This 'hands-on' introductory guide establishes the differences between Shakespeare on stage and film, provides an historical introduction and explores the key modes and genre conventions used in film. Featuring a series of critical essays, the book provides students with critical knowledge and vocabulary to analyze Shakespeare on screen.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations/Acronyms
Introduction
PART I: SHAKESPEARE AND THE LANGUAGE OF FILM
Filming and Staging Shakespeare: Some Contrasts
The Audience: Individual and Collective Experience
The Space of the Movie Screen
Imagery: Verbal and Visual
Putting It All Together
PART II: THE HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE ON FILM 1899-2005
Silent Shakespeare
The Thirties: Hollywood Shakespeare
The Forties: Olivier and Welles
The Fifties: Postwar Diversity
The Sixties and Seventies: Cultural Revolution, Filmic Innovation
The Nineties: Branagh's Renaissance and the Shakespeare on Film Revival
2000 and Beyond: Shakespeare on Film in the New Millennium
PART III: COMMUNICATING SHAKESPEARE ON FILM: MODES, STYLES, GENRES
The Theatrical Mode
The Realistic Mode
The Filmic Mode
The Periodising Mode
Film Genre: Conventions and Codes
Genre Conventions and the Shakespeare Film Adaptation
A Cross-cultural Shakespeare Adaptation: Kurosawa's Kumonosu-Djo (The Castle of the Spider's Web: Throne of Blood)
PART IV: SHAKESPEARE ON FILM: CRITICAL ESSAYS
Comedies: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Histories: Henry V, Richard III
Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth
PART V: SHAKESPEARE ON TELEVISION
Film and TV: The Key Differences
The BBC-TV Series: Shooting the Complete Canon
TV Shakespeare: The Stage/Screen Hybrid
Appendix 1: Box Office Data for Selected Shakespeare Film Adaptations on Theatrical Release in US Movie Theatres from 1989
Appendix 2: Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993): Structure of Emotional Registers and Rhythms
References
Suggested Further Reading
List of Films Discussed
Some Useful Websites
Glossary of Terms
Index

MAURICE HINDLE is Associate Lecturer in Literature and Senior Faculty Manager in Arts for The Open University (London Region), UK. Among other publications, he has edited the Penguin Classics volumes of Dracula, Frankenstein and Caleb Williams.

'Comprehensive, reliable and authoritative.' - Robert Shaughnessy, University of Kent, UK

'Hindle's Studying Shakespeare on Film is a storehouse of pedagogical resources and interpretive riches. At once encyclopedic in scope and finely textured in detail, this cinematically literate volume takes Shakespeare films seriously as films. It deftly shows students the way to do the same.' - Richard Rambuss, Emory University, USA

'... [A] surprisingly approachable examination of the Bard on screen...' - Film Review

'Maurice Hindle's study is comprehensive and well-grounded; it is a remarkable guide for students exploring some of the most exciting and influential Shakespeare adaptations; it introduces the reader to detailed critical knowledge and demonstrates the use of filmic language when analysing and discussing Shakespeare on screen.' - Hans Schwarze, Learning, Media and Technology