Hamlet ***1/2

Russian with English Subtitles

Reviewed by Brenda Sexton

Definitely to be...

Hamlet: Innokenti Smoktunovsky	Ophelia: Anastasiya Vertinskaya
King: Mikhail Nazvanov	Queen: Elze Radzinya
Director: Grigori Kozintsev	Music: Dmitri Shostokovitsch

30 Second Bottom Line: Considered one of the best film versions of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and by some critics the best, this 1963 Russian masterpiece by director Grigori Kozintsev is a haunting black and white depiction of Hamlet's anguish and his revenge of his father's murder by his politically aspiring uncle.

Story Line: The play is set in the 1600's in Denmark. Hamlet's father has been murdered recently by his brother; who two months later marries his widow. The ghost of Hamlet's father reveals this murderous scheme to Hamlet in a dramatic midnight scene on the cliffs overlooking a churning, angry ocean. Hamlet is reluctantly forced to be a soldier of his father's revenge-a role that riddles his more introverted soul with conflict and angst.

He confronts his uncle and mother by staging of a play reenacting their crime. Instead of direct confrontation, there is an insidious poison of suspicion permeating the air of the castle. It's a case of "I know you know that I know you did it" without any words actually being spoken. The angst and torment within Hamlet's soul destroys the delicate Ophelia who is child-like in her adoring love of him.

As often in Shakespeare's tragedies, deaths and murders abound, culminating in the eventual destruction of a stage full of people and the entire kingdom.

Tell Me More About It: The visual foreboding and malevolence is masterfully captured in this dark, black and white dramatic film, easily transporting us back to castle life in the Middle Ages. The castle is dark, dank and bare, with evil spies lurking in deep shadows. This is not a royal life of splendor, but a political cesspool of greed, evilness and tenuous power. The intrigue and manipulations of the court life become the forces that destroy the lives of all the royals.

The barren landscape of the country, cold and windy stretching along the oceanside, visually reflects the emptiness of the souls of those in power in Denmark. It is an ominous setting for the calculating intrigue and haunting revenge that must inevitably occur.

This version of Hamlet captures well his inner conflict-his reluctance to execute the revenge of his father's death. The manifestation of this revenge inevitably destroys his life and all of those he once loved.

The use of black and white film sets a more powerful and haunting tone than could ever have been achieved with color.

The sets and costumes are magnificent depictions of a bleak, harsh 1600's, and the acting, especially by Innokentki Smoktunovsky as Hamlet, is superb. The score is a masterful work by Dmitri Shostokovitsch, making this a must-see film both for lovers of William Shakespeare and of Russian cinema.