Confronting Naturalism: The Need for Imagination in Modern Shakespearean Film Adaptations GABRIELLE JOHNSEN
RECENT EFFORTS abound to adapt the plays
Shakespearean film adaptation through an
of William Shakespeare to the screen, although
examination of the camera’s role in mediating
they often fail to bridge the cultural dissonance
the thematic and theatrical complexities
between Elizabethan London and modern
of Shakespeare’s plays on the screen. I will
Hollywood. In order to justify such a permanent
examine three recent film adaptations of
and costly endeavor as a film adaptation of a
Shakespeare plays through the lens of this
Shakespeare play, a director should offer a
theory: The Merchant of Venice (2004), The King
definitive artistic perspective on the selected
(2019), and Titus (1999). I will thus demonstrate
play which both embraces the complexities
the link between each adaptation’s quality and
of the original text and frames the story in a
the ability of its director to balance respect for
manner that engages the contemporary viewing
Shakespeare’s original play with a willingness
audience. In this essay, I will first examine
to disrupt tradition in order to make an artistic
how challenges in adapting Shakespeare’s
statement that necessitates the format of a
theatrically dynamic style to the screen stem
film adaptation.
from the current trend of cinema into a realm
The primary challenge that Shakespeare
of naturalism nonexistent in Shakespeare’s
plays present to filmic adaptational efforts
era. I will then formulate an ideal theory of
stems
from
how
expectations
regarding
G A B R I E L L E J O H N S E N is a senior majoring in English and Theatre Arts at Loyola Marymount University. She is currently completing her final semester of college in Germany, where she is studying abroad with an ensemble of LMU actors. Gabrielle’s creative work centers around her interest in the intersections between art forms and the interplay
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between aesthetics and emotions. She wrote this essay for Professor Theresia de Vroom’s Shakespeare: The Comedy of Forgiveness class in the spring of 2021.
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