Country France Cast Georges Méliès | Starring Georges Méliès Release date October 1907 (1907-10) Initial release November 1907 | |
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Shakespeare Writing "Julius Caesar" (French: La Mort de Jules César (Shakespeare)), also known as La Rêve de Shakespeare, is a 1907 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès.
Contents
Production
Méliès himself plays Shakespeare in the film. The film was his last cinematic work derived from the plays of William Shakespeare; earlier in the same year, Méliès had filmed a film adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Release and reception
Shakespeare Writing "Julius Caesar" was released by Méliès's Star Film Company, and is numbered 995–999 in its catalogues. It was registered for American copyright at the Library of Congress on 25 October 1907. The film is currently presumed lost.
The film scholar Robert Hamilton Ball, in his study of Shakespearean silent films, calls the film "a pleasant little scenario", but comments that the film's concluding tableau, strongly reminiscent of Méliès's work as a magician, "unfortunately shows … the need for a transformation, however inappropriate." In an article on Shakespearean cinema, Anthony Guneratne mentions the film, highlighting that by "showing the poet struggling to dramatize difficult material," Méliès created "a special-effects-dominated precursor of Shakespeare in Love".
The historian Deborah Cartmell comments: "It's not hard to speculate that Méliès's decision to play the part of the playwright is an implicit assertion that the filmmaker is 'the new Shakespeare,' but, as the film is no longer available, it is impossible to know how far this can be taken."