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This course allows students to do close readings of Shakespeare’s plays as well as explore more deeply the various film adaptations of each of the plays assigned for the course. How does the language of film, as developed in the films we will study, add to or detract from the language of Shakespeare’s plays themselves? Through the work of directors such as Welles, Olivier, Kurosawa, Branagh, Kotsinzev and Godard we will explore the links between a director’s adaptation of a Shakespeare play and the rich poetic language that we find in Shakespeare’s texts. (end of description for catalogue) Films also of central importance are those that give us a window onto spaces “behind the scenes” and into the life of Shakespeare himself, such as Al Pacino’s documentary Looking for Richard and Shakespeare in Love. A final focus on Taymor’s adaptation of Titus Andronicus and its depiction of the barbaric will lead us to questions about the filmic representation of the “Other” and how it elucidates the language of this mystifying early Shakespeare play. Through this analysis, we begin to see how the language of film can sometimes unlock the secrets of Shakespeare’s world.
