When I was 16, I wrote a short play titled The Deconstruction of Hamlet for my high school English class. The play consisted of dialogue forms that quoted out of context from Shakespeare’s plays and were all mutually contradictory. Perhaps it wasn’t as wise as I thought at the time, but for me it was an early sign of the infinite adaptability of the Danish tragedy, a virtue that the film industry has amply seized upon over the past century or so. This became the evidence. Even with that in mind, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s seminal documentary Grand Theft Hamlet, which opens in theaters next month (and on movie theaters early next year), The issue goes even further than the original work itself, considering the production of lockdown theater within the online digital realm. Grand Theft Auto has emerged as a strangely moving testament to the shared comfort of both gaming and performance.
“Hamlet” has been on hiatus for a while due to frequent filming. The last major “straight” version to hit the screen was Michael Almereyda’s 2000 version (Apple TV+), in which the gruff Ethan Hawke played a procrastinating prince seeking revenge on his elders. . Shiny Y2K styles abound in interpretations of modern dresses, now almost period pieces that capture what looked cool at the turn of the century. “Hawk” is quite good, but it’s definitely an effort, and director Akira Kurosawa has already made Hamlet a criticism of corporate corruption by making Claudius the CEO of “Denmark Inc.” The messy, spiraling 1960 neo-film was better. -Noir The Bad Sleep Well (BFI Player).
Perhaps if Shakespeare’s Prince had been taught Hakuna Matata, things might have turned out better for him
Almereyda’s film capped off a busy decade for Hamlet in movie theaters and a veritable heyday for VHS players for English teachers at the time. Franco Zeffirelli’s grimacing, action-oriented 1990 version heightened the Oedipal atmosphere by cutting back heavily on the text and casting Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, nine years apart, as Hamlet and Gertrude. (Strangely, it’s only available on physical media these days.) Six years later, Kenneth Branagh’s lavish four-hour version won the purists’ vote by leaving the play untruncated. showed true cinematic fervor with its heightened Victorian aesthetic and dizzying long takes. Panavision. The film remains Branagh’s best work, and served as the main course for the previous year’s “In the Wild”, a minor and entertaining comedy about a community’s unruly Christmas production.
Laurence Olivier’s Oscar-winning 1948 Hamlet. Photo: Rank/All Star
Not surprisingly, Laurence Oliver continues to be a name primarily associated with Hamlet on screen. His beautiful, classic 1948 version won the Oscar for Best Picture, the first non-American film and still the only Shakespeare adaptation. And while his agonizing Oscar portrayal of the triumphant prince is better than anything I’ve seen, the film itself, along with Olivier’s more elaborate cinematic visions of Henry V and Richard, Ⅲ. feels a little hard. Relatively underrated is Tony Richardson’s austere, austere, minimalist 1969 version, starring the wonderful Nicole Williamson and a surprisingly effective Marianne Faithfull as Ophelia. . Meanwhile, in Grigori Kozintsev’s impressive, outdoor-heavy 1964 version, the bard’s words sound perfectly fine in Russian, but Shostakovich’s original score is perhaps its biggest draw.
Diverting from the text, Robert Eggers delves into the Norse legend of Amres, inspired by Hamlet, in his epic, mesmerizing and violent Viking epic The Northman (2022), which offers a unique and visceral groaning I found a poem. Of course, Disney’s The Lion King is built on the bare bones of Hamlet, but it also includes important diversions. Perhaps if Shakespeare’s Prince had been taught Hakuna Matata, things might have turned out better for him. Claire McCarthy’s 2018 Ophelia (BBC iPlayer) nobly attempts to reorient the play in a feminist direction, centering around the most vulgar of characters, played by the stoic Daisy Ridley, but its power The angle at which it was given was extremely high-pressure.
Daisy Ridley (left) in Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia. Photo: All Star
Finally, Tom Stoppard’s playful 1990 film adaptation of his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, while not known for its laughs, remains firmly tied to the stage. It’s still one of the most clever comic riffs, even though it feels like it’s a bit of a joke. Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be (1942, Internet Archive) has little to do with Shakespeare, but it is a frenzied second world story in which a theater company confronts Shakespeare in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. The Great War farce remains the most entertaining of all Hamlet-adjacent films. .
All titles in bold are widely available for streaming unless otherwise noted.
New releases available on streaming and DVD
Wild Robot: “Very influential.” Photo: Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation
The Wild Robot With a well-timed VOD release just in time for the holidays, this elegant and highly affecting environmental fable about a shipwrecked android finding his place in nature is one of the best we’ve seen in years. It’s the most sophisticated animation I’ve seen from a major studio, and it’s probably a DreamWorks production. peak.
True to its title, Tillman Singer’s completely paranoid horror comedy draws a nervous American teenager (Hunter Schaefer) into a suspiciously quiet alpine retreat. Every obstacle is a new logic puzzle. But it’s stylish and hilariously absurd, with Dan Stevens having a good time as the villain.
Watership Down (BFI) If your kids are made of sturdier stuff, BFI’s take on Martin Rosen’s viscerally adult 1978 comic about exile, war, and the circle of life Clean and freshly restored in 4K, it’s all in very beefy rabbit territory. An essential and exquisite rite of passage.
Bright eyes… 1978 classic Watership Down. Photo: BFI
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