I'm not a massive Shakespearean scholar but I like a good play as much as the next man - providing the next man likes a good play. Whatever you think of him, you have to admit that - along with the King James Bible - Shakespeare has added an incredible amount to the English language. Even now, nearly 400 years after his death, we still use phrases that Shakespeare coined. A rose by any other name; the lady doth protest too much; if music be the food of love; all the world's a stage; to sleep, perchance to dream; parting is such sweet sorrow; the winter of our discontent; all that glisters is not gold; the course of true love never did run smooth; method in the madness - I could go on (Don't - Ed). All Shakespeare's and I can almost guarantee that you've heard, or used, some of those phrases in the recent past.
I've seen Shakespeare in the theatre and in the open air but I have a special fondness for Shakespeare in the movies. I love Much Ado About Nothing - yes, I'm the one. I even thought that Romeo + Juliet was kind of fun and a good stab at a modern adaptation. Branagh's Henry V still brings me out in goose-bumps (once more, dear friends...) and I have the full version of Branagh's Hamlet (which I think weighs in at somewhere around four hours) kicking around somewhere which I'll put on one of these days.
All this history is very nice but I love the modern-day adaptations: there's just something about updating Shakespeare that, when done well, really seems to work for me. My favourite has been, up until now, Ian McKellen's Richard III. For me, it's a pitch perfect edit of the play, transposed into an alternate 1930s universe and McKellen even manages to coax some good Shakespearean performances from actors whom you wouldn't normally associate with the bard - especially Robert Downey Jr and Annette Bening. It's well worth a look, if you can find it.
I say "up until now" because I've just watched Coriolanus, starring and directed by Ralph Feinnes. Coriolanus is not one of Shakespeare's better known plays and I think it's fair to say that the cinema release was critically well met but didn't exactly capture the public's imagination. Which is a shame because it's a rollicking good film. Transposed to a modern day, Balkans-like setting, Coriolanus' fate is pretty much obvious from the beginning but Shakespeare's genius (which Feinnes communicates extremely well, both as actor and director) is to make us side with and care for him as he makes what we must nowadays call "his journey."
You don't need me to tell you what films to watch but if you're at a loss for something to do and fancy something that'll engage you for a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse that brushing up your Shakespeare...
