Shakespeare Around the Globe: Films and Books in the World Languages Collection
The year 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and a year-long celebration of Shakespeare's work and legacy around the world.
In recent Shakespeare news, New Oxford Shakespearewill credit Christopher Marlowe as the co-author of the three Henry V plays. Debates over the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays have engaged generations of scholars, but the influence and reach of the work credited to the Bard are indisputable. Recently at NYPL, Margaret Atwood discussed Shakespeare in the 21st century with Fiona Shaw as part of the British Council's Shakespeare Lives program, touching on Shakespeare on YouTube and reading from her new novel Hag-seed: The Tempest Retold , part of the new Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which great contemporary writers reinterpret Shakespeare's works.
Shakespeare also has great appeal beyond the English-speaking world. His work has been translated into more than 100 languages. According to "Fun international facts about Shakespeare" compiled for the British Council, there have been publications and productions of Hamlet in more than 75 languages since 1960, and versions of Romeo and Juliet have been performed in at least 24 countries in the last decade. In A Night in the Emperor's Garden, published in 2015, Qais Akbar Omar describes his experience with an acting troupe in Kabul that put on a production of Love's Labor's Lost in Dari in 2005, the first public performance of Shakespeare in Afghanistan in 35 years. Listen to an interview with Omar on On the Media.
"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players." - As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII
In Shakespeare and World Cinema , Mark Thornton Burnett identifies over 70 films in languages other than English that were inspired by Shakespeare's plays, including a Romany version of Hamlet from Serbia and a Malagasy Macbeth, Makibefo. Some of these international retellings of Shakespeare's plays are available to borrow from NYPL's World Languages Collection. These films give us an opportunity to experience the universality of Shakespeare's themes in a new cultural and linguistic context, a powerful demonstration that #ShakepeareLives not only at the Globe but around the world!
World Cinema Inspired by Shakespeare’s Plays
Note: this list is organized by language. See the list organized by play.
Film
Inspired by
Language
夜宴 = Legend of the Black Scorpion aka Banquet (2006). Dir: Feng Xiaogang
Yi qi liang fu = One husband too many (1988). Dir: Anthony Chan
Qing ren jie = A time to love (2005) Dir: Huo Jianqi
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Chinese
Arven = Inheritance (2003). Dir: Per Fly
Hamlet / Romeo and Juliet
Danish
L’appartement (1995). Dir: Gilles Mimouni
Le grand rôle (2004). Dir: Steve Suissa
Conte d’hiver (1992). Dir: Éric Rohmer
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Merchant of Venice
A Winter’s Tale
French
Kebab Connection (2005). Dir: Anno Saul
Romeo and Juliet
German
Do dooni chaar = Do dūnī cāra (1968). Dir: Debu Sen
Haider (2014). Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj
Omkara (2006). Dir: Vishal Bhardwaj
Goliyon Ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela (2014). Dir: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Isi life mein = Isī lāipha mem (2010). Dir: Vidhi Kasliwal
A Comedy of Errors
Hamlet
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
Hindi
Cesare deve morire / Caesar Must Die (2012). Dir: Vittorio & Paolo Taviani
Julius Caesar
Italian
Directed by Akira Kurosawa:
The Bad Sleep Well (1960).
Ran (1985).
Throne of Blood (1957).
Hamlet
King Lear
Macbeth
Japanese
Oldeuboi! = Oldboy (2003). Dir: Park Chan-wook
Titus Andronicus
Korean
Король Лир = King Lear (1970). Dir: Grigori Kozintsev
*Vam i ne snilos = Love and Lies (1981). Dir: Ilya Frez
*Ukroshchenie stroptivoĭ (1961 performance)
*These films may not have English subtitles.
King Lear
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
Russian
Amar te duele (2002). Dir: Fernando Sariñana
Romeo and Juliet
Spanish
Translations of Shakespeare and books about Shakespeare in other languages
Borrow translations of Shakespeare's work and books about Shakespeare in these languages:
If you're an English language learner interested in Shakepeare, check out our Learn English with Shakespeare post!