HOW SHAKESPEARE WROTE FOR MOVIES. On the whole, I watch a movie or a play for the story. I think most members of my generation do. In contrast, I have met members of what I guess would be called the millenial generation who think of movies as entirely a visual experience, which can result in their liking movies which have thin or weak scripts.
Professor Greenblatt takes note that his current students are stronger in analyzing film clips or performing scenes. He also notes how good they are at finding “the strange ways that Shakespeare’s scenes flow one into another or the cunning alternation of close-ups and long views”. The flow of scenes and the choice of close ups and camera angles are the responsibility of film editors and directors. As I think about Shakespeare’s plays in the theater these are things that Shakespeare was remarkably good at some 300 years before the age of movies.