One just has to see the Shakespeare references not only foreign movies but even something as so remote as anime and manga (where even genres not intended for more mature audiences such as superhero action stories will quote Shakespeare line or even have a special episode or chapter featuring a Romeo and Juliet play).
So it begs the questions of why evens something so far away from Shakespeare like soap opera animated shows aimed at teen girls in Japan and martial arts action flicks in China would feature some reference to Shakespeare like a play in the background of a scene or a French language drama movie having the lead actor studying Shakespeare despite going to Institut Catholique de Paris because he's taking a class on literature.
One poster from Turkey in another subreddit even says Shakespearean plays are no only done in the country bu you'll come across William Shakespeare n name as you take more advanced classes is just another example.
Going by what other people on reddit says, it seems most countries still surviving live theatre traditions is primarily Opera and old classical playwrights are very niche even within the national high art subculture.
So I'd have to ask why William and indeed British live theatre traditions seem to be the most famous in the world s well s the most respected? I mean you don't have French playwrights getting their stuff acted out in say Brazil. Yet Brazilian universities have Shakespeare as a standard part in addition to local authors and those from the former Colonial master Portugal. People across Europe go to British universities to learn acting and some countries even hire British coaches for aid.
So I really do wonder why no non-English speaking country outside of France, Germany, and Italy ever got the wide international appeal and general prestige as Britain in stage plays. Even for the aforementioned countries, they are primarily known for Operas rather than strictly live theatre and n actual strictly playright has become as universally known across much of humanity and the world as Shakespeare.
How did William and the UK in general (and if we add on, the English speaking world) become the face of live theatre to measure by?
So I'd have to ask why William and indeed British live theatre traditions seem to be the most famous in the world s well s the most respected?
It's all about the Anglo-American hegemony, not a lack of talent. Back in the XVI century, the absolute go-to references for any cultured person were Italian authors like Lodovico Ariosto, whose influence spanned throughout Europe. As a matter of fact, as of recently I have been doing some research on Spanish author Jerónimo de Huerta, who wrote in 1587 a book titled Florando de Castilla, Lauro de caballeros, which is a perfect imitation of Ariosto's style.
In the XVII century, the world's superpower was Spain, no question about that, so Spain's culture became fashionable and influenced authors in Portugal, Italy, France, and England. In the matters of theatre, Spain was Broadway back in those days. During the Spanish Golden Age, about 12,000 theatrical pieces were written and performed, which roughly means that each week there was a new play being premiered somewhere on the Spanish geography. Talents were not scarce, either: Lope de Vega himself wrote somewhere between 600 and 650 comedies and tragedies (also a few novels, 3,000 sonnets, a manual on dramatic art, and somhow had time to sire 14 sons with 6 different women), Luis Vélez de Guevara some 300, Andrés de Claramonte about 200, Pedro Calderón de la Barca about 120 plays, entremeses, and autos.
Come the XVIII century, and Spain is not fashionable anymore, everyone wants to be French. French arts, literature, customs, and manners become the norm, and that is, of course, during a time when France was the world's leading superpower. This political hegemony led as well to a cultural hegemony, which is natural, everyone wants to imitate the succesful guy: it had happened earlier with Spain, and would happen later with Great Britain. Curiously, it is the French XVIII century that made Shakespeare relevant. Before Voltaire commented that Shakespeare was a really good playwright, the Bard from Stratford had had exactly 0 cultural influence in Europe, unlike Molière, Lope, Calderón, or Claramonte.
The XIX century is Great Britain's century: the industrial revolution, the great expansion of the empire, naval supremacy, the lot. And this, as we have previously seen with France and Spain, meant that people would imitate everything British, including fashion and culture. This is also the time of Romanticism, which led to a recovery of old and popular traditions, and of authors from the past including an entire movement of Shakespearean revival.
British theatre has Shakespeare as the golden standard. The English-speaking America does too. When Great Britain's time passed as world's prime power, the torch passed to another English speaking country: the United States of America. Sharing a language also means sharing a literary past, and so Shakespeare became the gold standard for American dramatic arts, both in theatre and in film.