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A Book History Study of Michael Radford’s Filmic Production William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS of RHODES UNIVERSITY by BRYONY ROSE HUMPHRIES GREEN March 2008 ABSTRACT Falling within the ambit of the Department of English Literature but with interdisciplinary scope and method, the research undertaken in this thesis examines Michael Radford’s 2004 film production William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice using the Book History approach to textual study. Previously applied almost exclusively to the study of books, Book History examines the text in terms of both its medium and its content, bringing together bibliographical, literary and historical approaches to the study of books within one theoretical paradigm. My research extends this interdisciplinary approach into the filmic medium by using a modified version of Robert Darnton’s “communication circuit” to examine the process of transmission of this Shakespearean film adaptation from creation to reception. The research is not intended as a complete Book History study and even less as a comprehensive investigation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice . Rather, it uses a Shakespearean case study to bring together the two previously discrete fields of Book History and filmic investigation. Drawing on film studies, literary concepts, cultural and media studies, modern management theory as well as reception theories and with the use of both quantitative and qualitative data, I show Book History to be an eminently useful and constructive approach to the study of film. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank the Mandela Rhodes Foundation for the funding that allowed me to undertake a Master’s degree. To my wonderful friends Paul, Kate, Janet and Janice, I am forever grateful. Your support was above and beyond the call of duty. And to Dave, without whom both this research and my life would be greatly impoverished. iii DECLARATION This Master of Arts thesis consists entirely of my own work, and acknowledgement is given in the references wherever information is derived from another source. No part of this work has been or is being concurrently submitted for another qualification at another university. SIGNED....................................... DATE: 15 March 2008 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii DECLARATION ........................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ v ILLUSTRATION INDEX ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. INDEX OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: What is Book History? .................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2: The Book History Study of Filmic Texts .................................................................... 25 Chapter 3: The Merchant of Venice : The Filmic Text .................................................................. 38 Chapter 4: Authorship, Adaptation and Authority in The Merchant of Venice ............................ 54 Chapter 5: Production of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice .................................. 68 Chapter 6: The Distribution of The Merchant of Venice .............................................................. 86 Chapter 7: Reception: The Merchant of Venice and the Viewer ................................................ 101 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 116 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 121 Filmography ................................................................................................................................ 131 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 134 v ILLUSTRATION INDEX Figure 1.1: Darnton’s Communication Circuit ............................................................................. 19 Figure 2.1: Filmic Communication Circuit ................................................................................... 33 Figure 4.1: Filmic Communication Circuit – Authorship ............................................................. 55 Figure 5.1: Communication Circuit - Production ......................................................................... 69 Figure 5.2: Production Costs ........................................................................................................ 81 Figure 6.1: Filmic Communication Circuit - Distribution ............................................................ 87 Figure 6.2: Number of film distributors according to IMDB (2007) ............................................ 91 Figure 6.3: Number of Screens ..................................................................................................... 93 Figure 6.4: Length of screening period ......................................................................................... 94 Figure 7.1: Filmic Communication Circuit - Reception ............................................................. 103 Figure 7.2: Number of viewers by age on IMDB.com ............................................................... 108 Figure 7.3: Merchant of Venice viewer rankings by age on IMDB.com ................................... 109 Figure 7.4: Total votes per ranking on IMBD.com .................................................................... 109 Figure 7.5: Average movie ranking of compared films .............................................................. 110 Figure 7.6: Weekly Revenue and ranking of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice . 112 Figure 7.7: Revenues obtained at the Box Office ....................................................................... 113 Figure 7.8: Source of the Merchant of Venice's film revenues................................................... 114 vi INDEX OF TABLES Table Introduction.1: Comparative films………………………………………………………….5 Table 5.1: Filmic Productions of The Merchant of Venice ........................................................... 71 Table 5.2: Comparative films ....................................................................................................... 80 Table 5.3: William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice Production Companies ................... 82 Table 6.1: Comparative films ....................................................................................................... 89 Table 6.2: Distribution Companies for William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice ............ 90 Table 7.1: Table of awards won by William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice ............... 105 vii INTRODUCTION There has never been a major feature film of The Merchant of Venice and given the sensitivity of the play’s subject matter, it is very unlikely that one will ever be made. ─ Charles Edelman (2002, 86) Contrary to Edelman’s assertion above, William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice , written in 1596, has been the subject of several films since the emergence of cinema. The first was a silent film by Lois Weber (1914), and since then there have been at least seven different film adaptations of The Merchant of Venice, the most recent being Michael Radford’s production (2004).1 While the mainstream status of the earlier films can be questioned in terms of their intended recipients, this latter production is undoubtedly a major feature film intended for the wider film-viewing public. Radford’s film, William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice , forms the subject for the larger project of this thesis, which involves exploring the possibilities that Book History 2 theory and methodology provide for the study of film and other ‘non-book’ texts. It is important to distinguish the mode of investigation used to study Radford’s production in this thesis from the multitude of other approaches, commentaries, literary critiques, and filmic interrogations of The Merchant of Venice . The different methodologies of these prior studies have raised important questions concerning the translation of the play into film and the presentation of the film itself. Some of the questions raised include the differences between filmed and staged Shakespeare, the benefits which the institutions of both Shakespeare and cinema gain from film and what it means to author a filmic text. Further concerns arise with regards to the extent to which Radford’s 2004 film William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice represents Shakespeare’s vision of the play on the one hand, and that of the director, actors and other agents involved in its production on the other. Additional issues to be interrogated include the depiction of the