How William Shakespeare has influenced modern literatureNothing can be said for sure about the great William Shakespeare, as he lived around 500 years ago, but in the following text I will try to describe as much as possible about how he has influenced modern literature. I am going to focus on the filmindustry, as that is what I know most about myself. The ties between theatre and film is very strong, and since the very first start of the filmindustry Shakespeare has inspired creators like Georges M�li�s, Orson Welles, Kurosawa Akira and Peter Greenaway. During the era of silent films, back in the beginning of the 20th century, there was alot of Shakespeare adaptions to the screen. During the first twenty years more than seventeen Hamlet, ten Julius Caesar, ten the Merchant of Venice, and eight Macbeth were made. Even though some really famous filmcreators were behind these adaptions, like Georges M�li�s and Griffith, they were more like recorded plays rather than real films with one exception - the Hamlet made in 1913 by Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson is supposed to be a really good adaption. When the audiofilms came in 1930, Hollywood quickly saw it�s chance to dominate and made many great films mostly inspired by Shakespeare, although the first really successfull adaption was made in Great Britain by a man called Laurence Oliver. Henry V, recorded in 1944, was not only inspired by Shakespeare himself, but also by the war and was full of patriotism and the film brings us back to a reconstruated Globe-theatre, that was created for the prologue. After the success with Henrik V, Oliver decided to make more Shakespeare adaptions, which resulted in Hamlet, Richard III and Othello. Orson Welles, born in 1915, is another really famous filmcreator that has been influenced by Shakespeare. While most other children was trying hard to learn how to read and write Welles already read the collected works of Shakespeare, and made small plays in his room. In 1937 he created The Mercury Theatre, and got huge credits for his play Julius Caesar, and later on also Macbeth, Othello and Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight), which was a summary of scenes from many different plays. Later on he also made Richard II, Henry IV, the Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V. Other films made later prove that Shakespeare keeps inspireing creators, which gives us new, original and very talented interpretations. In 1989 the young actor Kenneth Branagh, who played Henry V in Stratford and London before he made his own theatregroup, made a new adaption of Henry V with himself as the main character, which was very successfull. In 1991 Franco Zeffirelli made an adaption of Hamlet; with the famous Australian Mel Gibson as main character, and in the same year, Peter Greenaway made an adaption of the Storm, which he called the Books of Prosperos. The 87 years old Sir John Gielgud was starring as the wizzard and also made the voices for the other characters, modified in a computer. Lately, we�ve also had a few Swedish films that have been inspired by Shakespeare. �Vinterviken� is one example. It is a modern version of Romeo and Juliet starring David Tainton as the black boy coming from a poor home, who falls in love with the rich white girl Tina Englund. Her father doesn�t like the idea of them being together; he wants his daughter to be with some rich Swede instead - even though David saved his younger daughter from drowning. The plot thickens! William Shakespeare has probably put an imprint on every single author and creator active today, more or less, and I think that he did what no one before him was able to do � give literature a face. Although he�s since long gone, his amazing stories will always remain the same. Back to information |