Shakespeare in Transformation: History and Imagination Intertwined in All Is True

This chapter adopts a combination of historical, biographical, and Film Studies—drawing upon André Bazin’s theories of realism and the study of cinematic techniques—to investigate the 2019 film All Is True, directed by Kenneth Branagh and recently made available via Netflix. The film centers on the later years of William Shakespeare’s life, imagining his return to Stratford-upon-Avon after the destruction of the Globe Theatre in London by fire. This film intertwines fictional imagination with historical biography, reconstructing a narrative that goes beyond mere documentation. The title All Is True refers not to the printed title of the play Henry VIII in the 1623 First Folio, but to the play’s original title when it was performed at the Globe Theatre on June 29, 1613. That performance famously ended in disaster when a stage cannon ignited the thatched roof, a historical event that serves as the opening scene of the film. The central fictional narrative of the film revolves around Shakespeare’s profound grief over the death of his only son, Hamnet, who died at the age of eleven in 1596. Upon Shakespeare’s return home in 1613, he is depicted as consumed by this loss, dedicating himself to building a garden in his son’s memory. In one of the film’s poignant moments, Anne Hathaway (portrayed by Judi Dench) confronts Shakespeare (played by Branagh) with the bitter truth: during Hamnet’s death and the period of mourning, Shakespeare had not been with his family but had remained in London writing not a tragedy, but the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. The film thus raises questions of paternal absence, emotional repression, and male ego, subtly suggesting—without dramatizing—the possibility of extramarital affairs in London, a theme elaborated in John Mortimer’s 1978 television series Will Shakespeare (especially Episode 4). However, All Is True refrains from presenting Shakespeare’s rumored sexual liaisons with the so-called Dark Lady. Instead, its tone and narrative structure bear greater resemblance to the BBC television comedy Upstart Crow, as both were written by Ben Elton. One of the film’s most compelling scenes is the imagined encounter between Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton (played by Sir Ian McKellen), often thought to be the “Fair Youth” of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Their dialogue includes a mutual recitation of Sonnet 29, a poetic exchange that transforms a private mystery into a cinematic meditation on artistic glory of the talent and emotional redemption. This chapter argues that historical documentation alone cannot capture the full dimensions of Shakespeare’s later life. It is only through imaginative reconstruction that we can explore his family relationships, his gendered ego from the feminist lens, and the emotional terrain of retirement and return to Stratford, which are areas largely undocumented by historical sources. Ultimately, All Is True invites us to ask: is everything presented in the film truly “true”? Or is this title, like much of Shakespeare’s legacy today, an open-ended reflection of ongoing transformation and intertextual reinvention? In an era where Shakespeare himself is constantly being reinterpreted across media and cultures, this film becomes a focal point for understanding how history, imagination, and identity converge in modern Shakespearean representation.