Shakespeare Filmography

10. The Tempest (2010)
Among the visualisations of the island-exiled magician Prospero, I struggled to separate two finalists. In his magnificently wacky 1979 punk version, Derek Jarman applied casting (poet Heathcote Williams, singer Toyah Willcox) and soundtrack (Stormy Weather) unlikely to be found at the National Theatre, at least at that time. In contrast, Taymor made only one radical alteration for the 2010 version – Prospero becoming Prospera, played by Helen Mirren – otherwise offering a classically well-spoken and artily filmed account of the play which showcases Mirren’s vocal colours and Taymor’s visual panache and places it above the director’s other Shakespeare-based works, Titus (1999) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014).

9. Othello (2001)
With the screen portrayals of the persecuted moor of Venice by Olivier (1965), Welles (1952) and Anthony Hopkins (1981), all disqualified by my law against cosmetic assistance, the bench-mark for naturalistic Othellos was Laurence Fishburne, opposite Kenneth Branagh as the scheming lieutenant Iago, in Oliver Parker’s Othello (1995). But, while that is the strongest account of the recognised text, the themes and implications of the play are most powerfully expressed for me in two modern-day updates both first seen in 2001: the Hollywood teen-flick O, which shifts the action to a high-school basketball team, and an adaptation made for ITV television under the original title, scripted by Andrew Davies. In the latter, Commander Othello is the first black leader of the London police force and Iago the frustrated deputy who connives against the boss and his wife, Desdemona. Powerfully acted by Eamonn Walker, Christopher Eccleston and Keeley Hawes, this is the Othello that most makes the play live for today.



3. Henry V (1944)
You’ve got to have one Laurence Olivier in any Shakespeare list, so it’s this grand, experimental take on Henry V. Made toward the end of World War II it was intended as a rousing rush of patriotism and support for ‘our boys’, and is very successful as such. The shift between stage and ‘real life’ settings works superbly and there’s no better delivery of the St Crispin’s Day speech.

8. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
An explosion of loviness, with Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Briers, Imelda Staunton and other posh people making up the British side of this comedy of mistaken identities and suppressed affections. On the American side, Michael Keaton is superb as the bumbling Dogberry, while Denzel Washington makes a dashing prince. You suspect that Keanu Reeves, as the villain of the piece, might be there mostly for star power, bless him.


9. Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
Joss Whedon’s follow-up to The Avengers couldn’t have been smaller. It’s a black-and-white version of Much Ado About Nothing, shot in his house and starring various friends from the Whedonverse. And it’s a brisk adaptation that is much funnier than most. Amy Acker is particularly good as Beatrice, pratfalling and wisecracking like a 1940s screwball heroine. Less lavish than Kenneth Branagh's but no less well done. A perfect entry point for people who think they hate Shakespeare.

10. Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000)
Not a perfect adaptation by any means, but one with plenty of ambition. Kenneth Branagh, yet again – he loves a bit of Shakespeare, does Ken – imagines the story of four friends who swear off love as an old Hollywood musical, with a variety of George Gershwin and Cole Porter songs whacked in among all the iambic pentameter. When it works it’s thoroughly charming; when it doesn’t it’s at least trying very hard.

4. Hamlet (1996)
There are several arguments for the best screen Hamlet. There’s probably quite a big crowd screaming for the Laurence Olivier 1948 version, which won a Best Picture Oscar but is rather stagey and simplifies the play. There are probably even people fighting the corner for Franco Zeffirelli’s Mel Gibson-starring version. Kenneth Branagh’s take, though, is surely definitive if only for including every word of the play (oddly, Branagh was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for not adapting the play). It’s impeccably played by an astonishing cast and rummages in both the political and psychological depths of the play. Also, it looks absolutely stunning.


8. Julius Caesar (1953)
US actors often draw a blank with iambic pentameters (with the recent exception of Kevin Spacey on stage) but Marlon Brando, in the days when he was still taking acting seriously, is an impressive Mark Antony in Joseph Mankiewicz’s vision of the Shakespeare work that has always spoken powerfully to the US, thanks to that country’s history of assassinations. A bonus is that the cast also includes John Gielgud as Cassius and James Mason as Brutus.


7. Chimes at Midnight (1965)
Although vulnerable to a stewards’ inquiry from purists on the grounds that it is not a Shakespeare play as such, Orson Welles’s anthology of scenes from four plays featuring Sir John Falstaff, with himself as the gluttonous knight, achieves the unlikely paradox of being a scholarly romp. It just edges, in the specialised category of history play mashups, The Hollow Crown (2012), the BBC’s medley of the Henries and Richards, with Simon Russell Beale a tremendous Falstaff.


5. Macbeth (2015)
In answer to the Telegraph question: not, in my opinion, the best filmed Shakespeare ever, but impressively straight in at No 5 on release. While the war sequences nod vigorously (as with No 6) to the blood-thirsty younger audience, director Justin Kurzel also intelligently develops themes in the text of bereavement, trauma and faith, although relocating several interior scenes outdoors in order to show off the Scottish landscape. Michael Fassbender’s Macbeth achieves the perfect combination of clout and doubt, while Marion Cotillard is clear and moving despite the decision to downgrade the role of Lady Macbeth, possibly from a misguided fear of perpetuating a stereotype of the controlling wife. Though last to the party, this account easily takes the prize from the Orson Welles version of 1948 and Roman Polanski’s splatter-movie adaptation of 1971.


3. Hamlet (1996)
Teachers and students of A-level English must annually give thanks to Branagh for a screen Hamlet that is unusually complete (justifying its four-hour length) and delivers narrative and language with immaculate classical clarity, not least in the director’s own handsome, haunted performance in the title role. Able to call in favours from all parts of the showbiz spectrum, Branagh casts actors you might expect (Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench) alongside many you wouldn’t: Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, Ken Dodd. The great US novelist John Updike credited this film with inspiring his Elsinore-sequel novel, Gertrude and Claudius.


1. King Lear (1971)
The biggest loser from the stipulation that each play is represented only once is Akira Kurosawa, whose 1985 film Ran enthrallingly exported King Lear to the world of Japanese warlords. However, the clear victor in this category – and the whole competition – is Peter Brook’s magnificent black-and-white film adaptation of his 1962 RSC staging, with Paul Scofield as the king whose regime is ended by Daughtergate. Nine years closer to Lear’s likely real age than when he played the role on stage at 40, Scofield brings a musicality and depth of meaning to every line and also scores points between the words with scorched or scorching glances and grimaces. Fassbender, in the new Macbeth, looks to have learned from Scofield’s stillness and chilly diction.