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SHAKESPEARE, FROM STAGE TO SCREEN. By Sarah Hatchuel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; pp. 190. $70.00 cloth.
SHAKESPEARE'S VIOLATED BODIES: STAGE AND SCREEN PERFORMANCE. By Pascale Aebischer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; pp. 221. $65.00 cloth.
Adaptations of Shakespeare's works have become the subject of an increasingly eclectic scholarship. Theatre and performance studies, textual studies, cultural studies, and critical theory have all set up camp within the dialogic space created by the translation of Shakespeare from text to stage to film. A recent spate of books and articles scrutinize, analyze, and essentially deconstruct such adaptations on the basis of their degree of canonical conservatism or radical subversion. Therefore, while questions surrounding canonicity and the cultural capital of Shakespeare are particularly relevant, other avenues of interrogation, such as the practical problems and aesthetic impact of adaptation, beg further exploration. Sarah Hatchuel and Pascale Aebischer take up the outcomes and implications of adaptation both inside and outside of canonical issues. Hatchuel briefly outlines the history of revision and rewriting of Shakespeare for the stage, before launching a detailed description and analysis of the difficulties and advantages of filming Shakespeare. Aebischer also details particular examples of cinematic adaptations, but is more specifically interested in the consequences and repercussions of transposing the textual body into the literal or physical body through the use of visual media.
Hatchuel's book is a slim volume divided into six chapters that chart the return to realism in recent film adaptations of Shakespeare. Realism, as the term is employed by Hatchuel, refers not so much to the dramatic content of the films, but rather to the use of elaborate sets, costuming, locations, cinematography, and special effects to produce an implicit reality almost indistinguishable from life. Subdivisions within each chapter further organize more general topics such as "Masking Film Construction" and "Screenplay, Narration and Subtext," providing a carefully determined, linear text that prevents a very large topic from spiraling out of control. Meticulously researched and densely footnoted, Shakespeare, from Stage to Screen relies heavily on a multitude of concrete examples to illustrate each point. At times, Hatchuel's...