This book examines why and how cinematic representations of the Middle Ages remain a popular, mainstream phenomenon.
Instead of taking the usual approach of focusing on the issue of historical accuracy, this collection explores wider theoretical questions about the ideological, artistic, emotional and financial investments inhering in cinematic renditions of the medieval period. What does it mean to create and watch a ‘medieval film’? What is a medieval film and why are they successful? This is the first work that attempts to answer these questions, drawing, for instance, on film theory, postcolonial theory, cultural studies and the growing body of work on medievalism. Contributors investigate British, German, Italian, Australian, French, Swedish and American film, exploring topics such translation, temporality, film noir, framing and period film – and find the medieval lurking in unexpected corners. In addition it provides in-depth studies of individual films from different countries; these range from The Birth of a Nation to Nosferatu, from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to Kingdom of Heaven. This interdisciplinary collection should become essential reading for all those interested in cinema’s complex relationship to history.
*Medieval film* will be of part interest to medievalists working in a range of disciplines including literature, history, art history; to scholars working on medievalism; as well as to scholars working on film and in cultural studies. This book will also be of interest to undergraduates at all levels, as well as to postgraduates and to an informed lay enthusiast in film or/and medieval culture.
Contents
This engaging new study analyzes cinematic treatments of the Middle Ages within a diverse range of popular and artistic films.
At a time when students have more experience with watching movies than with reading and evaluating literature and history, Cinematic Illuminations harnesses the power of popular culture to make accessible a period that often seems forbidding and remote. From The Seventh Seal and The Lion in Winter to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the authors examine the ways in which the twentieth century has reimagined medieval times. Such analysis brings to life for students the literature, poetry, history, and art of the Middle Ages.
Drawing from current critical approaches to both medieval and film studies, Laurie A. Finke and Martin B. Shichtman focus on two main issues of historical film. First is the inherent tension between the artifice required by film to create historical reality and the accuracy central to claims of history. Second are the ways iconography and filming conventions rewrite our understanding of the historical period portrayed in the film. In this case, the authors ask, how do contemporary representations of the Middle Ages influence cultural fantasies about our own time? Their detailed and accessible readings reveal just how strongly medieval history continues to resonate with modern audiences.
Cinematic Illuminations offers medievalists, literary and cultural theorists, and film theorists and buffs a fresh approach to understanding how popular culture interprets and makes use of the past through the medium of film.
"The authors' nuanced and detailed analysis of an amazing diversity of medieval films... in their political and cultural contexts artfully supports their assertion that medieval films offer us 'a different way of thinking about the past as well as the present.'" -- Susan Aronstein, author of Hollywood Knights: Arthurian Cinema and the Politics of Nostalgia
Laurie A. Finke is a professor of women's and gender studies at Kenyon College. Martin B. Shichtman is a professor of English language and literature at Eastern Michigan University. Professors Finke and Shichtman have collaborated on numerous publications, including King Arthur and the Myth of History and Medieval Texts and Contemporary Readers.
Description
The legends of King Arthur have not only endured for centuries, but also flourished in constant retellings and new stories built around the central themes of the legends. Clearly, soon after movie-making was underway, Arthur was destined to hit the screen.
This revised edition of Cinema Arthuriana presents 20 essays on the topic of the recurring presence of the legend of King Arthur in film and television from 1904 to 2001. Four of the essays included are taken directly from the previous edition, ten are revised from the original, and six are newly written. The essays cover such films as Excalibur (1981), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), television productions up to the televised version of The Mists of Avalon (2001), and French and German films about the Quest for the Holy Grail and the other adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Description
This collection of essays examines the ways in which recent Shakespeare films portray anxieties about an impending global wasteland, technological alienation, spiritual destruction, and the effects of globalization. Films covered include Titus, William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Almereyda’s Hamlet, Revengers Tragedy, Twelfth Night, The Passion of the Christ, Radford’s The Merchant of Venice, The Lion King, and Godard’s King Lear, among others that directly adapt or reference Shakespeare. Essays chart the apocalyptic mise-en-scènes, disorienting imagery, and topsy-turvy plots of these films, using apocalypse as a theoretical and thematic lens.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction: Beginning at the Ends
MELISSA CROTEAU 1
1. The “great doom’s image”: Apocalyptic Trajectories in Contemporary Shakespearean Filmmaking
RAMONA WRAY 29
2. Apocalyptic Paternalism, Family Values, and the War of the Cinemas; or, How Shakespeare Became Posthuman
COURTNEY LEHMANN 47
3. Liberty’s Taken, or How “captive women may be cleansed and used”: Julie Taymor’s Titus and 9/11
KIM FEDDERSON and J. MICHAEL RICHARDSON 70
4. Post-Apocalyptic Spaces in Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
RICHARD VELA 90
5. Celluloid Revelations: Millennial Culture and Dialogic
“Pastiche” in Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000)
MELISSA CROTEAU 110
6. The Revenger’s Tragedy in 2002: Alex Cox’s Punk Apocalypse
GRETCHEN E. MINTON 132
7. The Plague in Filmed Versions of Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night
CARL JAMES GRINDLEY 148
8. The Politics of Apocalypse: Interrogating Conversion in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice
ADRIAN STREETE 166
9. Disney’s “War Efforts”: The Lion King and Education for Death; or, Shakespeare Made Easy for Your Apocalyptic Convenience
ALFREDO MICHEL MODENESSI 181
10. Four Funerals and a Bedding: Freud and the Post-Apocalyptic Apocalypse of Jean-Luc Godard’s King Lear
ANTHONY R. GUNERATNE 197
11. “The Promised End” of Cinema: Portraits of Apocalypse in Post-Millennial Shakespearean Film
CAROLYN JESS-COOKE 216
About the Contributors 229
Index 231
Description
Although William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, he traditionally receives little notice in studies of children’s literature. However, there is a fascinating relationship between Shakespeare and children’s interests, and the Bard’s works have been successfully adapted for children’s use over several centuries.
This book continues and parallels the author’s previous study, Chaucer as Children’s Literature, as part of a greater endeavor to evaluate the significance of traditional literature retold as children’s literature in modern English studies. It examines the ways in which William Shakespeare’s stories have been adapted for children, particularly in Mary and Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, which was almost immediately recognized as a classic of children’s literature when it was first published in 1807. The author describes the significance of the Lamb’s Tales as the pre-eminent children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s literature, focusing particularly on the lavishly illustrated Edwardian editions which used pictures to convey Shakespeare’s stories for children.
Other topics include Victorian alternatives to the Lambs’ stories, including anthologies from David Murray Smith, Abby Sage Richardson, and Mary Seymour; the lavish illustrations of Shakespeare’s stories found in antique English textbooks; Shakespeare in nursery books, including sophisticated collections from Mary Macleod, Thomas Carter, Alice S. Hoffman, and other noted authors; and Shakespeare in multi-volume American collections, including The Children’s Hour, Journeys through Bookland, and The Junior Classics.
Those tales of old—King Arthur, Robin Hood, The Crusades, Marco Polo, Joan of Arc—have been told and retold, and the tradition of their telling has been gloriously upheld by filmmaking from its very inception. From the earliest of Georges Méliès’s films in 1897, to a 1996 animated Hunchback of Notre Dame, film has offered not just fantasy but exploration of these roles so vital to the modern psyche. St. Joan has undergone the transition from peasant girl to self-assured saint, and Camelot has transcended the soundstage to evoke the Kennedys in the White House.
Here is the first comprehensive survey of over 900 cinematic depictions of the European Middle Ages—date of production, country of origin, director, production company, cast, and a synopsis and commentary. A bibliography, index, and over 100 stills complete this remarkable work.
From Errol Flynn to Kevin Costner to Daffy Duck, the bandit of Sherwood Forest has gone through a variety of incarnations on the way to becoming a cinematic staple. The historic Robin Hood—actually an amalgam of several outlaws of medieval England—was eventually transformed into the romantic and deadly archer-swordsman who “robbed from the rich to give to the poor.” This image was reinforced by popular literature, song—and film.
This volume provides in-depth information on each film based on the immortal hero. In addition, other historical figures such as Scottish rebel-outlaws Rob Roy MacGregor and William Wallace are examined. Nollen also explores nontraditional representations of the legend, such as Frank Sinatra’s Robin and the Seven Hoods and Westerns featuring the Robin Hood motif. A filmography is provided, including production information. The text is highlighted by rare photographs, advertisements, and illustrations.
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Part I: Robin Hood in History 5
1. Sad Stories of the Death of Kings (1066–1276) 7
Early Outlaws of England 10
The End of Norman Rule 13
Richard the Lionheart 13
King John 18
Robert Hod, Outlaw, and Other Rebels 19
2. Was Robin Hood a Scot? (1066–1329) 22
The Hammer of the Scots 23
Sir William Wallace 26
Robert the Bruce, King of Scots 36
Wallace, Bruce and Robin Hood 41
3. English Rebels and Hoods (1322–1450) 46
Part II: Robin Hood in Story and Song 51
4. From Minstrel’s Yeoman to Playwright’s Aristocrat (1400–1700) 53
5. Robin Returns to Scotland (1671–1734) 59
The Making of an Outlaw 63
6. Storybook Outlaws (1771–1900) 73
Fascination with Tradition 74
The Scottish Chiefs 75
Rob Roy 76
Ivanhoe 78
Part III: Robin Hood on the Screena 85
7. Shadows of Sherwood: Early Silent Films (1908–1913) 87
8. No Heavy Footed Englishman: Robin Hood (1922) 89
9. Fluent Treason: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) 99
10. A Round of Robins: Variations on the Legend (1946–1954) 121
Ivanhoe 123
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men 128
Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue 133
11. Low-Budget Brigands: The Hammer Hoods (1957–1973) 138
12. The Chairman of the Board as the Prince of Thieves: Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964) 147
13. The Revised Robin: Robin and Marian (1976) 157
14. Beverly Hills or Barnesdale? (1991) 169
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 170
Robin Hood 180
Robin Hood: Men in Tights 185
15. Robin’s Caledonian Renaissance (1995) 188
Rob Roy 188
Braveheart 201
16. Wither the Greenwood? 219
Appendix A: Films About the English Robin Hood 223
Appendix B: Films About the “Scottish Robin Hoods” 235
Appendix C: Robin Hood Westerns 241
Chapter Notes 243
Bibliography 249
Index 253
Description
The Arthurian legends are a crucial part of Western culture. With their enduring themes, archetypal characters, and complex plots, it is not surprising that the stories of Camelot should find their way into films and television programs.
From the moody (Excalibur) to the looney (“Knighty Knight Bugs”), more than 250 entries give complete credits, synopses, and analyses. Included are works based solely on Arthur and his literary origins and works that feature other figures, like Galahad, Percival, and the operatic favorites Tristan and Isolde. Also included are animated films, parodies like Monty Python’s, films like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Arthurian themes, and television series with Arthurian episodes such as Babylon 5 and MacGyver. Operatic and dramatic works recorded for film and television (like Camelot) are also covered. Appendices, bibliography and index.
