The True Story of Richard III

The true story of Richard III's reign is revealed in the opening scene from The Black Adder (1983), which includes the kindly Richard playing with his nephews and speaking his famous first soliloquy: "Now is the summer of our sweet content / Made o'ercast winter by these Tudor clouds."

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Directors usually handle Shakespearean soliloquies in three ways: (1) they have actors speak directly to the audience, as they would have on the Elizabethan stage; (2) they have actors speak to the air, as if yammering on cellphones; or (3) they use a voice-over, as if we were wire-tapping the characters' brains.
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Hamlet Film Clips

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TO BE OR NOT TO BE (3.1)


(Image from Roger Ebert's Film Festival website) Kenneth Branagh in his 1996 film.Mel Gibson (following the rest of 3.1) in Franco Zeffirelli's 1985 film.
Ethan Hawke in Michael Almereyda's 2000 film.
Derek Jacobi in a 1980 production directed by Rodney Bennett.Kevin Kline in a 1990 New York Shakespeare Festival production.Laurence Olivier from his 1948 film. (For an analysis of Olivier's performance, click here.)An actor (Alan Mowbray) recites part of the soliloquy with help from Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946).A director (Rowan Atkinson) helps Shakespeare (Hugh Laurie) spruce up the "dodgy" original soliloquy in a sketch from Comic Relief. OPHELIA'S MAD SCENE (4.5) Kate Winslett from the Branagh version: part one , part two.
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