Brand Shakespeare

In this chapter, the reader will be shown some films that use recent history as a setting, adding a further layer of meaning to the story from the cultural resonances associated with that historical past. Using Ralph Fiennes’ film of Coriolanus which made comparison to the Balkan wars of the 1990s and Richard Loncraine’s film of Richard III which uses as its backdrop a version of Nazi Germany, the reader will be encouraged to observe how those settings render the play more relevant to our own time, despite the early modern language. There is also a consideration of the cultural coin of Shakespeare, how his works are so well-known that Shakespeare is recognisable as a distinctive brand. There follows a discussion of the film that exploits this, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet which deploys modern marketing techniques such as camera effects reminiscent of the music video and the visual shorthand of advertising to tell the story of the play.