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The volume offers a new method of interpreting screen adaptations of Shakespearean drama, focusing on the significance of cinematic genres in the analysis of films adapted from literary sources. The book’s central argument is rooted in the recognition that film genres may provide the most important context informing a film’s production, critical and popular reception. The novelty of the volume is in its use of a genre-based interpretation as an organising principle for a systematic interpretation of Shakespeare film adaptations. The book also highlights Shakespearean elements in several lesser-known films, hoping to generate new critical attention towards them. The volume is organised into six chapters, discussing films that form broad generic groups. Part I comprises three genres from the classical Hollywood era (western, melodrama and gangster noir), while Part II deals with three contemporary blockbuster genres (teen film, undead horror and the biopic). The analyses underline elements that the films have inherited from Shakespeare, while emphasising how the adapting genre leaves a more important mark on the final product than the textual source. The volume’s interdisciplinary approach means that its findings are rooted in both Shakespeare and media studies, underlining the crucial role genres play in the production and reception of literature as well as in contemporary popular visual culture.
and 1996 box office hits Clueless , Scream , and Romeo + Juliet proved to filmmakers and studios that teen films could be extremely lucrative because of their low production costs and large audience with plenty of free time and discretionary cash.’ 6 This recognition – that even though teenagers do not constitute the majority of the population, they definitely make up the largest segment of cinemagoers – is again not new: cinema production and marketing have been relying on young audiences at least since the 1950s. This ‘progressive “juvenilization” of film
interesting for such a parody than the comic effect based on simple recognition and the extreme flexibility with which the script mixes literary quotations and fragments into its text, but clearly there is no expectation of comparative analysis of the works evoked by the twisted puns. This is the way the title cards in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead make references to literary and cinematic classics, for the simplest of vampire puns, creating chapter titles such as ‘Job interview with a vampire’, ‘Grave new world’, ‘As I lay undying’, ‘Long day’s journey into
on love significantly influenced and helped to shape some movie genres in the twentieth century, and that the nature of this indebtedness has not gained recognition because it is not always easy to identify or describe. Books proliferate about adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays into films, but very few concentrate on the subject of genre. Part of Shakespeare’s ubiquitous legacy lies in the ways the structural
an aspect of that great standby for student essays on Shakespeare, his ongoing concentration on aspects of ‘appearance and reality’ as it operates especially in sexual matters. This recognition becomes important to the ways in which movies draw on the generic convention. The assumed identity may place the heroine in a position of humiliating subjection ( The Two Gentlemen and Twelfth Night ) or
, these events may not be directly caused by the young lovers’ affair, but they are the unavoidable markers of the larger divisions based on prejudice, violence, and cultural difference in which the love is played out. Certainly Crad’s animosity to Solomon from the outset is fuelled by his recognition of the Jew’s real identity. The only human response available is a level of concealment, even between the
film (and the cause for much of its criticism) – and yet it must be admitted that it does not distort audience recognition or even appreciation for its Shakespearean associations. Even though Shakespeare is often noted for his tendency to increase dramatic tension by condensing his inherited plots, King and Jarrico’s script takes this condensation one step further, turning All Night Long into a story of a single night, albeit a long and suspenseful one. The plot takes place at a party, organised by wealthy English socialite Rodney Hamilton (Richard Attenborough
for a sexual mate even when (as in Shakespeare) the power structure favours the man. A sub-genre of romantic comedy (and tragedy) in films is known as ‘chick flicks’ in recognition of some essentially feminine attributes. In many romantic comedies and more especially musical comedies, we find a character who fulfils one of the two possible roles
choices) and romantic relationships (dumping the unsympathetic male or avoiding dating occasions). But the final success is always a double one: an official recognition of (sporting or other professional) talents and the acquisition of the most desirable romantic partner from the cast (see figure 4.3 ). The bottom line is therefore very much the same as even that in Never Been Kissed : finding professional success must always be accompanied by learning to dress and behave appropriately, and the reward will be happiness in (strictly heterosexual) love. In She’s the
paved the way for the cyclical production of genre films. These recipes typically included not only a narrative, often associated with a specific setting, or a conflict between certain recognisable character types, but also relied on the attraction provided by contracted stars in roles with which audiences were familiar. In this way, studios were able to repeat the lucrative investment as often and as long as it was profitable, in turn reinforcing audience recognition of film types, which often employed returning stars, recurring conflicts, settings, themes, as