The Films Of Kenneth Branagh

And as with Branagh's own work, readers cannot help but be entertained." "Featuring photos taken on the sets and behind the scenes of many of Branagh's most popular films, this work is ideal for film lovers, film students, and students and readers of Shakespeare."--BOOK JACKET.

No one does William Shakespeare on film better than the multi-talented, world-famous actor and director Kenneth Branagh. Unforgettable are his portrayals of the Bards most enduring and complex characters; unbelievable is the impact his films have had on our contemporary understanding of the Shakespearean canon. This summer his newest Shakespearean adaptation, Love's Labour's Lost, opens across North America.

Based on extensive research in previously untapped archival materials and on numerous interviews, White traces the vicissitudes of Kenneth Branagh's career, examining his meteoric rise and the backlash that accompanied it.

Kenneth Branagh is the most important contemporary figure in the production of filmed Shakespeare. His five feature-length Shakespeare films, Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000) and As You Like It (2007) both created and represented the explosion of filmed Shakespeare adaptations that began in the 1990s. This book demonstrates Branagh’s appeal to classical film genres in order to meta-narrate for a popular audience the unfamiliar terrain of the Shakespearean original; it examines the debts Branagh owes, stylistically and structurally, to classically-defined generic modes. The generic appeal in Branagh’s films is one that grows progressively, becoming incrementally more critical to his Shakespearean adaptations as Branagh’s career progresses. Thus, his debut film, Henry V, is the least classically generic of all his films, relying primarily on intertextual and generic references to more contemporary styles, like the action genre and the Vietnam War film. Much Ado About Nothing represents a transitional moment in Branagh’s generic development; while the film closely accords to the norms of the screwball comedy, this generic correspondence derives primarily from the Shakespearean text. With Hamlet, Branagh begins to experiment with genre as a conceptual conceit: although the film owes much to classical domestic melodrama, particularly in Hamlet’s relationships with Gertrude and Ophelia, Branagh frames his domestic story with devices drawn from the classical Hollywood historical epic. Branagh’s spectacular failure Love’s Labour’s Lost demonstrates a unique subordination of the logic and authority of the Shakespearean source text to the demands of the classical musical form. Finally, Branagh’s most recent film, As You Like It, reveals a new approach towards working with filmed Shakespeare, while simultaneously “re-working” the generic structures and practices that characterize his earlier, more successful films.

Samuel Crowl's 'Shakespeare at the Cineplex' explores the major Shakespeare films released since the surprising success of Kenneth Branagh's 'Henry V' in 1989.

This is the second volume of the widely acclaimed Art of the Cut book published in 2017. This follow-up text expands on its predecessor with wisdom from more than 360 interviews with the world’s best editors (including nearly every Oscar winner from the last 30 years). Because editing is a highly subjective art form, and one that is critical to the success of motion picture storytelling, it requires side-by-side comparisons of the many techniques and solutions used by a wide range of editors from around the world. That is why this book compares and contrasts methodologies from a wide array of diverse voices and organizes that information so that it is easily digested and understood. There is no one way to approach editorial problems, so this book allows readers to see multiple solutions from multiple editors. The interviews contained within are carefully curated into topics that are most important to film editors and those who aspire to become film editors. The questions asked, and the organization of the book, are not merely an academic or theoretical view of the art of editing but rather the practical advice and methodologies of actual working film and TV editors, bringing benefits to both students and professional readers. The book is supplemented by a collection of downloadable online exclusive chapters, which cover additional topics ranging from Choosing the Project to VFX. In addition to the supplementary chapters, access to the full-color, full-resolution images printed in the book—and other exclusive images—is included.

As both star and director of the acclaimed film Henry V, young Branagh has had his career compared to that of Lawrence Olivier. Full of charm, humor, and insight into an actor's craft, Branagh's intriguing autobiography tells of his childhood in Belfast, his training at the Royal Academy of Drama, and his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company.