Film

Much Ado About Nothing

by Brian McFarlane •

ABR Arts • 24 July 2013

Film

Much Ado About Nothing

by Brian McFarlane •

ABR Arts • 24 July 2013

There have been more than 900 Shakespearean film adaptations of one kind or other, for screens large and small, dating back to scenes from Macbeth in 1898. The Stratford playwright would have become rich beyond the dreams of avarice from film rights alone; equally, though, I think he would have acknowledged that film-makers have notched up a pretty honourable record in bringing his plays to the cinema. Certainly, such screen versions have been essentially aimed at arthouse audiences, but he might well have been pleased at some of his successes among the groundlings. Think of Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet and how well it chimed with the youthful Zeitgeist in 1968.

Brian McFarlane

Brian McFarlane’s latest book is Four from the Forties: Arliss, Crabtree, Knowles and Huntington, Manchester: MUP, 2018. He has had three overlapping careers, as teacher, academic, and writer. He is the author or editor of over twenty books and hundreds of articles and reviews on film and literature and related matters. He co-edited The Oxford Companion to Australian Film and was compiler, editor and chief author of The Encyclopedia of British Film. His most recent books include: Twenty British Films: A guided tour, Double-Act: The remarkable lives and careers of Googie Withers and John McCallum, and The Never-Ending Brief Encounter. He is currently serving as Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology and as Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University.