Shakespeare Favorites

Last Oct. 25th, I emailed some friends to remind them that it was St. Crispian's Day on which it was traditional in my house (and should be in theirs) to watch the St. Crispian's Day speech in Shakespeare's Henry V, as delivered by Kenneth Branagh.

This created a flurry of responses from which I have created a list of favorite Shakespeare productions and documentaries. I have been so busy in the last two months that I am tardy in getting them onto the blog. Please tell us your own favorites if you do not find them here:

Plays on Film

Henry V (Kenneth Branagh version)

Henry V (Olivier version)

Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh)

Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet

Documentaries

Looking for Richard: Al Pacino on Shakespeare and, in particular, Richard III. Scenes from the play acted by Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Estelle Parsons and an amazingly effective Alec Baldwin.

Shakespeare Behind Bars: A Shakespeare program, in its 20th year in a maximum security prison, takes on The Tempest. All I can say is that this documentary is astonishing.

Acting Shakespeare: From the BBC in the 1980's, this series uses young actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Director in charge is a bit Monty-Pythonesque, but the actors -- Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, David Suchet, Judi Dench et al -- are terrific.

In Search of Shakespeare: Michael Woods' series focuses on Shakespeare life.

Fiction

Shakespeare in Love.

Slings and Arrows: A Canadian series about a Shakespeare Festival; the plot and relationships among the characters often reflect those of the plays they are putting on.

All these are available on Netflix, and many of them are also available through the Free Library.