Customer Reviews

Silent Shakespeare

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According to the Internet Movie Database, "Bill" Shakespeare is the most prolific cinema contributor of all time, with writing credits in at least 400 known movies. If the medium is around 100 years old, he's "done" four films a year for ever; and, as Ethan Hawke, Michelle Pfeiffer and Charlton Heston can confirm, he's not slowing down any time soon.

I have this collection, endorsed by Martin Scorsese, on VHS. It is a tremendously worthwhile set - for the collector. The films are (in some cases) barely recognisable tributes to the plays they're based on. They are generally short sets of interpretations of key scenes.

As with most silent cinema, the overacting is a little excessive. But the point is really to see (1) the first faltering steps when film was first invented, and (2) a reminder of Shakespeare's timelessness.

Hardly accessible, and of minimal literary interest, you should buy this if (like me) you're an afficionado of Shakespeare on the screen.

Of course these silent short movies are not what anyone could expect about Shakespeare who is the king of speech and the god of soliloquies. But these films are real gems in our library because they represent what could be done with a camera, black and white and all, one century ago, between 1899 and 1911. It is brilliant and it also shows how the body was used to express what could not be heard. One of the best I think is Twelfth Night. Body language is just as strong as words if we really want to use that body to say something. What's more the technique or techniques used in some of these films show how they wanted to go beyond these black and white moving pictures, how they longed for colour, even to the point of adding some with some crayolas or so. What was so strong in these pictures to ignite the imagination of so many people, technicians, directors, actors or audience, to the point of moving en masse to this new art, to this silver screen that went beyond anything anyone had ever dreamt. We may have lost some of that art with one century of progress and technicalization of every single aspect of the film industry, to the point of wondering at times if we have not lost the art and the creativity along with the poverty and the novelty of this medium.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

Certainly this isn't the ideal place to start if one is just getting into silents, nor is it ideal for those who aren't very familiar with Shakespeare, but for those who are well-acquainted with both, this disc is rather a treat. These 7 short films were made between 1899 and 1911, in England, the United States, and Italy, and were made at a time when the average moviegoer would have been already well familiar with these plays. So much of Shakespeare's beauty and genius come from his language, but in spite of the handicap of not being able to use speech (apart from intertitles), these films actually cover most of the major events of these plays. It does help if one is already familiar with the stories and characters, particularly with so much having to be left out in the interest of time (just about all films from this era were only one or two reels long), but if one looks at them as examples of early film instead of judging them against modern films or the actual plays, they actually don't seem too shabby. It's really a wonder how these early film-makers managed to cover most of the important events in works of literature they were adapting and condensing for the screen. The production values for some of them also seem pretty good; 'King Lear' and 'The Merchant of Venice' are even beautifully hand-colored. It's really pointless to say these are bad films if one is only judging them against more modern films. Of course the acting styles are going to be different, as well as the constraints of time and a camera that was very rigid. Films were still a developing artform at this time, and many of these early films that tell stories instead of just being actualities, such as those done by the Lumière Brothers, were indeed more like filmed versions of stage plays than actual moving pictures. The ones I liked best were 'Twelfth Night,' 'Richard III,' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' The other two films are 'The Tempest' and 'King John.' The former can be a bit hard to really follow if one hasn't read the play, though it still has that charm and sweetness that so many films from the Aughts do, and the latter, being from 1899, is only about two minutes long. Naturally it doesn't even cover the entire story, but rather solely depicts the death of King John at the end. It's most notable for starring the legendary English actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the title role.

While not the type of thing that a silent novice would most benefit by seeing, it does hold immense historical value to those who are interested in film history and who have seen enough silents to know that these are not representative of the lost artform. Watching films this old is kind of like looking back in time, and these early film adaptations of Shakespeare are no exception. And in spite of missing all of the wonderful poetry of Shakespeare, the actors still manage to convey the stories through subtle nonverbal communication.

This is a collection of early Shakespeare films, and at first, it looks like the films may be of interest to the art of filmmaking but not so much Shakespeare.

When it gets to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1909), it slows down and you can almost hear the dialog that you know by heart. However, for us mortals there are plates with words that we can read. The scene where Puck searches for the plant is neatly done. Every generation of actors must play in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and this is no different.
Walter Ackerman ... Demetrius
Charles Chapman ... Quince
Maurice Costello ... Lysander
Julia Swayne Gordon ... Helena
Gladys Hulette ... Puck (interesting that they picked a female)
Elita Proctor Otis ... Hippolyta
William V. Ranous ... Bottom
William Shea ... Mechanical
Rose Tapley ... Hermia
Florence Turner ... Titania - Viola in Twelfth Night
Clara Kimball Young ... Penelope

*** The violin and piano commitment helps make the film.

King Lear 1910 or (Re Lear) someone colored it be for Ted Turner was born.
King Lear decides to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters.
Love the old left over Viking helmets.
Ermete Novelli ... King Lear
Francesca Bertini ... Cordelia
Olga Giannini Novelli ... King Lear's Daughter
Giannina Chiantoni ... King Lear's Daughter

Twelfth Night 1910
Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are shipwrecked and separated
Julia Swayne Gordon ... Olivia
Charles Kent ... Malvolio
Florence Turner ... Viola - Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream
Edith Storey ... Sebastian
Tefft Johnson ... Orsino
Marin Sais ... Maria
William Humphrey ... Sir Toby Belch
James Young ... Sir Andrew Aguecheek

The Merchant of Venice (IL mercante di Venezia) 1910
A merchant (Bassanio) takes out a loan of three thousand ducats.
Again, this film is hand colored.

Ermete Novelli ... Shylock (now I wonder were the term Shylock came from)
Francesca Bertini ... Jessica
Olga Giannini Novelli ... Portia - King Lear's Daughter in King Lear 1910

Just remember:
The penalty for the shedding of one drop of Christian blood is confiscation of lands and goods.

Richard III 1911
Richard of Gloucester is determined to gain the throne.

James Berry ... King Henry VI
Alfred Brydone ... King Edward IV
Kathleen Yorke ... Edward, Prince of Wales / King Edward V
Hetty Kenyon...Richard, Duke of York
Murray Carrington ... George, Duke of Clarence
Frank R. Benson ... Richard, Duke of Gloucester / Richard III
Eric Maxon ... Henry, Earl of Richmond / King Henry VII
Moffat Johnston ... Duke of Buckingham
James Maclean ... Duke of Norfolk
Victor McClure ... Earl of Surrey, his son
R.I. Connick ... Earl Rivers
George Manship ... Earl of Oxford
Harry Caine ... Lord Hastings
Wilfrid Caithness ... Lord Stanley
L. Rupert ... Sir Richard Ratcliff
H. James ... Sir James Tyrrel
Alfred Wild ... Sir William Catesby
Cecil Dighton ... Sir James Blount
John Howell ... Sir Robert Brackenbury
J. Victor ... Lord Mayor of London
H.O. Nicholson ... First murderer
A. Wild ... Second murderer
Violet Farebrother ... Elizabeth, Queen of King Edward IV
Elinor Aickin ... Duchess of York, mother to King Edward IV, Clarence and Gloucester
Mrs (Constance) Benson ... Lady Anne, widow of Edward Prince of Wales

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All I can say are you getting a lot for your money. Just remember watching these films are no substitute for the real thing.

Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) [VHS]

The image was better than expected considering the films were made 100 years ago.
Sometimes the music that was supposedly added on later stops in places and
the DVD case is made of paper and without any liner notes, which I was hoping for.
But overall, a satisfactory quality DVD.

I was hoping that this DVD would include some footage of famous Shakespearean actors and actresses caught on camera. I know that Sarah Bernhardt's Hamlet is available on VHS, for instance. I was hoping there may be some footage of an early John Barrymore in Richard III, or a glimpse of Ellen Terry or Henry Irving in the twilight of their illustrious careers. Maybe there's an early Kinescope of Edwin Booth out there somewhere. Such is not the case here.

This DVD doesn't even include the rather well-known 1913 Cecil Hepworth production of HAMLET, featuring Johnston Forbes-Robertson in the title role. The only actor of any stature featured here is Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as King John. But the excerpt is so brief (a bit over two minutes) that it really doesn't have any impact. The only thing significant about it is that it's the earliest filmed version of a Shakespeare play (1899) and it gives one a visual understanding of the broad gesturing that was a part of the prevalent acting method of the era. Suffice it to say that this was the mannered school of acting that Stanislavsky reacted against.

The rest of the DVD features nondescript performers in footage that just looks silly and childishly quaint from a modern perspective. There is good reason that the names of the actors or directors involved have dissapeared beneath the sands of time. They were terrible then, and they're terrible now. And the truncation involved calls to mind an antic reworking such as "Twenty Plays in Thirty Minutes," or the very funny "The complete works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) ASIN: B00008US5Q . THE TEMPEST, for instance, takes all of 12 minutes. In KING LEAR, conveniently enough, Edmund, Edgar and Gloucester don't even put in an appearance. There is no plot, much less a subplot. Lear divides up his kingdom and rejects daughter number three. Daughters number one and two reject the old man. Old man goes nuts but is restored to sanity by daughter number 3. Daughter number two kills daughter number three, which KOs the old man. The only highlight of LEAR is the actress who plays Regan (daughter number 2). She looks like Python trooper Terry Jones in full dress up mode. The same actress appears as Portia in the same Italian company's production of THE MERCHANT of VENICE, included later on the DVD. She really doesn't have to do much to disguise herself as a man in the courtroom scene.

None of the scenes in any of the plays make much sense, but some directing choices are downright egregious. For instance, in the famous scene in Richard III when Richard seduces the grieving Lady Anne, a whole host of the court retinue are standing around gawking at the two of them.

The production quality is uniformly poor in all instances. These were low budget movies and it shows. RICHARD III, for instance was simply filmed onstage at the Shakespeare Memorial Theater in Stratford. Fixed camera, no imaginative staging or even blocking, for that matter.

Even Shakespeare scholars and historians would have a difficult time sitting through more than one viewing of this collection. As silent film goes, it's staggeringly dull. Much better off spending your money on NOSFERATAU or some vintage Mileus or Buster Keaton. This is one for the GOLDEN TURKEY Hall of Fame.

BEK