STRATFORD ON HOUSTON, a nine-day, 11-film festival of classic Shakespeare screen adaptations commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, will run at Film Forum from Wednesday, January 13 through Thursday, January 21.

Following a twelve-day run of Orson Welles’ long-unavailable masterpiece Chimes at Midnight (January 1-12; see earlier press release), the series kicks off on Wednesday, January 13 with two of Welles’ earlier Shakespeare adaptations: his original director’s cut of Macbeth, or the so-called “Scottish version,” with the actors speaking the lines with thick Scottish accents (later drastically cut and dubbed into “American” for general release), and his magnificent Othello, winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes – with Welles starring in the title role of both films.

The series includes three of the great Shakespeare adapations directed by and starring Laurence Olivier: his multi-Oscar-winning (Best Picture, Actor, Art Direction, Costumes) Hamlet; the wartime Technicolor tour-de-force Henry V; and a ravishing new 4K color restoration of Richard III, co-starring Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, and Claire Bloom.

STRATFORD ON HOUSTON also includes Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey as the ill-fated couple (perhaps the first actors of the correct age to play them), the most commercially successful Shakespearean movie adaptation ever; Zeffirelli’s underrated Taming of the Shrew, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor; Throne of Blood, Macbeth transposed by Akira Kurosawa to medieval Japan, starring the great Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada (as “Lady Macbeth”); Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ Julius Caesar, with Marlon Brando as Marc Antony and an all-star cast inlcuding James Mason and Deborah Kerr; and a 4K restoration of Roman Polanski’s own adaptation of Macbeth, produced by Hugh Hefner and notable for its prodigious use of sex and violence. The series also includes a new restoration of Forbidden Planet, Shakespeare’s The Tempest in outer space, starring Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, and “Robby the Robot.”

Public Screening Schedule (all separate admissions)

JANUARY 13 WED
OTHELLO (1952, Orson Welles) DCP
Orson Welles, Micheál MacLiammóir, Suzanne Cloutier
12:30, 4:40, 9:15

MACBETH (1948, Orson Welles) 35mm
“Scottish Version” (longer director’s cut)
Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan
Courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive
2:30, 7:00

JANUARY 14 THURS
HAMLET (1948, Laurence Olivier) DCP restoration
Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Eileen Herlie
1:00, 4:00, 7:00

JANUARY 15 FRI
RICHARD III (1955, Laurence Olivier) 4K DCP restoration
Laurence Olivier, Cedric Hardwicke, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Claire Bloom
1:00, 4:00, 7:00

JANUARY 16 SAT
RICHARD III (1955, Laurence Olivier) 4K DCP restoration
1:00, 4:00, 7:00

FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956, Fred McLeod Wilcox) DCP restoration
Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, “Robby the Robot”
10:00

JANUARY 17 SUN
FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956, Fred McLeod Wilcox) DCP
11:00 AM*
*Part of our Film Forum Jr. Series; all seats $8.00

ROMEO AND JULIET (1968, Franco Zeffirelli) archival 35mm print
Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, Michael York
1:20, 4:00, 7:00

JANUARY 18 MON
ROMEO AND JULIET (1968, Franco Zeffirelli) archival 35mm print
12:30

THRONE OF BLOOD (1957, Akira Kurosawa) 35mm
Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada
3:10, 5:20, 7:30. 9:40

JANUARY 19 TUE
HENRY V (1945, Laurence Olivier) DCP restoration
Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks
1:00, 3:40, 7:00, 9:45

JANUARY 20 WED
JULIUS CAESAR (1953, Joseph L. Maniewicz) 35mm
Marlon Brando. James Mason, Deborah Kerr, John Gielgud, Lous Calhern
12:30, 5:10, 9:50

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1967, Franco Zeffirelli) DCP restoration
Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton
2:50, 7:30

JANUARY 21 THU
MACBETH (1972, Roman Polanski) 4K DCP restoration
Jon Finch, Francesca Annis
1:00, 3:40 7:00, 9:40

For more information about showtimes, visit www.filmforum.org