Shakespeare from the House of Molière: The Comédie-Française/Pathé Live Roméo et Juliette (2016)

Abstract

This chapter analyses the broadcast of Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet) that launched the Comédie-Française's collaboration with Pathé Live to bring three of the theatre's shows to cinema screens in Francophone regions. I argue that the company's approach to broadcasting is typical of French cultural exceptionalism, as cinema broadcasts in France draw on their own traditions of television broadcasting and their own training methods to produce an experience that is distinctive and in tune with the production's own mixture of traditional declamatory performance styles and performers at ease with direct address to the audience, both in the Salle Richelieu and cinemas.