An Intensive Seminar-Workshop

Athens, Greece, June 1998

Instructor: Despina Kakoudaki

1. Thinking about theater in a "multimedia" perspective

This project focuses on aspects of genre as a mode of narration, and on imagining teaching applications based on an intertextual, multi-media perspective.

Think about a research project, a course or a lesson series that would involve the following texts:

Dangerous Liaisons, Choderlos De Laclos (epistolary novel)
Dangerous Liaisons 1960, Roger Vadim (film, 1959)
Dangerous Liaisons, Christopher Hampton (play, 1986)
Dangerous Liaisons, Stephen Friars (film, 1988)
Valmont, Milos Forman (film, 1989)

2: William Shakespeare: Plays and Film Adaptations

Since most of the participants had to teach Shakespeare in their High School classes, thinking about what to do with these plays became a necessary component of the seminar, and it involved a lot of theoretical discussion.

How do we approach a film adaptation of a Shakespeare play? A Theater Studies perspective would focus on "one play-many versions" approach, while a Film Studies perspective would do a "one director-many plays" approach. This project explores the effects of both approaches.

As you can see in the limited list that follows, there is a definite trend for specific directors to undertake many Shakespeare adaptation projects. This can be a starting point for designing lesson plans and integrating film into your classes.

You can imagine, for example, thinking about all the Hamlet adaptations together. This project would have to also take into consideration that Zeffirelli is playing on Olivier, or Branagh on Welles. Each one of these directors has a vision both of Shakespeare and of the film adaptations of his plays that can be better understood in contrast.

Or, you can imagine looking at five film adaptations from a particular decade. This would involve thinking about the historical significance of settings or costume designs, and the competing visions of the past in a particular cultural context.

Or, you can locate the Shakespearean adaptation within the work of a particular film-maker: what is Welles looking for in Othello at that moment in his career for example? This project would require further research in the work of a particular director.

Or, you can think theoretically about the trends in a particular play's adaptations. Why, for example, is The Tempest so often completely re-imagined in new genres and contexts, sometimes totally alien to its Elizabethan setting?

SHORT LIST OF FILM ADAPTATIONS (look at your local video stores and libraries for availability)

Macbeth
Orson Welles (1948)
Roman Polanski (1971)

Hamlet
Laurence Olivier (1948)
Tony Richardson (1969)
Franco Zeffirelli (1990)
Kenneth Brannagh (1996)
King Lear
Jean-Luc Godard (1987)
Ran, Akira Kurosawa (1985)

Othello
Orson Welles (1952)
Otello, Franco Zeffirelli (1986)
Stuart Burge (1965) (with Laurence Olivier)
Oliver Parker (1995) (with Kenneth Branagh)

Richard III
Laurence Olivier (1955)
Richard Loncraine (1995)
Looking For Richard (1996)

Henry V
Laurence Olivier (1945)
Kenneth Branagh (1989)

Romeo and Juliet
George Cukor (1936)
Renato Castellani (1954)
Paul Czinner (1966)
Franco Zeffirelli (1968)
West Side Story, Robert Wise (1961)
Romeo + Juliet, Baz Luhrmann (1996)

The Taming of the Shrew
Sam Taylor (1929)
Franco Zeffirelli (1967)

The Tempest
Forbidden Planet, Fred McLeod Wilcox (1956)
Tempest, Paul Mazursky (1982)
Prospero's Books, Peter Greenaway (1991)

Much Ado About Nothing
Kenneth Branagh (1993)

3: Film and Aspects of the Theater

This project will explore the use of film in the theater classroom, as a specific teaching aid, or to facilitate theoretical discussion of the visual nature of both the theatrical and the cinematic experience. The emphasis will be on developing lesson plans for addressing theoretical issues in the teaching of either film or theater, or both in conjunction.
This list suggests some connections between topics and films, to start you thinking, but can also function as a "Further Viewing List" for continuing your education in film history.

For theatrical filming: The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
For film/theater audience: Zoot Suit (Luis Valdez, 1981)
For viewer/spectator and "stage": Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
For filmic narration: Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
For actors and bodies: Edward II (Derek Jarman, 1991)
For set design: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919)
For film as multimedia: The Mystery Of Rampo (Kazuyoshi Okuyama, 1994) and Tank Girl (Rachel Talalay, 1995)
For film as theater history: Show Boat (James Whale, 1936)
For film as history: JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
For film as the negation of theater: A Trip to the Moon (George Melies, 1902)