Summary: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London's faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599, Romeo and Juliet is arguably the best-loved of all love stories in Western literature. The play's masterful combination of lyricism, suspense, and dramatic changes of mood is dramatized by an...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: As You Like It runs the glorious gamut of pastoral romance: disguises and love notes, poetry and brilliant conversation, gentle satire and full-on slapstick, and running throughout it all, passion! This staging-performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London's faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599-spotlights Naomi Frederick, Jack Laskey, Laura Rogers, Jamie Parker, and...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: Philip Cumbus is the King of Navarre and Michelle Terry is the Princess of France in this performance of Love's Labour's Lost at Shakespeare's Globe, London's faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599. True to the play's original Renaissance staging and costume, this production is a festive parade of every weapon in the youthful Shakespeare's comic arsenal-excruciating...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: Thomas More's Utopia, one of the most significant texts of English humanism, has become the ideal for a society based on fundamental human principles of fairness and justice. This program follows the progress of More's intellectual development, from his early friendship with the influential humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, to his rise to power as a member of Parliament and later Chancellor of...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Men playing the stage roles of women is as old as the history of theater; in the tradition of Kabuki, the portrayal of female characters has become a tradition of its own. This program looks at the history of Kabuki and the role of women, and looks particularly at the dynastic development of the onnagata-the female impersonator-and the intricate techniques and details by which a thoroughly...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Targoff, Ramie

Summary: "A remarkable work about women writers in the Renaissance explodes our notion of the Shakespearean period and brings us in close to four women who were committed to their craft before there was any possibility of "a room of one's own." In a sparkling and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespearean England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the...

Format: text

Publisher / Publication Date: Alfred A. Knopf 2024

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Summary: Featuring film clips, reenactments, and dramatizations, this program examines the imperishable spirit of Don Quijote through the life of Cervantes and the literary masterpiece that bears Quijote's name. Topics range from the place of Don Quijote in world literature and its influence on later writers, to autobiographical parallels between Quijote and Cervantes, to the universal qualities of...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: Although he lived only 34 years, Gustavo Becquer is largely responsible for leading Spanish poetry toward the Modernist era. This program details his life and artistic journey, from his birth into impoverished nobility to his death in obscurity-and his posthumous fame as Spain's greatest post-Romantic poet. Outlining the author's education, friendships, and failed loves, the video focuses on...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: With compelling dramatizations filmed at authentic Spanish locations, this program explores the farcical structure of Don Quixote as well as the parallels between Cervantes' magnum opus and his own unusual life. Studying the richness of meaning and moral commentary associated with the would-be knight-errant, the program highlights the universality of Cervantes' narrative-while evoking contrasts...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008

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Summary: Combining beautiful location footage with original manuscripts, paintings, letters, readings, and scenes from selected performances, this program presents the life and works of Lope de Vega, the prolific playwright who single-handedly crafted a national drama for Spain.

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: I think, therefore I am. Rationalist philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes, considered the father of modern philosophy, held this as self-evidently true. In this program, world-renowned author and professor Bryan Magee and Bernard Williams of Kings College examine Descartes's theory of knowledge and his use of skeptical inquiry to affirm reality, including the existence of God....

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: The ideas of rationalist philosophers Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz are examined in this program by world-renowned author and professor Bryan Magee and philosopher Anthony Quinton. Spinoza favors a pantheistic God who has matter and mind as two attributes, and who is the ultimate substance and explanation of the world. Leibniz sees the real world as consisting of an infinity of things...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: In the ancient Malian city of Timbuktu, thousands of scientific and religious texts-among Africa's oldest literature-have been hidden for centuries. This program examines the rich history and variety of Timbuktu's lost libraries and shows how they have recently garnered the world's attention. Viewers meet local scholars, as well as experts from across Africa and the Western world, who elucidate...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009

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Summary: Compelling dramatizations of key scenes from Shakespeare's tragedy are analyzed by two noted Shakespearean experts-Stanley Wells and Russell Jackson of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. Themes and topics include the motives of Lago, and whether his evil is as complete as most commentators suggest; Victorian objections to the interracial relationship between Othello and Desdemona;...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: While King Lear has again and again been described as Shakespeare's greatest work-the tragedy in which he exhibits most fully his multitude of literary powers-it is the least read, and for many, the most difficult to analyze. In this program, key scenes are dramatized. Noted Shakespearean experts, Professors Robert Smallwood and Stanley Wells, take on the task of examining Lear's enigmatic...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008

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Summary: This program artfully brings together a treasury of visual resources to retrace Shakespeare's life and work. Included are the landmarks of Elizabethan London associated with his plays; depictions of the structure and operations of the Globe Theatre (including scenes from Laurence Olivier's Henry V); historical sources of the plays in art and architecture surviving today; theatrical traditions...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007

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Summary: Long considered the world’s greatest writer, Shakespeare the man all but eludes biographers, leading some scholars to doubt they are one and the same. Filmed at salient locations around England, this program explores the four main theories of the Bard’s true identity. Professor Stanley Wells of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust defends Shakespeare’s authorship. Francis Carr and Mark Rylance,...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: This condensed adaptation of Macbeth, performed by experienced Shakespearean actors of the innovative Big Adventures Theatre Company, uses the Bard's own immortal words to tell the story of Duncan King, head of King Enterprises, and his scheming employee, Macbeth, recently awarded the coveted Cawdor contract. After Macbeth's fateful meeting with three saucy witches-not on the heath, but at the...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: Winner of five Academy Awards, the International Grand Prix of Venice, the New York Film Critic's Award, and the Parents Magazine Award for Extraordinary Merit, Olivier's Hamlet is no doubt the premier teaching tool for Shakespeare classes-Olivier's breadth of view of both the protagonist and the entire play will be enjoyed again and again by the teacher, while making the text comprehensible...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006

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Summary: A brilliant video release and a particularly effective version for study of the play, with Laurence Harvey as Romeo and Susan Shentall as Juliet, with an unforgettable Flora Robson as the Nurse.

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008

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Summary: This program tells the story of Shakespeare and his works. Featuring delightful dramatized extracts from some of Shakespeare's best-known plays, the program also includes memorable depictions of life in Elizabethan times. The program also features expert commentary and critical analysis by Stanley Wells, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, and Robert Smallwood, Deputy Director of the...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009

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Summary: In this program Trevor Nunn probes the underlying dynamics of the play. He examines the psychological dynamics of Hamlet, the oedipal conflict and Hamlet's madness, feigned or real. Nunn also explores the political questions that are raised in the play. The viewer learns that Hamlet is the most coveted of all performances in the classical repertoire, because, as Nunn says, "To act Hamlet...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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Summary: Shakespeare's troubled character comes to life in this program in the capable hands of leading scholars, as they discuss the major themes of the play, its plot, and the actions of its main characters. Analyzing key scenes, scholars Russell Jackson and Stanley Wells of Stratford-upon-Avon offer insights into the underlying meaning of Hamlet's eloquent soliloquies, as well as the play's eight...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005

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Summary: Called "the greatest Hamlet of his generation" by Guardian reviewer Robert McCrum, Scottish actor David Tennant headlines this edgy film version of the acclaimed 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company stage production. Tennant is supported by a host of gifted players-including the impeccable Patrick Stewart as Claudius and Oliver Ford Davies in an astonishing performance as a doddering yet strangely...

Format: software, multimedia

Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010

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