Re my post on the podcast with Jake Murray, thinking of Shakespeare film adaptations - have just come across the copy of my Talk, 'Shakespeare and Cultural Mutability: Kurosawa and Kozintsev.' It was for a conference we organised with film historian Luke McKernan to celebrate his sterling work on the restoration of the silent film of 'Hamlet', with a special screening of the film with workshops and seminars.
I have always believed that performance by actors with directors of the plays is really important for academic study of Shakespeare. Self-evident, you would think. But not really the case when I was teaching. Things have got better since.
By the way, Kurosawa's 'The Bad Sleep Well', loosely inspired by 'Hamlet', and the play's themes of corruption, make it a film that could be about corporation corruption in the UK today.


Shakespeare Film Adaptations: Here's the Russian director's masterpiece. Shostakovich's music is extraordinary too.
https://youtu.be/OzN1isLYc_A
Cast Hamlet — Innokenty Smoktunovsky Claudius — Mikhail Nazvanov Gertrude — Elza Radziņa Polonius — Yuri Tolubeyev Laertes — Stepan Oleksenko Ophelia — Anastasiya Vertinskaya Horatio — Vladimir Erenberg Rosencrantz — Igor Dmitriev Guildenstern — Vadim Medvedev Fortinbras — Aadu Krevald