Since my elementary school had me be a part of a
ridiculously abridged version of Macbeth in
5th grade, I have been a Shakespeare enthusiast. I took an excellent
Shakespeare class in college for fun that wound up being one of my best
scholastic experiences. Despite all of this, I had never seen this very-famous
Olivier version of Hamlet in its
entirety and I expected a slow pace and tendency towards melodrama. We were
immediately surprised by the high quality of the sets, costumes and Welles-ian camerawork
which really pulled you into the story with its fluid transitions. Katie and I
laughed off the mention of a special effects crew in the beginning credits and
then were swiftly silenced at the ominous scene in which Hamlet first confronts
the ghost of his father, which was easily the best version of this scene I have
ever watched. This was only one of many excellent visual touches that seemed to
be inspired by the equally-excellent Beauty
and the Beast directed by Jean Cocteau from a few years earlier. The film
maintained a solid pace while still retaining enough of the original text and
compares favorably to other versions by the likes of Branagh and Zefferelli.
While Branagh’s version was a more complete one with a larger all-star cast and
Zefferelli’s had some truly excellent performances (Mel Gibson balances the
melancholy and the feigned madness of Hamlet so wonderfully, and I dare you to find
me a better Ophelia than Helena Bonham Carter), Olivier’s version was probably
directly responsible for the other versions and had a finesse, beauty and power
rarely found in any other interpretation.
The professor of my aforementioned
college Shakespeare class was Dr. Gordon Lell. He worked at Concordia College
for over 40 years and died less than 2 years after I completed the class. He
had this way of getting you instantly involved and excited about the content
and he cared about his students. He only knew me for one semester and he
attended my sophomore recital. He was one of the finest professors I ever had; I
owe much of my enthusiasm for Shakespeare to him and I will remember him
always.
I, too, was a Shakespeare enthusiast that only was encouraged by my theatre background. My favorite is Midsummer Night's Dream and as far as tragedies are concerned, Hamlet is pretty high. I've read it several times and I enjoy Acts 1,2,3 & 5. I find myself at the end of Act 3 thinking "What the -bleep- are you whining about!? Everyone else is OVER IT!" And then I collect myself and enjoy the rest of the play. Olivier's version really does a good job of editing and keeping a very constant pace. You have probably noticed the large gap in posts. Sometimes it's hard to commit yourself to Hamlet after a long day of work... like I don't want to hear your whining, Olivier! But boy, were we wrong. Aside from Olivier's chicken legs, it was a very visually stunning film. Jean Simmons, not the guy from KISS, you know with the tongue.. but the lead actress in "Guys and Dolls," did an excellent job as crazy Ophelia! Her sane Ophelia performance was kind of "meh" but part of that was because they cut a lot of her lines. It was kind of strange that they didn't spend a ton of time building sexual tension between Hamlet and Ophelia but you could really feel it between Hamlet and Gertrude (Hamlet's mama), which may have been an artistic choice or he was sleeping with somebody off camera, with Olivier, it's hard to say. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I was pleasantly surprised but no matter how good the movie is or how great the costumes are, codpieces are still kind of awkward. (I'm talking to you, Laertes!)
This is the first non-American film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. With this film, Laurence Olivier became the first person ever to direct themselves to a best actor or actress Oscar. Roberto Benigni in Life Is Beautiful is the only other actor to achieve this feat.
No comments:
Post a Comment