Crossdressing, bawdy puns, and declarations of love addressed to members of same sex: Shakespeares oeuvre turns out to be astonishingly queer. But how about film adapatations of Shakespeare’s works? How does mainstream cinema deal with such ‘salacious’ originals? And which texts have proven particularly popular with queer filmmakers? This talk on Queer Shakespeare outlines important trends from the silent era to today: from female Hamlets and the homosexual gaze to well-read asylum seekers.