This book is about the making of movie dreams from Shakespeare's plays, the processes by which filmmakers conduct the two-way traffic between dreaming and what we take for reality. It draws more extensively than previous studies of the films in question on draft scripts and other archival sources. It also assesses the significance of the works for their makers (both corporate and individual) and the audiences of their own time. Specific scenes and sequences are discussed in detail, together with particular aspects of the ‘world’ created in each film which help to define the vision it imparts of the play, of Shakespeare and of the cinema itself.

The organisation is partly chronological: the book begins with the 1935 A Midsummer Night's Dream, followed by Laurence Olivier's 1944 Henry V; then the final chapter brings together three Romeo and Juliet films, from 1936, 1954 and 1968, grouped together because they offer distinctive versions – and visions – of Renaissance Italy, and because on the basis of the same dramatic text they also articulate different notions of what constitutes a ‘Shakespeare Film’. Three of the films – A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V and Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet – have influenced subsequent versions, inspiring either emulation or avoidance of their approaches and methods. Traces of Max Reinhardt's Dream can be found in Michael Hoffmann's 1999 version, and Kenneth Branagh's 1989 Henry V is in some ways a respectful dialogue with its predecessor.