Allstar wrote:Whedon's Much Ado about Nothing was a delight.

Nah. Benedick has to be awesome and funny; Denisof isn't. That's enough to kill the whole thing. I liked Fillion but that's hardly enough.

Branagh's or bust.

It's not exactly the story that confuses, it's the dialogue.

shauner111 wrote:It's not exactly the story that confuses, it's the dialogue.

The dialogue itself isn't that confusing to me. In my opinion, the more confusing elements of the film are

I think i need to watch this one more time.

ArmandFancypants wrote:I thought Kurzel did a pretty good job of conveying the story visually.

But if you don't think Shakespeare directly translates to screen there's a holy trinity that says otherwise - Olivier's Hamlet, Welles' Chimes at Midnight, and Branagh's Henry V. Chuck in Zeffireli's Romeo and Juliet for good measure. And Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing for a comedy. All of them take liberties, sure (perhaps less so than Kurzel), but all of them just fucking sing as films.

Branagh's Hamlet, despite Patrick Doyle doing some of his best work, drives me insane, mostly with the stunt casting, but also the whole presentation - despite the unabridged text being in there it just feels drowned in the pagentry and the HUGENESS of the whole thing - Shakespeare's tragedies are sparse, and IMO that's how they should be conveyed. So even though you lose characters and big swathes of text, I think the moody, almost abandoned, Xanadu-esque Elsinore of the '48 film gives the story itself the immediacy but also the breathing space it needs. Just my 2 bob.

But then I don't see what's not to get about the tragedies, especially the straightforward ones. They're as basic as stories come. It's the histories that are dense.

Have you seen Branagh's Macbeth? The recorded stage production I mean. You really should if you haven't already.

Anyway I don't claim to be any expert on Hamlet. I've read the text, I've seen only three film adaptations (Branagh, Olivier, Zeffirelli) and I've never seen it on stage. But I find Branagh's version magnificent and the best out of the three simply because in addition to converting the text into spoken words so gloriously as they are being uttered for the first time, he managed to make the narrative so much more involving. Branagh himself goes over the top at parts and yes, the appearance of famed actors is something of a distraction (Williams most notably) but for a such an absurdly long motion picture it's quite baffling how much attention, love and care have been spent in delivering every single scene. It's also a plus that Branagh understands the form and tries to bring a cinematic vision to create a feast for the eyes. Olivier did this perfectly too obviously but his version lacked the energy and liveliness of Branagh's which was more to my preference, although his bleaker view with almost no sign of the comical undertones in Shakespeare's play is a different sort of pleasure in and of itself.£

I haven't seen Branagh's Macbeth but figured I might wait and see if Marty's going to Last Waltz it.

I'd contest that the '48 Hamlet is free of comedy - Aylmer is very funny, and the exchanges with him and Olivier are quite dry - Branagh favours a bit more of an arch approach.

Interestingly their Henry Vs are flipped a bit in this regard - Olivier's is cheery, almost bawdy in places, but Branagh's is terrifically melancholic. I don't buy that Olivier was ever Hal, he's a more emblematic representation of Henry V in history, but Branagh's almost still is Prince Hal.

New stills:













P.S. I will forever blame the Academy for not nominating this film for Best Cinematography.

Personally, Lawrence Olivier's Richard III was always my favourite, just because he nails the opening monologue so brilliantly. I don't think I have ever seen a Macbeth film adaptation except for Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and that one was wonderful but obviously it did not use the Shakespearean text as dialogue but rather kept some of the story elements. Plus, real arrows yo.

This is finally on Amazon Prime.

technical deets with the DP
http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/Janua ... /page1.php