Shakespearean comedies have created relationships with their audiences and not a lot of directors managed to transport them into the cinematic universe. As open as it is to subjugation and idealization of women, The Taming of the Shrew has seen a lot of film versions from Edward J. Collins in 1923, Sam Taylor in 1929, Paul Nickell in 1950, D.W. Griffith in 1908 and, last but not least, Franco Zeffirelli in 1966 which gave it a battle-of-the-sexes spin. The most important trait of stage-to-film adaptations for tragedies is that history plays suddenly can be put on location, so that the vast fields of battle can be actually seen by the audience, opposed to theatre where those cannot be represented. Comedies, on the other hand, use settings that are somewhere in between interior and exterior for representing certain situations. It is rather difficult to find cinematic …show more content…
The problem is to manipulate and shoot unstylized reality in such a way that the result has style.” (Jackson, 2000, p 86-87) In Yuri Fried`s version of Twelfth Night mis-en-scène is used a lot in order to recall the patterns and themes of the paintings dating from the Renaissance. The dècor is an important trait when it comes to adapting Shakespeare and has created problems for directors as it is a challenge to translate his theatre world into the cinematic one. The 1935 version of the play Midsummer Night`s Dream offered the audience the world of Athenian woods creating imaginary and real animals, such as unicorns or even owls. The first films made after Shakespearean plays used photographs or fixed cameras with the whole body of the actor in order to reproduce performances. The moving camera effect that has been used later in the film industry created problems for
In a Shakespearian theatre, the actors and directors would have had fairly small budgets and minimal technology to present the enchantment that Shakespeare employed in the formation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This deficit of technology could be mitigated, however, with the use of a color, a technê that was fairly easy to manipulate. I intend for my production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to maintain the integrity Shakespeare wrote with. Because of this, I envision the play occurring at The Globe Theatre in London. The production will be staged with as many staging pieces that would have been available in Shakespeare’s time as possible. Because of the modern importance placed on color as a technology, I envision this play being performed to modern
To keep the appropriation true and meaningful the basic plot and characters were kept similar. For the characters I chose to have the parallel personality traits to The Taming of the Shrew characters.
Examine the different ways in which Shakespeare presents the attitude towards marriage in the play, ‘The Taming of the Shrew.’
Petruchio physically asks her to sit on his lap “come sit on me” in a
The curtains of the play draw, the audience, quiet and eager waits for the lights to dim to see what William Shakespeare had brought before them. Shakespeare’s plays became enjoyable and fun to watch, seeing actors dress in amazing costumes and props used in The Globe Theater. (1-1)
Over the past 400 or so years since Shakespeare wrote _The Taming of the Shrew_, many writers, painters, musicians and directors have adapted and reformed this play of control and subjugation into timeless pieces of art. In _10 Things I Hate About You_ and Kiss Me Kate from two very different times in the twentieth century, and paintings of Katherina and Bianca from the late nineteenth century, the creators of these adaptations have chosen to focus on the role of the two main female characters in the play. The ideas surrounding these women have changed through the years, from Katherina and Bianca simply being young women who deviated from the norm of Shakespeare’s time to women who embody feminist ideals and stereotypes of the more modern world.
In Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare has a woman as one of the story's main characters. Katherine Minola (Kate) is off the wall, and kinda crazy. Because of her actions, the “male centered world” around her doesn't know what to do with her.
A long time ago, a drunken man fell asleep outside an alehouse. This man, Christopher Sly, was discovered by a mischievous lord who took him into his home. The witty lord then convinced Sly that he was a lord, as well. The lord then put on a play for him. The play, The Taming of the Shrew, was about the two young daughters of Baptista. The youngest daughter, Bianca, wished to wed but her father, Baptista, would not allow this until his eldest daughter, Katherina, was married. Under normal circumstances, it would be easy to find a husband for Katherina with all her beauty, but all her beauty was covered by her shrewd personality. By this time Bianca's suitors were growing very impatient, so they decide to team up and find a husband for Katherina. In jest they mentioned their plan to a friend, Petruchio, who surprisingly agreed to marry Katherina. All her beauty and wealth were enough for him. Katherina reluctantly was wed to Petruchio and she was taken to his home to be tamed. With Katherina out of the way, Bianca was now allowed to marry Lucentio, who offered her father the highest dowry for her. In the final scenes of the play, Katherina proves that she is tamed by winning an obedience contest at a dinner party. Katherina is now even more in accordance with her wifely duties than Bianca. A fare is a type of comedy based on a ridiculous situation. The Taming of the Shrew, an eminent example of a farce, is the first of three farces written by Shakespeare.
It seems that modern Hollywood filmmakers are as much in love with Shakespeare's plays as were the 16th century audiences who first enjoyed them. Recent updates of Hamlet (1996) and Romeo and Juliet (1996), both highly successful movies, bear this out, as well as the two best film versions of Richard III; Sir Laurence Olivier's 1954 "period piece", and Ian McKellan's more modern interpretation (1995).
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare is a play that is ahead of its time in its views toward gender roles within society. Katherine is a woman who is intelligent, and is not afraid to assert her views on any given situation. She is paired with another obstinate character in Pertuchio. The marriage formed between the two is a match made in heaven for two reasons. First, because Katherine is strong enough to assert her views, and more importantly, she realizes when she should assert them.
Theatre is restricted to geographical span, whereas motion the opposite is true. In film the director has freedom to shoot each scene at different locations and at different times, later putting them together for the final product. The result for the movie is that the audience is easily able to recognize the time of day and place. Stage performances are less clear, and unless one is familiar with the play they must often simply wait for actors to deduce where and when the scene is t...
10 Things I Hate About,a romantic comedy and drama is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s comedy “The Taming of the Shrew”. The film was directed in 1999 by Gil Junger, who was an American director from the University of Texas. Junger directed television before directing this film, working on shows such as Golden Girls and Dharma and Greg.
Shakespeare’s influence continues even in the world of film, not invented until several hundreds of years after his death in 1616. As well as the inevitable BBC remakes of most of his plays, newer adaptation such as Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (starring Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington) and Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (featuring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio) have met critical acclaim and can be credited with bringing Shakespeare to a new generation not inclined to visiting theatres.
The first adaptation is a television film, released by BBC in 2003, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe. It is remarkable for its innovative style, close to experimental, very unusual for the historical fictional drama genre. The film was shot with a digital camera, but what is most striking is the modern use of camerawork – handhelds, the shaky movements at the beginning, the two sisters confessions looking straight into the camera, like in an interview – give a documentary style to the appearance of the movie. While most films of the same genre are trying to recreate the atmosphere of the time, by using the classical parameters, this film is trying to achieve exactly the opposite. This cinéma vérité style has the subtle purpose of bringing the viewer closer to the story and effectively involved throughout the narrative. In the same time the film focuses on the developmen...
The Elizabethan Era is considered to be golden age in English poetry, music, and literature. William Shakespeare uses the theater as a place to display the latest styles in clothing, poetry and music. Clothing plays an important part in Shakespeare’s plays. Clothing helped the audience understand the character and components of clothing are mentioned literally and metaphorically in several of his plays, often used as a plot device, and used in appearance versus reality.