


Not surprisingly, these turns of events have been most damaging to Hamlet's budding relationship with Ophelia (Kate Winslet), who finds Hamlet's new "antic disposition".well, maddening. Hamlet (Branagh) can hardly stand to go on living as he watches his mother Gertrude (Julie Christie) in wedded bliss with his uncle Claudius (Derek Jacobi), but Hamlet finds purpose when the ghost of his father (Brian Blessed) commands him to avenge his murder by killing the treacherous Claudius. In widescreen splendor, Elsinore shines and bursts with color, the better to contrast the original Man in Black brooding over the recent death of his father.
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The director pitched his version as a David Lean-style screen epic to be shot on 65mm film (and projected in Panavision Super 70), gathered a staggering ensemble of stage vets and movie stars, and set about crafting his version of the play widely regarded as the best piece of dramatic literature ever written.Īt least partly in reaction to what had already been done by Olivier and Zeffirelli, Branagh sets his Hamlet in an opulent 19th-century palace (Blenheim Palace provides the exteriors). Branagh upped the ante when, in the mid-'90s, he set his sights on Hamlet. Much Ado About Nothing first demonstrated Branagh's true intention: to bring the masses back to Shakespeare with all-star casts, energetic pacing, and good, old-fashioned sex. In the 1990s, Kenneth Branagh staked his claim as the cinematic heir to Laurence Olivier, scripting, directing and starring in Shakespeare films: Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), for starters (in 2000, he helmed Love's Labour's Lost and in 2006 As You Like It). Inside the Actors Studio: Robin Williams (2001)Ĭheers-The Complete Seventh Season (TV) (1988)Īmbition, thy name is Branagh. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)

Pierrepoint-The Last Hangman) (2007)Įternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) Branagh, looking trim and appealing in blond hair, has shrewdly surrounded himself with a stellar cast, both Anglo and American: a stirringly touching Julie Christie as Gertrude, a lovingly romantic Kate Winslet as Ophelia, an eloquent Derek Jacobi as Claudius–and in smaller parts, Jack Lemmon, Charlton Heston, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) The Bard’s text is only slightly edited–to make it more cinematic–though most of the lyrical monologues remain impressively intact. His bold adaptation depicts more explicitly the Freudian squabbles of the royal family: the turbulent relationship between the prince and his mother as well as Ophelia’s erotic allure and descent into madness. Branagh is determined not to ape any of the previous versions: Olivier’s 1948 haunting, black-and white Tony Richardson’s 1969 disappointingly theatrical and most recently Zeffirelli’s 1990 shallow vulgarization starring Mel Gibson. If you’re willing to sit through Kenneth Branagh’s new, 4-hour Hamlet, you’ll be rewarded with a lavishly mounted, full-bodied movie that brings new dimensions to the time-honored play.
