Films inspired by Shakespeare's works a good way to spend Shakespeare Day

Today, on the date of William Shakespeare’s death and (possibly) his birth, we recall the first born out of countless movies that the Bard inspired. It is a 2-minute film fragment from 1899. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree emotes “furiously” as the lead figure dies in Shakespeare’s “King John.”

Then came a “global phenomenon” as hundreds of silent films were made around the world with “token bits” of Shakespeare’s dialog, Peter Holland, the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame, says.

“They were popular, not just high brow,” the British-born expert says, “and film was the democratic medium.”

In fact, he says, there were more silent Shakespeare films than talkies until the 1970s.

The 1935 talking rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with Mickey Rooney and a host of stars, Holland says, was an example of what wider audiences wanted most in film: singing and dancing.

By the 1990s, actor/director Kenneth Branagh started a resurgence of Shakespeare films with his “Henry V” in 1989 and “Much Ado About Nothing” in 1993. Leonardo de Caprio, Gwyneth Paltrow and other stars soon filled screens as makers found Shakespeare to be lucrative — even if he didn’t get a film credit. It continued into the 2000s, Holland says, from the animated “Gnomeo and Juliet” for kids (about gnomes) to the “huge growth” in brilliant international films, such as the 2014 crime drama “Haider,” an adaptation of “Hamlet” made in India and set in the Kashmir conflicts of 1995.

Today, we give you favorites of local experts.

”Much Ado About Nothing”

(1993: Stars Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Michael Keaton, Keenu Reeves)

“Branagh’s ‘Henry V’ (1989: Stars Branagh, Thompson, Judi Dench) set me up to really love his ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ which was really formative for me,” Grant Mudge, the Ryan Producing Artistic Director of the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, says. “It really is an adaptation — brilliantly cut, and of course there (is) Emma Thompson as Beatrice, dazzling. What I really adore, though, is the size, the expanse of feeling and location. The film really does capture, or illuminate, all the exuberance and risk of falling in love. Patrick Doyle’s music, glorious. (It’s) one of only three movies that had the audience with whom I watched it up on their feet, cheering, singing and dancing in the theater as the credits rolled. ‘Karate Kid’ and ‘Little Mermaid’ being the other two.”

”Kiss Me Kate”

(1953: Stars Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller)

“This musical is based on ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ with one of my all-time favorite musical numbers, ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare,’” Holland says. “It makes me laugh every single time I see it. ‘Kiss Me Kate’ is one of the greatest of all American musicals, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and so many wonderful numbers, set as a back-stage squabble between a star couple while they are trying to put on their production of Shakespeare’s play. Funny. Great songs. Great dancing. And in ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare,’ the best advice on how to get your gal with Shakespeare quotations.”

”10 Things I Hate About You”

(1999: Stars Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

Also an adaptation of “The Taming of the Shrew,” Holland says it’s “the best of all high school movies with Joey getting Patrick to date Kat Stratford. A brilliant script, with Alison Janney magnificent as the school guidance counselor, Miss Perky. And a serious message about peer pressure.”

”Henry V”

(1944: Stars Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks)

This “patriotic epic” was filmed during World War II in Ireland because “it was neutral and you could find horses,” Holland says. It’s no accident that the French of Shakespeare’s story “were made to look much like Nazis.” American soldiers who were waiting for D-Day were used in crowd scenes.

”Throne of Blood”

(1957: Stars Toshiro Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Isuzu Yamada)

Director Akira Kurosawa “beautifully reimagines ‘Macbeth’ in Shogun-era Japan,” Scott Jackson, Mary Irene Ryan Family Executive Director of Shakespeare at Notre Dame, says. “Although Shakespeare’s lines are spoken in Japanese, there is a distinct cadence to their delivery that makes the story familiar and crystal clear. And the visual imagery of that film is some of the most striking in all of cinema.”

”West Side Story”

(1961: Stars Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno)

“If you’re going to put a stage musical on screen, then you should use what movies offer to enhance the original music, choreography and other theatrical elements,” Ricky Herbst, cinema program director for Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema, says of this take on “Romeo and Juliet.” “‘West Side Story’ does that incredibly well to heighten its stakes without becoming superflously butch.”

”A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

(1959: Stars Joss Ackland, Ann Bell, Richard Burton)

Czech director Jiří Trnka adapts this play but, Herbst says, “uses puppets and animation to create a fantastical, jarring world that transfers the surreality of the forest — and story generally — to the movie in the most powerful way I’ve seen.”

”Chimes at Midnight”

(1965: Stars Orsen Welles, Jeanne Moreau, John Gielgud)

“Orson Welles reworks various texts into a cohesive story of betrayal that uses what the movies have to offer to set it apart from stage productions,” Herbst says. “For example, the (long) battle sequence lets us see the grotesque nature of war that allows for later emotional haymakers.”

”Prospero’s Books”

(1991: Stars John Gielgud, Michael Clark, Michel Blanc)

Herbst says this adaptation of “The Tempest” that includes opera, dance, animation and several nude characters is “super rich,” adding, “Perhaps I like the more fantastic Shakespeare and what people do with that.”

”The Hollow Crown” (TV series)

(2012: Stars Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale, Jeremy Irons)

The Shakespeare Outreach Director at the Robinson Community Learning Center, Christy Burgess says she loves the series’ adaptations of “1 Henry IV,” “2 Henry IV” and “Henry V.” “Tom Hiddleston was a phenomenal Henry V,” she says, “and embodied the struggle of expectations that are placed on young people and show who we are, who we want to be, and who we have to be.”

For a list of Shakespeare activities and performances available online, go to inthebend.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Films inspired by Shakespeare's works a good way to spend Shakespeare Day