Shakespeare's Cinema of Love : A Study in Genre and Influence

This entertaining and scholarly book takes as its theme the original argument that Shakespeare’s generic innovations in dramatizing love stories have found their way, through various cultural channels, into the films of Hollywood in the first half of the twentieth century and, more recently, Bollywood. It does not deal primarily with individual cinematic allusions to Shakespeare’s plays, nor ‘the Shakespeare film’ as a distinct, heritage genre, nor with ‘adaptation’ as a straightforward process, but rather the ways in which the film industry is implicitly indebted to the generic shapes of a number of Shakespearean forms based on comedy and romance dealing with love. Particular plays such as __The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It__, and __Romeo and Juliet__ all powerfully entered the genres of mainstream movies through their compelling emotional structures and underlying conceptualisations of love. Drawing on dozens of examples from films, both mainstream and less familiar, the book opens up rich, new ways of understanding the pervasive influence of Shakespeare on modern media and culture, and more generally on our conventions of romantic love. It is such connections that make Shakespeare a potent ‘brand’ and international influence in 2016, even 400 years after his death. This engaging and stimulating book argues that Shakespeare's plays significantly influenced movie genres in the twentieth century, particularly in films concerning love in the classic Hollywood period. Shakespeare's 'green world' has a close functional equivalent in 'tinseltown' and on 'the silver screen', as well as in hybrid genres in Bollywood cinema. Meanwhile, Romeo and Juliet continues to be an enduring source for romantic tragedy on screen. The nature of generic indebtedness has not gained recognition because it is elusive and not always easy to recognise. The book traces generic links between Shakespeare's comedies of love and screen genres such as romantic comedy, 'screwball' comedy and musicals, as well as clarifying the use of common conventions defining the genres, such as mistaken identity, 'errors', disguise and 'shrew-taming'. Speculative, challenging and entertaining, the book will appeal to those interested in Shakespeare, movies and the representation of love in narratives. Introduction : Shakespeare Shaping Modern Movie Genres -- 'madly-mated' : The Taming Of The Shrew And Odd-couple Comedy -- Dreams In The Forest : Romantic Comedy -- 'the Guy's Only Doing It For Some Doll' : Musical Comedy -- Of Errors And Eros : A Brief Digression On Twins -- Comedy Of Disguise And Mistaken Identity -- 'star-crossed Lovers' : Romeo And Juliet And Romantic Tragedy. R.s. White. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Shakespeare's cinema of love addresses the question, how much has Shakespeare influenced modern film genres? Convincing arguments are made for the links between his comedies of love and genres such as 'screwball' comedy, musicals, romantic comedy and tragic love films. -- . 'Shakespeare's Cinema of Love' addresses the extent to which the Bard has influenced modern film genres. Convincing arguments are made for the links between his comedies of love and genres such as 'screwball' comedy, musicals, romantic comedy and tragic love films R.s. White. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. Baltimore, Md Available Via World Wide Web.