Shakespeare, Film and Media
This MIT OpenCourseWare course traces Shakespeare on screen from Herbert Beerbohm Tree's 1899 filmed death scene from King John through Olivier, Welles, Kurosawa, Zeffirelli, and Branagh, up to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet and Shakespeare in Love. Students perform close analysis of specific film sequences using video annotation tools developed by the MIT Shakespeare Project, working alongside the Shakespeare Electronic Archive. Discussion covers adaptation, authorship, the idea of a classic text and its variant forms, and how a story migrates across manuscript, stage, and digital media. Class sessions run as structured discussion with student presentations and short instructor lectures, and coursework includes multimedia annotations, prepared film clips, and conventional essays rather than exams. Materials include the full syllabus, film list, and assignment descriptions, free to access through MIT OpenCourseWare with no certificate offered.