Hamlet on Film

A trip to a local second-hand store landed another addition to my Hamlet collection.  This time it was a book by Maurice Hindle entitled, Studying Shakespeare on Film (NY:  Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).  While not strictly about Hamlet, it was an interesting read and provided material for future searches and posts.

A quotation in the book's introduction certainly rings true with my many Hamlet discoveries.

"Translation is an inexact art, carrying responsibilities to respect the author's ends, even as you wilfully [sic] tamper with the means" (xv).

On stage, in print, and especially in film, Shakespeare's work becomes a metaphorical piece of clay.  It is molded by the director or the author and, while it remains a piece of clay, it can be much changed in shape from its original appearance.  This was readily apparent in two of the films that I have seen and have described in previous posts:  Zeffirelli's Hamlet (see 9/14/14) and Gade's Hamlet, The Drama of Vengeance (see 10/19/14).

Hindle's book, useful as a text for a college course on Shakespeare, describes several productions of Hamlet in varying degrees of depth.  (They are identified below by director.)

• Svend Gade
• Laurence Olivier
• Grigori Kozintsev
• Tony Richardson
• Franco Zeffirelli
• Kenneth Branagh
• Michael Almereyda
• Rodney Bennett (BBC-TV)
• Peter Brook (BBC4, 2001)

He includes separate "Critical Essays" for Olivier, Branagh and Almereyda.  Additionally, he references two versions that he must omit for space considerations:  Celestino Coronado's Hamlet and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be.

Hindle's book provides a suitable companion for Hamlet viewing.  Now to find some of the versions he mentions...and the time to watch them!