a subversively searing focus on complex social issues normally banished behind closed
doors.”—Slant Magazine.
Saturday, September 17, 4 pm
Henry V, UK, 1944
dir. Laurence Olivier (137 mins., Costume drama, 35mm)
Tasked by Winston Churchill to create a rousing piece of morale-boosting, pro-British entertainment
during the twilight years of World War II, revered thespian Laurence Olivier had his work cut out for
him. Many previous attempts to translate Shakespeare to the screen had been met with lackluster,
commercially unsuccessful results. But Henry V perfectly captured the cultural zeitgeist through both
Olivier’s assured direction and the inescapable parallels between the eponymous king’s conquest of
France and the wartime world of 1944 (not to mention Churchill’s uncanny nose for propaganda—it
was no accident that the film’s release coincided with the Allied invasion of Normandy). Seven
decades later, Henry V remains a stirring and surprisingly inventive take on Shakespeare's play,
morphing from a staged production set in the Globe Theatre to a breathless cavalry charge on the
fields of Agincourt. “The movies have produced one of their rare great works of art.”—Time
Magazine.
Sunday, September 18, 4:30 pm
Caesar Must Die, Italy, 2012
dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani (77 mins., Documentary, DCP)
Subtitles
Situated somewhere between the realms of documentary and drama, Caesar Must Die toys endlessly
with the conventions of its genre, blurring the lines between the reality of its subjects and the
characters they portray. Shot by famed Italian directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Caesar Must Die
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stages Julius Caesar in and around a high-security wing in Rome’s Rebbibia prison and follows its
inmates—convicted killers, thieves, and members of organized crime syndicates—as they mount
Shakespeare’s enduring tale of betrayal and murder. As the rehearsals progress and the play unfolds, it
becomes increasingly difficult to tell which words are Shakespeare’s and which are the prisoners’.
Filmed in a deeply evocative neorealist black and white, Caesar Must Die wisely avoids any cheap
emotional catharsis and opts instead to hew as closely as possible to Shakespeare’s original text—
resulting in a film that is powerful, unflinching, and deeply moving. “[Caesar Must Die] ranks among
the most involving adaptations of Shakespeare ever put on screen.”—Los Angeles Times. In Italian
with English subtitles.
Sunday, September 18, 7 pm
Forbidden Planet, US 1956
dir. Fred M. Wilcox (98 mins., Sci-fi, 35mm)
A major landmark in the evolution of cinematic science fiction, Forbidden Planet is credited with a
number of pioneering achievements: the first depiction of “light speed,” the first “personable” robot,
the first entirely electronic score, and (perhaps most notably) the first miniskirt on film. The film’s story
echoes that of The Tempest: a spaceship crew led by well-scrubbed, all-American commander John
Adams (Leslie Neilsen) is sent to a distant planet to determine the fate of a 20-year-old expedition.
To the crew’s surprise, the only people remaining on the planet are Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and
his fetching daughter Altaira (Anne Francis). Though Morbius warns Adams of danger, the ship lands
and the crew are soon threatened by the mysterious and deadly forces at work on the planet. With its
glossy ’50s rendering of future technologies and a considerably dated approach to gender politics,
Forbidden Planet could easily have been a light and forgettable caper. However, thanks to its prescient
take on the complex themes, philosophical questions, and sci-fi conventions that would be further
explored in such seminal genre works as Star Trek, Aliens, and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, it has
rightfully become an enduring classic. “An ingenious script, excellent special effects and photography,
and superior acting…make it an endearing winner.”—Time Out.
Saturday, September 24, 7 pm
Titus, US, 1999
dir. Julie Taymor (162 mins., Drama/Thriller, 35mm)
Shakespeare’s bloodiest play springs vividly to life in Julie Taymor’s (Broadway’s The Lion King, Frida,
Across the Universe) inventive cinematic adaptation. Anthony Hopkins stars as the titular Roman
general Titus Andronicus, who, after returning to Rome with the conquered Queen of the Goths
(Jessica Lange) and her sons, is soon embroiled in a deadly plot riddled with political conspiracy and
bloody revenge. Filled with Taymor’s trademark colorful and unconventional production design and
featuring standout performances from an all-star cast including Alan Cumming, Jonathan RhysMeyers, Lange, and Hopkins (whose Titus bears more than passing resemblance to his infamous
portrayal of Hannibal Lecter), Titus is a visceral experience whose macabre humor and inventive vision
brilliantly evoke the satirical, almost gleeful spirit of Shakespeare’s text. “In peering into the raging
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hearts of characters hellbent on destroying one another and inflicting maximum pain and humiliation,
Ms. Taymor discovers many unsettling contemporary resonances.”—Stephen Holden, The New York
Times.
Sunday, September 25, 7 pm
Yellow Sky, US, 1948
dir. William Wellman (98 mins., Western, 35mm)
The remote island of The Tempest becomes a desolate ghost town in William Wellman’s skillfully
crafted Western. A gang of robbers, led by charismatic outlaw Stretch (Gregory Peck), hold up a
bank and then flee across the desert. Out of water and near death, they stumble upon Yellow Sky, an
abandoned mining town inhabited only by an old prospector and his flinty granddaughter Mike (Anne
Baxter), who falls under the predatory gaze of the gang. But when Stretch’s conniving lieutenant
Dude (a perfectly cast Richard Widmark) becomes convinced that the prospector is hiding gold, the
fragile truce between the two parties is stretched to its breaking point. Yellow Sky possesses all the
great hallmarks of its genre: stunning vistas (filmed in part at Death Valley National Monument), nailbiting shootouts, a sneering villain, and a reluctantly noble hero. “Guns blaze, fists fly and passions
tangle in the best realistic Western style.”—The New York Times.
Saturday, October 1, 4:00 pm
Hamlet Goes Business, Finland, 1987
dir. Aki Kaurismäki (86 mins., Black comedy, DCP)
Subtitles
Deadpan humor abounds in this tongue-in-cheek noir adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal Hamlet.
When Hamlet (the delightfully named Pirkka-Pekka Petelius, munching incongruously on a slice of
ham) happens upon his father’s deceased body, he soon finds himself unwillingly pulled into a brutal
power struggle as his scheming uncle attempts to secure a monopoly on the Scandinavian rubber
duck industry. Will Hamlet avenge his father’s death? Will he become the reigning king of rubber
ducks? Does any of it really matter? Capitalizing on Hamlet’s ubiquity and the revered status it holds
within the cultural lexicon, Kaurismäki takes every opportunity to revel in the absurdity of his
characters’ feeble machinations—resulting in a film that, despite its best efforts, is strangely true to the
spirit of its source material. “Kaurismäki keeps this wacky idea afloat with farcical plotting, deadpan
humour and cryptic dialogue. The overall tone is pure B-movie, the exaggerated emotions and Timo
Salminen's glistening noir photography recalling Warners' crime melodramas of the ’40s.”—Time Out
London. In Finnish with English subtitles.
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Screens with
Hamlet Act, US, 1982
dir. Robert Nelson (21 mins., Experimental short, 16mm)
Experimental filmmaker Robert Nelson brings his characteristic wit to this restaging of the famous
“play rehearsal” scene from Hamlet, breaking down the barriers between film, theatre, performance,
and creation. “Hamlet Act demonstrates what can be done when a film text is made to oppose a
theatrical text, creating a new synthesis. . . Hamlet, caught in the web of psychological forces, is seen
through his position between film/video/theatre, as a metaphor for contemporary technology."—
Owen Shapiro.
Monday, October 3, 7 pm
Viola, Argentina 2012
dir. Matías Piñeiro (65 mins., Female-centric drama, DCP)
Subtitles
Beginning with Viola, director Matías Piñeiro embarked upon a cinematic exploration of Shakespeare’s
“light” comedies, transmuting plays like Twelfth Night, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (this year’s forthcoming Hermia & Helena) into the lives and loves of modern Argentine youth.
In Viola, the titular character is a bike courier for a bootleg DVD service, and, echoing her
shipwrecked counterpart in Twelfth Night, finds herself existentially adrift. While running errands in
the city, Viola falls in with members of a theatre troupe rehearsing an all-female pastiche of
Shakespeare’s plays and is invited to join the cast. Shot almost exclusively in close-ups of the actresses’
faces (eminently watchable, one and all), the film’s fluid, unhurried pacing belies the complexity of the
stories, emotions, and relationships glimpsed just below the surface, after the cut, or outside of the
frame. “In film after film, Piñeiro has increasingly perfected this act of magic, and Viola is his most
outstanding film to date.”—Cinemascope. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Screens with
The Princess of France, Argentina, 2014
dir. Matías Piñeiro (67 mins., Romance/Drama, DCP)
Subtitles
Shifting focus from the women of Viola to the elliptical love affairs of a young man, the third entry in
Piñeiro’s ongoing Shakespeare series is a loose adaptation of Love’s Labours Lost. In the original play a
king and his men decide to swear off romance for three years (with predictably unsuccessful results);
in The Princess of France, a theater director named Victor returns to Argentina after some time away
and finds himself pulled among the many women he’d left behind. As he assembles his cast for a radio
performance of Love’s Labours Lost—wandering all the while through art galleries, recording studios,
and apartments—he passes easily and without passion from one romance to the next. In typical Piñeiro
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fashion, the characters, relationships, and narrative structure are left intentionally ambiguous, making
it a rambling sojourn through the bourgeois lifestyle of contemporary middle-class Argentine youth.
“For Piñero’s characters, Shakespeare isn’t just a creative challenge; it establishes the rules of their
universe, even as their director expertly breaks them by forging a new path.”—Indiewire. In Spanish
with English subtitles.
Saturday, October 8, 4:30 pm
Makibefo, Madagascar, 2001
dir. Alexander Abela (73 mins., Drama, DCP)
Subtitles
Shifting Macbeth from the Scottish Highlands to the beautifully Spartan desert coastline of
Madagascar, Makibefo is as remarkable for its unique vision as for how it was made: the film was shot
by the barest of skeleton crews (director Alexander Abela and a single assistant) in a remote fishing
village on the far southern tip of Madagascar and features a cast of local Antandroy tribesmen—most
of whom had never seen a film or television, much less acted before. The film is punctuated by a
narrator reciting portions of the original text, adding welcome structure to the austere, stripped-down
approach to Shakespeare’s tale of betrayal and corrupting power. An absorbing glimpse into life in
one of most remote parts of the world (including the real-life butchering of a sacrificial ox—not for the
squeamish), Makibefo is, perhaps more than any other film in this series, the best argument for
Shakespeare as a universal language. “[The film’s] novelty goes far beyond anthropological interest,
cleverly pointing up the universality of the themes of regal authority and the temptations of power,
which can occur as easily among a remotely situated society on a quiet patch of beach as in Scotland’s
Highlands.”—Variety. In Malagasy with English subtitles.
Saturday, October 8, 7 pm
Romeo + Juliet, US, 1996
dir. Baz Luhrmann (120 mins., Romance, DCP)
Baz Luhrmann’s kinetic, modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet redefined the Bard for
a generation of kids who came of age in the late ’90s. Relocating the play’s setting from Verona, Italy
to the fictitious, crumbling coastal city of Verona Beach, Luhrmann imagines a world in which the
Montagues and Capulets are warring mafia families, Mercutio performs a drag number at the
Capulets’ ball and the “civil brawls” of the play’s opening are followed on live television. Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio (at the height of his ’90s heartthrob fame) and Claire Danes as the titular starcrossed lovers and featuring a hit-packed soundtrack from bands such as Radiohead, Garbage,
Butthole Surfers and The Cardigans, Romeo + Juliet thumbs its nose at traditional stodgy
Shakespearian convention, opting instead for an urgent, manic energy that plays out as half-MTV
music video, half-fever dream. “A vision that is bold, brassy, hugely inventive and accessible and, in a
strange way, just right.”—Empire.
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Sunday, October 9, 7 pm
Kiss Me, Kate, US, 1953
dir. George Sidney (120 mins., Musical/Farce, 35mm)
Bright and colorful in the best MGM style, Kiss Me, Kate is an epic battle of the sexes brought to life
through a pitch-perfect combination of slapstick comedy, song, and dance. Life imitates art when
warring thespians (and ex-spouses) Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi (Howard Keel and Kathryn
Grayson) are cast in a musical based on The Taming of the Shrew. Hoping to win back the affections
of his headstrong lady love, Fred’s machinations begin to go awry thanks to the boisterous arrival of
leggy hoofer Lois (Ann Miller), who brings with her a deadbeat boyfriend, two bumbling gangsters,
and a case of mistaken identity. Fred and Lilli’s verbal (and physical) sparring continues both onstage
and off, punctuated by such memorable Cole Porter-penned, Hermes Pan-choreographed numbers
as “Too Darn Hot,” “Brush up Your Shakespeare,” and “I Hate Men”—with the added bonus of a
show-stopping turn from a young Bob Fosse in “From this Moment On.” “With querulous lovers,
waspish dialogue and erudite hoodlums for comic relief, it's really a screwball musical.”—Time Out
New York.
Saturday, October 15, 3:30 pm
Omkara, India, 2006
dir. Vishal Bhardwaj (155 mins., Drama/Bollywood, 35mm)
Subtitles
One of three Shakespearean “Bollywood” adaptations by director Vishal Bhardwaj, this take on
Othello seamlessly transposes the play from Elizabethan Venice to the gangster-ruled badlands of
Western Uttar Pradesh. When half-caste political enforcer Omkara (Ajay Devgan) absconds with the
daughter of a local lawyer, her father warns him that “any daughter who can dupe her own father will
never be anyone’s to claim.” With these ominous words, the stage is set for Omkara’s jealous
lieutenant Langda to sow seeds of discord, suspicion, and envy between Omkara, his new bride Dolly,
and his loyal deputy Kesu. The film’s true standout is Saif Ali Khan—an actor typecast for years in light
romantic comedies as the “likable best friend”—who embodies his role as the duplicitous Langda with
a palpable undercurrent of unhinged menace. “Not only does [Bhardwaj] skillfully capture the
netherworld of the human psyche—those ambiguous grey areas of conventional morality—which
formed the playground for Shakespearean drama, he manages to lift the bar of Indian cinema with his
unique adaptation.”—Times of India. In Hindi with English subtitles.
Saturday, October 15, 7 pm
My Own Private Idaho, US, 1991
dir. Gus Van Sant (105 mins., LGBT/Drama, 35mm)
Drawing upon the inherent “road movie” qualities of Prince Hal and Falstaff’s adventures in Henry IV,
indie auteur Gus Van Sant crafted this thoughtful and affecting portrait of two hustlers in search of
belonging. Rebellious, privileged Scott (Keanu Reeves) stands to inherit a fortune upon his
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approaching 21st birthday, while his companion Mike (River Phoenix)—a gentle, winsome prostitute
who struggles with disorienting lapses into narcolepsy—yearns to find his mother. The unlikely pair
makes their way from the gritty streets of early-’90s Portland to a small village in Italy, even as their
divergent destinies threaten to break them apart. Depicting the lives of marginalized, alienated youth
through anachronistic, quasi-Elizabethan dialogue and dreamlike escapes into Mike’s unconscious
world, My Own Private Idaho is a brilliant juxtaposition between gritty realism and tender fable. “Van
Sant is essentially making a human comedy here, a story that may be sad and lonely in parts but is
illuminated by the insight that all experience is potentially ridiculous.”—Roger Ebert.
Sunday, October 30, 7 pm
Theatre of Blood, UK, 1973
dir. Douglas Hickox (104 mins., Campy horror, DCP)
Of all the campy, deranged, and occasionally homicidal roles memorably embodied by horror film
icon Vincent Price, this was reportedly his favorite. Thwarted out of a prestigious lifetime acting
achievement award, Shakespearian actor Edward Lionheart (Price) decides to wreak Bard-themed
revenge upon the critics who panned his performances during his career. Drawing from some of the
most grisly and memorable scenes from Shakespeare’s canon, the film careens exuberantly from one
hilariously over-the-top tableau to another, allowing its star ample time for both scenery chewing and
gory comeuppance. Co-starring a surprisingly starry host of British thespians (including Dame Diana
Rigg as Lionheart’s daughter and co-conspirator Edwina), Theatre of Blood is “black comedy played
for chills and mood and emerges a macabre piece of wild melodramatics.”—Variety.