No, Kenneth Branagh isn’t only the Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Chris Columbus, 2002), he is also a great director… Especially when he adapts William Shakespeare!
During his career, Kenneth Branagh adapted five plays written by the famous playwright, beginning with Henry V in 1989, and followed by Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000) and As You Like It (2007). He can be considered as the greatest admirer of the playwright…
If the first three adaptations was enormous success all other the world, it isn’t the case for the others. The director wanted to modernize Shakespeare, but it was a fiasco, especially for the film directed by in 2000 (he turns into a romantic Hollywood musical). But the others productions have the merit to be predominant adaptations of playwright’s work, with many distinctions and nominations for an award.
Furthermore, we can find him in Othello, an adaptation directed by Oliver Parker in 1995 with Laurence Fishburne. Kenneth Branagh embodies Iago…
Kenneth Branagh during the filming of Hamlet (1996)
Yes Kenneth Branagh is definitely a very good director !
I don’t know the director, he is interesting.
Oh ! Branagh is a great director about adaptation of William Shakespeare ?! I tought he was only an actor… Thank you !
Kenneth Branagh is like a multitask man ! I know he’s an actor since I saw Frankenstein in class, last year, but I didn’t knew that he was a director too ! He directed one of the movie of the franchise I love (Marvel studio), Thor ! And I know that he directed recently an adaptation of Cinderella !