Shakespeare but cool
May 30, 2024 2:57 PM Subscribe
What other film or tv adaptations of Shakespeare exist that use modern setting, but the original text, like Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet and Ian McKellan's Richard III?
Best answer: This version of Much Ado About Nothing is fantastic.
posted by swheatie at 3:06 PM on May 30, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by swheatie at 3:06 PM on May 30, 2024 [6 favorites]
Best answer: I haven't seen that Hamlet adaptation in ages but I loved it in my twenties. IIRC it makes some aggressive cuts to the script to keep it movie-tight rather than filmed-play-long, but overall it's solid, Julia Stiles is a phenomenal Ophelia, and making the play-within-a-play Hamlet's self-indulgent artsy film project is just chefs-kiss perfect.
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:07 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:07 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
Whoops, reading in the car and missed the caveat. Apologies.
Scotland, PA is a great modern take on MacBeth.
posted by PussKillian at 3:18 PM on May 30, 2024 [1 favorite]
Scotland, PA is a great modern take on MacBeth.
posted by PussKillian at 3:18 PM on May 30, 2024 [1 favorite]
Best answer: He does the to be or not to be soliloquy wearing a knitted toque aimlessly wandering a block buster video it’s so 90s I just can’t even *squeeeee*
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:21 PM on May 30, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:21 PM on May 30, 2024 [3 favorites]
Best answer: 1999's Titus may count, it's not entirely modern but more "unstuck in time" IIRC.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:34 PM on May 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:34 PM on May 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
Best answer: a video on Denzel Washington's Macbeth introduces Patrick Stewart's version, which has more contemporary costumes. both look cool
posted by HearHere at 4:04 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by HearHere at 4:04 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
It's not Shakespeare, but Derek Jarman's Edward II (1991) (from the Christopher Marlowe play) casts Tilda Swinton as a sort of evil capitalist Thatcher/Princess Diana performing a coup against a gay prodigal prince and a radical underclass of ACT UP artistes, and the staging is half abstract brutalism and half decadent cocaine-decor. It's an incredibly passionate screed and full of the feeling of its time in 1990-1 UK. Watch it with subtitles because the dialogue is sometimes not as clear as you'd like.
posted by panhopticon at 4:06 PM on May 30, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by panhopticon at 4:06 PM on May 30, 2024 [3 favorites]
Are you willing to go for modernized dialogue/setting versions that still hardly stray from the scenes and plot? Then I do recommend 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) with Heather Ledger (RIP), Julia Stiles, and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt.
I especially recommend O (2001) with Mekhi Pfifer, Julia Stiles again, and Josh Hartnett. This cast is really heartrending, something to behold.
posted by panhopticon at 4:15 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
I especially recommend O (2001) with Mekhi Pfifer, Julia Stiles again, and Josh Hartnett. This cast is really heartrending, something to behold.
posted by panhopticon at 4:15 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
Best answer: +1 Much Ado About Nothing. So, so good.
I really liked 2018 A Midsummer's Night's Dream.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 5:53 PM on May 30, 2024
I really liked 2018 A Midsummer's Night's Dream.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 5:53 PM on May 30, 2024
One that it isn't set in modern time, but feels very modern and easy to understand is the 1993 Much Ado About Nothing. It is the first Shakespeare adaption that I watched and really understood what was going on. I've rewatched it a few times since it came out and it's still entertaining and easy to understand.
posted by Jungo at 7:13 PM on May 30, 2024
posted by Jungo at 7:13 PM on May 30, 2024
It's not exactly what you're looking for, but the the recontextualization of certain Hamlet scenes in the last few episodes of HBO's Station Eleven miniseries might be of interest. (And the costumes are definitely cool: modern high-fashion, if not really modern time-period.)
posted by nobody at 7:45 PM on May 30, 2024
posted by nobody at 7:45 PM on May 30, 2024
My Own Private Idaho is an adaptation of King Henry IV: Part I but about queer hustlers in Portland. It has long stretches of dialogue from Shakespeare and stars a very young Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix.
posted by forkisbetter at 8:39 PM on May 30, 2024
posted by forkisbetter at 8:39 PM on May 30, 2024
Best answer: David Tennant and Catherine Tate's Much Ado About Nothing is set in the 1980s, if that counts, and it's terrific - and free to watch on the internet archive.
posted by tzikeh at 9:04 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by tzikeh at 9:04 PM on May 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Branagh's Love's Labour Lost is played in 1930s cozzies. It's fun if you like musicals.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:21 AM on May 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:21 AM on May 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
The 2009 Hamlet (David Tennant/Patrick Stewart, TV movie adaptation of the RSC stage show, contemporary setting) does some interesting stuff with single-camera filming and CCTV-style framing that I found really effective for conveying the claustrophobia of Elsinore.
posted by terretu at 1:53 AM on May 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by terretu at 1:53 AM on May 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
Ah, you definitely want to check out the 2019 Free Shakespeare in the Park Much Ado About Nothing (aired on Great Performances, archived link) wherein Danielle Brooks kills it as Beatrice.
It doesn't quite hit your requirement of using the original language, but the BBC did a series in 2005 called ShakespeaRE-Told that reimagined Shakespeare in a modern setting. I'm partial to the Shirley Henderson-Rufus Sewell version of Taming of the Shrew but they also did Much Ado, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
posted by Preserver at 11:56 AM on May 31, 2024
It doesn't quite hit your requirement of using the original language, but the BBC did a series in 2005 called ShakespeaRE-Told that reimagined Shakespeare in a modern setting. I'm partial to the Shirley Henderson-Rufus Sewell version of Taming of the Shrew but they also did Much Ado, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
posted by Preserver at 11:56 AM on May 31, 2024
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posted by mrphancy at 3:05 PM on May 30, 2024 [6 favorites]