Article: Shakespeare, class, and Scotland, PA.(Cover story)

Adapting Shakespeare for film has become in recent years a precarious balancing act. On the one hand, filmmakers seem to be invoking Shakespeare to add gravitas to what might otherwise be just another generic exercise--teenage violence in Tim Blake Nelson's Othello-based O (2001), for instance, or teenage dating in Gil Junger's Taming of the Shrew-based Ten Things I Hate about You (1999), to name two. On the other hand, the weightiness of Shakespeare as a legitmizing agent can also sink a picture. As Kenneth Branagh remarked following the 2000 release of his last Shakespeare adaptation, Love's Labor's Lost, "You have to fight for the audience every time. As a friend once ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!