On World Book Day, talk about the tried and tested films adapted from Shakespeare's plays, and although at one point some people said that Shakespeare's plays were quite marketable, you have to admit that they have been reinterpreted in large numbers across time and space and across races. Shakespeare's four tragedies are generally recognized, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, macbeth, and the timeless Romeo and Juliet, which is also the largest number of adaptations. This first shows that there is some universal humanity in Shakespeare's plays, and of course I personally agree that this has to do with the spread of Industrial Civilization, which was one step ahead of Britain. There is a legend that Shakespeare's drama is a threshold and touchstone for British actors to advance, but in fact, Akira Kurosawa has adapted Shakespeare's classics twice, which has also consolidated his world reputation to a certain extent, and it has to be said that although "Feng Xiaogang's version of "Hamlet" - "Night Feast" is controversial, Spielberg is not also remaking "West End Story", that is also the street version of Romeo and Juliet. Even the ancient emblem drama pays tribute to Shakespeare, and "Horror", adapted from "Macbeth", is also recognized as a representative of inheritance and development.
Akira Kurosawa: The best implementation shines together
Akira Kurosawa has Seven Samurai and Rashomon, and Akira Kurosawa has the imperial team of Toshiro Mifune, Joe Shimura, and Isuzu Yamada, and in addition to Akira Kurosawa's originality, he also has the ability to use classics. In 1957, Akira Kurosawa borrowed Macbeth from Shakespeare and created a metaphorical Spider's Nest City. Akira Kurosawa's two adaptations to pay homage to Shakespeare are set in Japan's "Sengoku Period", "Spider's Nest City" externalizes human desires into misty forests and weaving cobwebs, although I personally have always believed that Macbeth's daughter-in-law is the biggest protagonist of "Macbeth", and Mifune Toshiro's pompous performance is a bit "too old", but this is still one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare's plays.
Orson Wells, who is regarded as a genius of a generation, also made a version of "Macbeth" in 1948, and in fact, when he had money and no money, he also put "Othello" on the screen, of course, the classic drama must have given him nutrition, and in his "Citizen Kane", which was written by the history of film, he can still see the "hard" traces of the era of stage performance. In 1971, Roman Polanski also directed a version of Macbeth, as if the old-school director also regarded the interpretation of Shakespeare as a test. The most recent version of Macbeth's story, directed by the Coen brothers and starring Denzel Washington, who was nominated for an Oscar this year, is very traditional, it is simply a drama, but it is also a textbook for the composition of light and shadow in the film school.
Back to director Akira Kurosawa. After "Spider's Nest City", in 1985, Akira Kurosawa adapted Shakespeare's huge work "King Lear", which is still set in the "Warring States Era" and the name is more powerful: "Chaos". Akira Kurosawa replaced King Lear's three daughters with the three sons of Ichigo Hideho. A generation of tyrants taught their three sons to unite like chopsticks to not be broken, and as a result, the younger son broke three arrows on his knee on the spot, and the next story is very "King Lear". The film was a blockbuster in that year, with gorgeous sets and costumes, and a lot of money was burned. The point is that Akira Kurosawa's two Shakespeare adaptations have captured the core and filmed the demons.
A Thousand People Have a Thousand Hamlets
Hamlet begins with another great British-born director and actor, Lawrence Oliver, because in 1948, his self-directed "Revenge of the Prince" won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Actor, and was actually nominated for Best Director. In fact, the great Lawrence Oliver has made Henry V and Richard III before and since, which shows that Shakespeare is indeed lying in The English blood.
There are many films, television and stage versions of Hamlet, and Kenneth Branagh, the british director and actor who once directed "Thor", is also a die-hard fan of Shakespeare, and his 1996 "Hamlet" is also recognized as a classic version. In fact, he has directed or starred in Shakespearean classics on stage and in movies, such as "Henry V", "Nothing Happens" and so on. But to be honest, I've seen Lawrence Oliver's version of Hamlet's story, the old-school director is more about practicing the possibility of cinematic lens language, performance and change is relatively small, and Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet didn't keep me going because it was four hours long, and I only saw "Once Upon a Time In America" and "Titanic" for such a long movie, because it was really good, and I really didn't know the end of the story.
In 1969, Anthony Hopkins played Claudius in "Hamlet", born in South Wales, England, and Kenneth Branagh mentioned above also played the role of Claudius in his directorial version of Hamlet, and in Kenneth Branagh's "Thor", Anthony Hopkins played the god Odin. In addition, I don't know if it is because Mel Gibson is of Irish-American descent, he also acted in a large but mediocre adaptation of "Hamlet" in 1990, and the British actor may still have a Shakespearean complex. Believe it or not, in 2015, Benedict Cumberbatch, who had already been announced at the time, also performed a version of the super acclaimed "Hamlet".
What else can be said about the rest, a thousand people have a thousand Hamlets, Hamlet has no borders, I really haven't seen the danish version of the classic "Hamlet", but in 1964 the former Soviet director Koshintsev also made a version of "Hamlet", I certainly did not see it, but I noticed that in the screenplay column of this movie, the name of the Nobel Prize winner Pasternak was written impressively. Another gimmick is the Shakespeare background of "The Lion King", it is obvious that Uncle Scar is Claudius, which can become the final highlight of the animation film understanding, especially the two-dimensional animation, Shakespeare is indispensable. Finally, there is Feng Xiaogang's "Night Feast", how should it be evaluated, the original intention is not bad or even ambitious, certainly not as bad as douban fans say, but overall it is indeed a dispensable adaptation, Shakespeare does not need a tribute, I think Zhou Xun acted OK.
Everyone has a Romeo in their hearts
In order to make the summary less boring, you can start with Leonardo DiCaprio, in the peak of the little plum's appearance, and even later, Baz Ruchmann did not give up on him, but the 1996 youth invincible version of "Romeo and Juliet" and the 2013 version of "The Great Gatsby" are indeed not the masterpieces of DiCaprio's two periods, presumably Nicole Kidman, who also starred in the director's two films ("Moulin Rouge" and "Australia's Troubles"), felt the same way. Basically, Chinese fans are baptized by "Titanic", only to make up for the little plum's "Romeo and Juliet" and "The Man in the Iron Mask", very superficial happiness, but also very reasonable, indeed very good looks.
Robert Wise is not only "The Sound of Music", based on the inspiration of "Romeo and Juliet", there are also the 1961 Rocket And Sharks "West Side Story", the Gangster Song and Dance Film in the Manhattan Slums of New York, because of Shakespeare's blessing, this film that I was embarrassed to see and fidgeted, or won ten Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress that year. Looking back, I feel that Shakespeare's classic works, whether placed in the Warring States era of Japan or the modern streets of New York, can be done without any sense of violation. And Spielberg, as an old naughty boy in the film circle, obviously the older he is, the more passionate he is, and he has spared no expense to remake "West End Story", I dare not say anything else, but I can be sure that Spielberg director is such a storyteller, when watching the song and dance scenes and performance methods of the old version of "West End Story", more or less "white hair scratches shorter, full of desire".
Speaking of which, although Shakespeare has been gone for more than 400 years, there are also public cases for the adaptation of Shakespeare, that is, the above-mentioned "The Lion King" copied the past of Japanese animation master Osamu Tezuka's "The Forest Emperor". In 1964, Japanese animation master Osamu Tezuka adapted Shakespeare's Hamlet, replacing the prince with Leo, the white lion, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth; 30 years later, in 1994, Disney filmed "The Lion King" to pay tribute to the 430th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. Those who are interested can flip through the pictures for comparison, and indeed there are a lot of similar points. If it is not said that in the end, Shakespeare will work, don't argue, Sha Lao's xuanzi grandchildren have not said anything about the adaptation of Shakespeare's plays by posterity, what do you fight for. (Jiang Nannan)