TU Braunschweig, Institut für Geisteswissenschaften
Englisches Seminar/ Literaturwissenschaften
Seminar: HS Shakespeare on Film
WiSe 2004/ 05

Hamlet -
Old mystery dressed in new medium

by

Claudia Stehr

Table of contents

1 Introduction  3

2 The Tradition of Hamlet on Screen  5

3 Silent versus Sound: Film Analyses  7

3.1 Hamlet - not Shakespeare′s Invention  7
3.2 Was Hamlet a Woman?  8

3.2.1 Hamlet (1920) in its time 13

3.3 Hamlet – Our Contemporary 16

3.3.1 Hamlet (2000) in its time 18

4 Comparing Hamlet (1920) to Hamlet (2000)  20

5 Conclusion 22

6 Appendix  24

6.1 Filmography of Hamlet 1987-2005  24
6.2 . Scenario – Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare 26
6.3 Sequence record – Hamlet (2000) by Michael Almereyda  43

1 Introduction

A Shakespeare anthology reads: “Hamlet seems always to have been the most discussed work of literature in the world.”¹ It has fascinated the people for all times, and inspired them to critical write about the play itself, Hamlet’s character, or the various contradictions and paradoxes of the plot, e.g. the good or evil nature of the Ghost, Hamlet’s real or pretended madness, or his hesitation to kill Claudius. A sheer volume of material has been published. It is a play that has put people under a spell, then in the Renaissance, as well as today, 400 years later. Questions have been raised, but the riddle has never really been solved, although different types of critics, theories and analyses have been applied to interpret and understand this world famous dramatic piece of art. In Winders′ book Understanding Hamlet, the tragedy is classified as a ‘problem play’, a ‘revenge play’, a play about death and evil. I believe expressions like ′adaptation play′ or ′contemporary play′ are as legitimate, concerning the various forms of its reworkings as play, film, novel, cartoon, musical or animation. Peter Hall claims “Hamlet is one of mankind’s great images. It turns a new face to each decade. It is a mirror which gives back the reflection of the age that is contemplating it.”² This conception shall be reflected on in the following.

This essay shall not solve the mystery of Hamlet, but shall examine how Shakespeare′s play has been transformed into the medium film and how these adaptations reflect the time in which they were produced. There have been uncountable film reworkings of Hamlet – many of various approaches and emphases. This paper focuses on two versions, Asta Nielsen′s silent Hamlet – one of the first Hamlet films ever made, and Hamlet (2000) - the first Hamlet adaptation of the new millennium. Both films are produced in a totally different period of film history with nearly a century in between. Still, they have many similarities, especially concerning the way of how this play has been translated into its given time of production.

Therefore, aspects like the circumstances of the films, their place in history, the viewing habits of the audience at that time, film criticism and how the films relate to the issues of the world, are going to be examined. For a precise analysis I have prepared sequence protocols (see appendix) of the films to compare them to each other and to the play. To begin with, a short overview of Hamlet on film is presented to make the reader aware of its long, everlasting history.

2 The Tradition of Hamlet on Screen

Since the beginning of the film era, Shakespeare′s plays have been most popular with filmmakers. The first Shakespearean moving images were reproductions of stage scenes, i.e. these films presented a theatrical mode on screen. Later, with time elapsing and with the rise of the medium film, the plays were produced and adapted more and more in a filmic, sometimes also realistic mode.³ The existence of a new medium with its own specific conventions, characteristics and advantages has developed. One of the most favourite film productions of Shakespeare′s plays has since been Hamlet. In the last century, Hamlet has been adapted numerous times. With its psychological and political dimension the play is of high social significance, and has fascinated filmmakers to confront their society with interlocking themes of love and death, naivety and immorality, identity and destiny. The selected filmography of Graham Holderness and Christopher McCullough compiles 34 Hamlet adaptations dating from 1900 until 1987. The authors list international versions of the play, yet excluded ′free adaptations′. This limitation is justified, as some moving images cannot be called Shakespearean. They only make use of Shakespearean characters, settings or situations; for instance, Georges Mèliés′ 10 minute-Hamlet version of 1907⁴ or Charles Raymond′s silent film of Hamlet (1912).⁵ In the period after 1987 until now, there have been produced at least twenty more Hamlet versions, for instance, in 1990 Zeffirelli′s film, starring Mel Gibson; Kenneth Branagh′s 242minute version (1996), including the whole text of Shakespeare′s Hamlet; and in year 2000 the fin de siècle adaptation of Michael Almereyda.⁶

The 20th century started with the first Hamlet film ever made in 1900. It was only 3 minutes long, and showed the duel scene of a Parisian theatre performance, directed by Clement Maurice, and starring Sarah Bernhard as Hamlet. The film was produced in France, and the custom of producing Shakespeare films all over the world rather than in England seemed to have established. Only a quarter of the amount (8 of the 34 entries) was exclusively made in England. The majority comes from other European countries, British/ American corporations, and even from India, Ghana or Brazil - Hamlet has flourished nearly every continent of the world.⁷

As the invention of the talkies dates back to 1927, the first 12 Hamlet films are silent movies, from France, Italy, Denmark, Great Britain and Germany. The last silent movie of Hamlet (it remained to be the last Hamlet film for a 15-year long period) was made in 1920 by Svend Gade with Asta Nielsen as protagonist. This German production presents a cross-gendered Hamlet in a loose adaptation of the original play. The film is claimed to be the greatest silent Hamlet/ Shakespeare film⁸ and the beginning of successful film adaptations of Shakespeare⁹ and shall be examined in the following chapter of this paper.

The second film of interest is Michael Almereyda′s Hamlet version, produced in year 2000. It is the first of its adaptations in the new century, yet, although only five years of age, the present 21st century can offer seven (!) more adaptations of Shakespeare′s Hamlet.¹⁰ It is still as present and famous as before, and within the context of our new age throws a new light on the old mystery of Shakespeare′s play. The filmmaker Michael Almereyda puts the story of Hamlet into a post-modern mediasaturated context of our fast-living world; yet, he didn′t change Shakespeare′s language. The film is filled with images, media, surveillance cameras and other technical devices. It addresses a younger audience, and follows the example of Baz Luhrmann′s modern version of Romeo and Juliet, with the concept of bringing Shakespeare′s work closer to today′s youth.

3 Silent versus Sound: Film Analyses

In this chapter I am going to compare the adaptations to Shakespeare′s Hamlet, in order to distinguish things that have been omitted or added. By modifying the adaptation from the play, the filmmaker reveals his interest and message of the film. Via combining the director′s point of view with the criticism it got, and the circumstances it was produced in, I try to portray the film in its time. Yet, for the analysis of Gade/Nielsen′s Hamlet: The Drama of Vengeance, a concise background of the sources of Hamlet has to be given.

3.1 Hamlet - not Shakespeare′s Invention

[...]

1 Stuart Gillespie, "Hamlet." Collins Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Glasgow, 1994), p. 1079.

2 Peter Hall quoted in: Peter Winders, Understanding Hamlet (Ontario, 1975), p. 3.

3 See Jack J. Jorgens. modes and styles in Shakespeare on Film (Bloomington, 1977), pp. 7- 16.

4 See Robert Hamilton Ball, Shakespeare on Silent Film (London, 1968), pp. 34-35.

5 See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000636/. This is a useful Internet Movie Database of William Shakespeare on screen, with links and information on each film. It lists 594 entries of Shakespeare films on video/TV from 1899 (King John) until 2006 (As you like it - pre- production)!

6 Ibid.

7 See Graham Holderness and Christopher McCullough, "Shakespeare on the Screen: A Selective Filmography." Shakespeare and the Moving Image - the Plays on Film and Television (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 23-26.

8 See Robert Hamilton Ball, p. 272.; Tony Howard, "Shakespeare′s cinematic offshoots." The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film (Cambridge, 2000), p.295.

9 See J. Lawrence Guntner, "Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear on film." The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film (Cambridge, 2000), p.118.

10 See appendix for a list of Hamlet films from 1987 to 2005 (referring to the IMDb website).