Explores the overlapping, hotly disputed borderlands of literature, theater and film. Concerned with the creative possibilities of rendering Shakespeare on film, the book studies the rich interpretations of Shakespeare by such major directors as Orson Welles, Roman Polanski, Peter Brook, Franco Zeffirelli, the famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, and one of Russia's greatest filmmakers, Grigori Kozintsev. It provides a detailed analyses of sixteen major films, illuminating the relations between Renaissance visions and modern re-visions, the parallels of poetic and cinematic imagery, and the quests of directors for significant cinematic style. Dramatically illustrated by over one hundred film photographs. Originally published by Indiana University Press in 1977.