ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a comparatively new form of 'diversion': the movies. It examines Al Pacino's 1996 film looking for Richard, ostensibly a documentary recounting the actor's attempts to research, produce and perform Richard III. The chapter discusses certain 'national' anxieties pertaining to Shakespeare studies and performance. The first of author sporting instances has little to do with literature and drama, medieval or modern, but it will offer a useful framework. The chapter provides a paradigm for understanding the anxiety that seems to attend a composite Anglo-American Shakespeare. Shakespeare offered the ideal source material for aspirant film-makers - both because many of his plays were so well known that plot and characterisation could easily be conveyed in a short time without using the spoken word, and because there were no copyright restrictions. Shakespeare on film as a specifically Anglo-American phenomenon arguably reached its apex in the 1998 blockbuster Shakespeare in Love.
