Rentals

Shakespeare on Film

All the world's a cinema! How a century and more of filmmakers have raided, remade and refashioned the bard.

Shakespeare arrived in moving pictures before they could even talk. The master's work lent an air of gravitas, respectability and permanence to a young medium. As film grew bigger and more ambitious, so filmmakers were drawn to Shakespeare's endless bounty of resonant plots and epic conflicts, his mastery of psychology and character. Shakespeare's universal, elemental themes survive any translation, any reinterpretation. His plays have been filmed in Russian, in Japanese, in Hindi and dozens of other languages. They have appeared as musicals, as westerns, as sci-fi. Kurosawa transported the 'Scottish Play' to feudal Japan. Laurence Olivier's 1944 Henry V may tell of war with France, but its audience would have had in mind a more contemporary enemy. Even four centuries after his death, Shakespeare plays still speak to our times as well as his. Play on!

Food of Love Food of Love

Drama 1997 109 mins Director: Stephen Poliakoff

Richard E. Grant leads a dramatic reunion as friends and lovers gather to perform Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in Stephen Poliakoff’s romantic comedy.

Rent for £3.50

Macbeth Macbeth

Drama 2015 113 mins Director: Justin Kurzel

Fassbender is ferocious as the Scottish king in Justin Kurzel’s red-blooded and viscerally atmospheric Shakespeare adaptation.

Rent for £3.50

Richard III Richard III

Drama 1996 104 mins Director: Richard Loncraine

Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine’s bold restaging transplants Shakespeare’s play to an imagined 1930s fascist Britain.

Rent for £3.50

Play On! Shakespeare in Silent Film Play On! Shakespeare in Silent Film

Anthology 2016 63 mins Silent Director: Bryony Dixon and Jane Giles

This celebration of silent Shakespeare interweaves a delightful selection of thrilling, iconic and humorous scenes from 24 newly digitised films.

Currently unavailable

Shakespeare Wallah Shakespeare Wallah

Romance 1965 122 mins Director: James Ivory

When a young British actress from a touring troupe falls in love with an Indian playboy, the star-crossed lovers must overcome cultural differences and the scheming of a fierce rival.

Currently unavailable

Peg of Old Drury Peg of Old Drury

Biopic 1936 71 mins Director: Herbert Wilcox

Anna Neagle is on luminous form in this exuberant account of celebrated actress Peg Woffington's rise to fame in Georgian London's Theatreland.

Rent for £1.00

Mercutio's Dreaming Mercutio's Dreaming

Comedy 2011 16 mins Director: Jennifer Lim and Daniel York

The travails of a British-Chinese, would-be Shakespearean actor, in an industry that sees him only as an 'Oriental'.

Currently unavailable

Romeo of the Spirits Romeo of the Spirits

Drama 1976 20 mins Director: Nikolas L. Janis

A homeless ex-actor's remembrance of lines from Shakespeare reflects his own desperate situation on the hostile streets of London.

Rent for £3.50

Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet

Drama 1954 145 mins Director: Renato Castellani

Laurence Harvey and Susan Shentall are the star-crossed lovers in the ravishingly filmed 1954 adaptation.

Rent for £2.50

The Banquet The Banquet

2006 125 mins Director: Feng Xiaogang

Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) stars is this lavish wuxia based on elements from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Ibsen’s Ghosts.

Rent for £3.50

Coriolanus Coriolanus

Drama 2012 123 mins Director: Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes stars and directs in the brutal Shakespeare adaptation about a fallen hero who hungers for bloody revenge against his city.

Rent for £2.50

China Girl China Girl

Gangster 1987 87 mins Director: Abel Ferrara

Abel Ferrara creates a modern day Romeo & Juliet in gritty New York City, centring on the doomed relationship between an Italian boy and Chinese girl.