I.ii. Enter Hamlet - French Rock Opera

As I said under Act I Scene 1, Hallyday actually starts his musical vision of Hamlet with the first soliloquy. It explains the premise, so that's as good a place to start as anywhere. The song is "Le vieux roi est mort" (The Old King Is Dead). Listen to a bit of it HERE.

Here are the complete lyrics in French, followed by my rough translation:

Le vieux roi est mort
Le vieux roi est mort depuis moins d'un mois
L'herbe sur sa tombe ne pousse encore pas
Le vieux roi est mort mais pas encore froid
Qu'on change tout les draps pour un autre roi

Le royaume entier a porté le deuil
Suivi le cortège en criant «je t'aime»
Mais il n'est pas d'arbre perdant une feuille
Qui ne continue à vivre quand même

Ma mère n'est que reine, la reine n'est que femme
La femme n'est que chienne, un batard l'enflamme
Casse toi oh ma voix, brise toi mon coeur
Mon amour, tais-toi, pleure à l'intérieur

Il a mis du blanc sur la reine en noir
Tous deux ont dit «oui» mais leurs voix tremblaient
C'était moitié rêve, moitié cauchemar
D'un oeil ils riaient, de l'autre ils pleuraient

C'est mal et ça fait mal
Oui, c'est mal et ça fait mal
Quand un homme a trop mal
Il n'en sort que du mal!
Du mal! Du mal! Du mal!
Du mal!...

The Old King Is Dead
The old king has been dead for less than a month
The grass on his grave still does not grow
The old king is dead, but is not yet cold
Let all the sheets be changed for a new king

The entire realm has suffered the grief
Followed the procession crying "I love you"
But there is no tree that loses a leaf
That does not continue to live just the same

My mother is only a queen, the queen is only a woman
The woman is only a bitch, a bastard lights her fire
Break my voice, break my heart
My love, shut up, cry on the inside

He put white on the queen in black
Both said "yes" but their voices shook
It was half a dream, half a nightmare
With one eye they laughed and they cried with the other

It's wrong and it hurts
Yes, it's wrong and it hurts
When a man hurts too much
He only sees the evil!
The evil! The evil! The evil!
The evil!...

Notes on the translation: First, I have to stress the word "chienne" is far less harsh than "bitch", but that is nonetheless how the word translates in every sense. There is also some difficulty translating the word "mal", which can mean "wrong", "pain" and "evil". There is a play there that doesn't really translate.

Though the song does cover the wedding banquet more than Hamlet's soliloquy ("an auspicious and a dropping eye" is in there), I have placed it here for a couple of reasons. One is that Hallyday tends to voice Hamlet's point of view above all others, so it's easy to see this first song as the first soliloquy which also comments on the previous part of the scene.

The other reason is that the song features imagery that connects to the soliloque. It makes me note the connection between Denmark's "unweeded garden" and the metaphorically violated tomb of his father. His wronged father has been planted in the ground and he becomes the seed of evil from which the country's doom will spring. The moment when the Ghost becomes a "mole" is another such image which I had not previously considered. In the future, I'll take more care to look at Denmark's connection to the underworld and how the latter's gates are open to let loose evil on the former. Hamlet's father decays even as his state does.

The song also has Hamlet accuse not just his uncle and mother, but the entire country. They also loved his father, and indeed, they should be included in those who have forgotten him.

Though the song uses different images than the play does (I like the black-to-white queen, for example), it also obliquely refers to those of the play. In that way, the "common" return to nature of a corpse is featured as the tree metaphor, but Hamlet/Hallyday also mixes into the idea that a man's memory should outlive him, in his mind, forever.

Divergences from the play do exist. Hamlet Senior has been dead less than month, making the wedding even more precipitous than in the play. It also has the royal couple delivering their wedding vows with shaky voices. Excitement? Fear? Insecurity? The characters could have separate reasons for this "tell".

I have listened to this album frequently in the last decade or so, but only through this exercise have I been able to notice not only new things in the song, but in the play as well. There's something to be said for a compressed, translated and askew viewpoint on the play. On a personal note of appreciation, "Le vieux roi est mort" is one of my favorite songs on the album. I just like how it starts and its resounding pa-pa-pam punctuation.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Classics Illustrated

The Original
As previously mentioned, there is no wedding banquet in the original Classics Illustrated. Weddings are for GIRLS! Consequently, the comic ignores Hamlet's confrontation with the royal couple. We do get the famous first speech though, and here it is in one efficient panel.Not a lot of artistry to it, is there? While there isn't much to say about the staging here, we can still look at what the rather large cuts do to the play. In this version of the story, Hamlet isn't reacting to anything immediate. He's alone in the castle, brooding. Nothing in the text truly suggests the immediacy of just having confronted one's parents, but such a cut would probably undercut an actor's attempt to provide context for his emotional outbursts. In such a straight and actor-less translation of the speech, such things are not particularly relevant. However, as the funeral and wedding are not represented in the comic except as a caption on the spash page, it doesn't help with clarity.

The Berkley version
Tom Mandrake gives a lot more room to this sequence, thankfully. Hamlet DOES confront his parents, in this case appearing from a shadowy staircase. He wasn't necessarily present at the previous scene's posturing, hypocrisy and disrespect for his status (above Laertes'). Regardless, this is an angry Hamlet more reminiscent of Maloney's in A Midwinter's Dream. Since comics feature static images, Mandrake must choose a single expression for any given chunk of dialogue. Hamlet's is anger as he delivers his first puns. Claudius is also angry as he asks about his prevailing grief, while Gertrude is obviously concerned.

The characters don't really shift from those expressions panel to panel. The result is that Hamlet is angry both at his uncle AND mother, and that Claudius' "unmanly grief" accusations are stern indeed. It also means that when Claudius leaves the stage, he does so impatiently. Her concern for Hamlet remains, and she is led away perhaps before things are satisfactorily resolved to her mind. An interesting direction I haven't quite seen from filmed versions.

Hamlet starts his soliloque before other characters are entirely out of the room, which is a little off-putting, but it does get four panels to the original's one.
The first pictured here (actually the second) is interesting because it almost looks like a silent panel. The monologue is actually on top of the next panel and the speech bubbles completely cut off from the character. I don't know if it's done on purpose, but it does make the speech somehow more internal. As if by a disembodied voice, a bit like the voice-over in certain films. In keeping with his anger, Hamlet kick a bench.

Now you'll excuse me for this, but I can't help but think of those old Charles Atlas ads at this point, especially since it's done on the Hercules line (Hercules/Atlas... some relationship there). "Mac" in those ads is so angry at having been bullied at the beach and losing his girl to the bully kicks a chair when he gets home. He vows to work out using the Atlas method and goes back to the beach to kick the bully's ass. I'm afraid there IS a certain parallel with the play...

The very end of the speech is on the next page in yet another panel, but since Horatio enters in that same panel, I'll have to save it for next time.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - A Midwinter's Dream

Again, sorry about the quality of the screencaps. All I have is a VHS tape, and I'm taking pictures right off the television.Branagh's A Midwinter's Dream is a comedy, first and foremost, but not all characters are send-ups. Richard Briars' Claudius plays it straight, as does Michael Maloney as Hamlet. Of course, by this point in the film, Maloney's character Joe has been offered a part in a Hollywood movie and had to leave on the eve of the play's opening. His sister Molly has taken over the role, but as soon as Claudius addresses her, she shows why she was only the script girl. She freezes.

Then out comes Joe from behind the crowd as Hamlet. He has returned just in a nick of time, prepared to sacrifice his career for the purity of theater.
It creates some interesting staging. Though a youth on stage seems to be spoken to, it's not Hamlet after all. Claudius might as well have called out at the sky. Hamlet is hidden in the room, somewhere. The confusion plays with other identity reversals, such as Polonius being killed in the name of the King, Claudius taking Hamlet Senior's place, and Rozencrantz & Guildenstern getting beheaded in Hamlet's stead. It works thematically. On stage, we have a new father who doesn't know his "son" enough to recognize him in the Court.

Joe/Hamlet makes great use of the church space by coming out from behind and barrels towards Claudius with anger. His opening puns lash out at the King. There is no ambiguity about Hamlet's outrage here.

And then back to comedy, as Molly gets pulled off the stage, and John Sessions as Gertrude overacts and mangles a line: "Can thy colored nighty off!" The joke is that a queen is playing the Queen, and though it sounds stupid and insulting when I say it like that, Sessions' character is so endearing and touching that it comes off very well.

So some do's and some don't's for prospective directors here.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Slings & Arrows

In Slings & Arrows, the faith people have in the character of Jack Crew, action movie star trying to find legitimacy on a Canadian stage, is pretty slim. As he comes into the light to deliver his first speech (we do not see the confrontation with his parents), other actors call it "the moment of truth" and critics sharpen their pencils. Jack himself has little confidence in his performance, and visibly has a hard time swallowing as he eyes the attentive crowd, who are only waiting for him to screw up.

We only get to "That it should come to this", but Jack does quite well. As with many characters in S&A, he "uses" his own feelings t inform his character. His insecurity becomes Hamlet's, his outrage and hurt stemming from resident pencil pusher Richard Smith-Jones (who in the previous episode had tried to sabotage his performance) becomes Hamlet's. Jack has his own unweeded garden here, and his sarcasm is palpable.

It is said that Hamlet is such a deep character, there are as many legitimate performances of him as there are actors to play him. S&A plays with that by showing us how an actor's particularities come to inhabit the character and thus the play. They further merge the real world and the world of the play by making Jack as reticent as Hamlet (though of course, there's another Hamlet analog in the story to incarnate his brilliance/madness).

Though I can only discuss Slings & Arrows briefly on this blog, I hope people will try to discover its three 6-episode seasons (Hamlet, MacBeth, King Lear). It's excellent television, and a real charm for Shakespeare fans especially.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Fodor (2007)

Fodor omits both Hamlet's traditional entrance AND his first soliloquy, skipping instead to Horatio telling him about the Ghost. What is the effect of this sizable omission?

In this version of the story, Hamlet is not confronted about his prevailing grief, and at the cocktail party, does not appear sad at all. His drama will begin with the visit from his father's ghost. He seems to have completely accepted the situation before that point. This is a major difference and one of many changes that make the film less about the character of Hamlet and more about fiddling with the play itself. Billed as a ghost story, it may be appropriate for it to make the Ghost the sole motivator of the action, leaving Hamlet's moral judgment by the wayside.

Without Gertrude's supplication that he not go to Wittenberg, we have a Hamlet who wasn't really going anywhere in the first place, and certainly, Wittenberg's religious connotations are not an issue. This Hamlet is a man of the modern world, with a morality (or lack thereof) to match. Nothing is rotten in Denmark for him. Not until he's told it is. And that, friends, probably makes him the weakest Hamlet of the project.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Hamlet 2000

Hamlet 2000 also presents a change of venue away from the "Court" (the Media, in this version) for the parents' confrontation with Hamlet. They catch up to him on the steet in a dynamic walk and talk that works well for this Manhattanite Denmark's hustle and bustle. Claudius hangs back as Gertrude accosts her son, and hidden from her view, he gives annoyed and impatient looks back at his bodyguard.

Speaking of hiding, note the sunglasses. Characters trying to hide some shame wear them in this scene. Gertrude never takes them off until the very end, and Hamlet takes them off when he bares his soul to her with his first speech. Hamlet is ashamed of his feelings, or else he would have vocalized them before now. Certainly, he's hiding his true self from Claudius who doesn't deserve to know him. Gertrude is visibly shamed by Hamlet's speech, in this version rather more aware of her improprieties than most, and so she continues to hide behind the shades. Claudius, for his part, is shameless.

When Claudius comes up to the plate, he's fairly rough with Hamlet, grabbing his arm to accuse him of unmanly grief.
The back half of his speech is cut (as are Hamlet's initial puns, by the way), but what's there is severe enough to make the point. And this Claudius has little time for his stepson's emotional drama. The walk-and-talk takes us directly to a limousine, an impressive display of power and control that thematically replaces the cannons shot at the sky, I suppose, and the parents climb aboard. Gertrude has finally taken off her sunglasses, but she still keeps a barrier between her shame and her son's judgment.
Once Hamlet has given his word he would not go back to Wittenberg, she gives Claudius a radiant smile. It's a good result, and she misses the tone in which the promise was delivered. What we have here is a selfish woman, who though she dotes on her son, still only really thinks of herself. Her shame earlier in the scene is warranted, she's far more a participant in the sins committed here than other versions of Gertrude (and this IS, after all, a more cynical modern world).

Before getting to Hamlet's first soliloque, the film presents its own invention: A silent scene featuring Ophelia waiting for Hamlet at Elsinore's indoor fountain.
She had tried to pass a message to Hamlet for him to meet her there, and he hasn't showed. Ophelia will be continually linked to water in the film, as a way to presage her death by drowning (in that very fountain). The elemental symbol is a powerful one. She is a creature of dreams and emotion, a condition that will eventually drive her mad with grief.

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
This speech is done all in voice-over (with very few snips) as Hamlet scans through old footage of the original royal couple. So has discusses his mother hanging on his father, we actually do see it. His voice is more depressed than outraged. Again, this is a more cynical vision where Hamlet isn't really surprised by the turn of events, but is saddened that the inevitable worst case scenario has occurred.

There is an interesting detail in the footage we see. Hamlet Sr. covers the lense of the camera with his hand, probably annoyed by his son's continual filming. And that brings up one of the questions of the play: What was this relationship like? In versions where Senior's war exploits are mentioned, we can imagine an absentee father, idolized from afar, but not necessarily as noble as young Hamlet would have it. After all, we have a father who asks his son to commit murder, whom Hamlet for a long while suspects of being a devil. In this modern adaptation, Senior is not a warrior, but as CEO of a large corporation, he probably wasn't home a great deal either.

Hamlet scans his footage until, in the final lines, he comes upon a shot of Ophelia. It is at this point that he says "But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue." Very interesting. The line has been interpreted up to this point as either meaning that he had to stop talking because Horatio and friends were coming in, or that he didn't want to hurt his mother. Here we get a third possibility. Hurting Claudius (and the company/country) would hurt Polonius, and thus Ophelia. Hamlet's more overt (though repressed) love for her makes his decision to shut himself off from her more wrenching, and Polonius' claims that he is mad for love more believable.

We then cut back to Ophelia herself, still waiting at the fountain, walking dangerously on its ledge. It's a hint that she may already have a death wish or suicidal tendencies. We'll see more of her suicidal fantasies later.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Kline '90

When Kline's Hamlet is called by Claudius, we get a stunned reaction and coldly rendered lines, and that's the problem with his portrayal of the Danish prince. Kline offers a study in stillness (at least in these dramatic scenes, the antic disposition may yield other results), with minimal gestures and a shell-shocked expression through most of the scene. In trying to see if it was just me not getting it, I looked at a few reviews and found the exact words to express my boredom with Hamlet 1990/II: "The man behind Hamlet's various poses remains the wrong kind of mystery throughout, a remote blank rather than a compelling enigma." (Frank Rich of the New York Times) Yes, that's it exactly. While I know that the character of Hamlet has hidden depths, I want to be able to divine those depths from an actor's performance. Here, either Kline is hiding them or ignoring them in a performance not helped by his elongated vowels and stage whispers, making it often sound like he's telling a ghost story (which of course this is, but that's neither here nor there). One thing he does well, however, is search for his words. Hamlet appears to discover them as he speaks, though he doesn't quite manage to make the rhyme sound natural (few do).
I'm not too sure about Claudius in this scene either. He moves between veiled threats through gritted teeth and teary supplications that Hamlet feel better and stay. On the whole, he's kinder than not, even pronouncing "'Tis unmanly grief" in a hushed tone, as if not to embarrass Hamlet in front of the Court. Hamlet is rather kind as well. Though his opening puns are ironic, he does not attack with them. His tone with his mother is as far from bitterness as humanly possible, tenderly qualifying his grief as if she were a poor soul that simply doesn't understand.

As the wedding party leaves, we glimpse Ophelia hovering in the wide shot, and eventually pulled away, and then the cannons are shot. There's a lot of emphasis placed on these, with Hamlet covering his ears they're so loud.
It's the symbol of his mother and uncle's wedding that is overwhelming him, not the sound. The connection to thunder is well used as Hamlet's world comes crashing down on top of him. It also highlights a connection I've failed to make, and that's the mention of cannons from both Claudius and Hamlet, and their link to God. Where Claudius fires into the heavens, he tries to kill God. It is an affront that leads to tragedy, a subversion of the natural order that turns Denmark into the unweeded garden, and a mirror of his previous regicide, trying to place himself at the very top. Hamlet's mentions God's own cannon, one fixed against self-slaughter. God's guns aim at sins - and by extension, sinners - so the line invites you to foresee God's ultimate revenge on Claudius.

And we do have more obvious religious overtones here with the cross of Denmark's flag in the background and Hamlet falling on his knees at "O God! God!". It is unfortunate that Kline's performance is so "blank", even though tears stream down his face through the whole speech, his voice reveals someone who is dead inside. Probably acceptable as a choice, just not a very dramatic one.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Zeffirelli '90

By the time Claudius gets to Hamlet in this version, he's two scenes away from the wedding banquet. We've jumped once again in both time and space, as Hamlet's parents find him sitting in the dark. He shies from the light (which adds a physical sign of his being "too much i' the sun". This has the effect of actually prolonging Hamlet's grief, as we're ever farther from his father's death. The movie retains his two puns, which are here said directly at Claudius. The King is confused by the first (or he at least play-acts confusion) and Gertrude laughs at the second. We don't know Hamlet before his father's death, but we can at least imagine his great wit. With Claudius' sympathetic portrayal early in the story, it is believable that the Queen would these words as more of the same and not see what hides behind them.
Claudius' speech is cut to pieces, so he doesn't hammer home his points as harshly, and he does not chide with his tone. The mood is kept more jovial by moving the "T'is not alone my inky cloak" speech to later. Zeffirelli has orchestrated things so that Claudius remains sympathetic as long as possible. Once his shortened speech is done and he's invited to Hamlet to stay in Elsinore, Gertrude motions him to leave by giving him looks so that she can have a private chat with her son. Glenn Close is rather impish here and throughout the early part of the play - giddy and girlish - which isn't a bad choice considering that she's a thing to be manipulated by men, not an independent woman, as happy with one King as with another.
In this private chat, Hamlet delivers his inky cloak speech. As with Branagh, he make "'tis common" sound like an accusation, but Mel Gibson's Hamlet is otherwise different. Here is a Hamlet who keeps his emotions just under the surface, visceral and in the moment. When Gertrude says "Why does it seem so particular with thee", he is visibly hurt by the word "seems", inspiring that first speech. At the end of it, he turns away almost ashamed of having let this torrent out. He's easily overwhelmed, both by grief and by whatever the present emotional context is.

In this exchange, Zeffirelli also introduces a Freudian Oedipal element, something I truly dislike about some stagings of Hamlet. I agree that there is something Oedipal about the play - Hamlet is jealous of a father figure and winds up killing him - but I don't think the text actually supports an incestual urge (nor is Claudius is real father).
We can agree that kisses on the mouth are not necessarily incestuous in Hamlet's historical context, but we'll see much later how a scene between mother and son turns into a sex scene. Zeffirelli is off-piste there. Gertrude's childish nature brings her closer to her son in age (through attitude), another trick he uses to make the incest work, but again, it isn't supported by the text, and in fact would seem to be contradicted by Hamlet seeing his mother as a sexless being and by his morally judgmental Wittenberg education.

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Interesting staging with Hamlet looking out his window at the "unweeded garden" (ironically, barren stonework). It ends abruptly at "Frailty, thy name is woman!" as he slams the window, once again overcome by emotion. His repulsion is too strong for him to continue speaking. This is a Hamlet who cuts himself short because of his outrage. If lines are to be cut, I'd rather it's done to make a point, like it was here.

It would be easy to dismiss movie/action star Mel Gibson, but I really do think he's got the chops to play this Hamlet. It fits him and was the first inkling of what would become possible in Braveheart and beyond. If this version is to be dismissed by connoisseurs and scholars, it should be because of Zeffirelli's attempts to dumb the play down in order to make it more commercial.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - BBC '80

Jacobi's Hamlet is a proactive one, in the scene from the start. His first line is NOT an aside, it is spoken out loud and full of scorn. This Hamlet is asking for a fight, goading Claudius, but the new king won't be stirred to anger in front of the Court. This is the first time I've really thought about it, but Hamlet no doubt grew up with his uncle around and knows his flaws. It's how he's judged him unfit to marry his mother. In this performance, Jacobi is clearer than most about those flaws. Often, Hamlet in unhappy about the situation, but here he hints at why Claudius is such a "satyr".

An incomprehending mother responds with platitudes, the same kind that Claudius uses to calm the peasantry, but she may actually believe. As he chides Hamlet, Gertrude's hand often goes to her husband, as if to restrain him from being too harsh. Such is the relationship inside which Hamlet is trapped. The staging is apt: Hamlet keeps his distance until he makes that first speech (usually one pronounced in sadness, but here more in bitterness). When his mother speaks to him, he turns his head around. When Claudius does, he keeps his back turned to him.
Later, he looks almost sick when Claudius has his paws on him and tells him he is most immediate to the throne, at which point he scampers away. The story is told in body language. An interesting choice: Hamlet bursts out laughing at the line "'Tis unmanly grief", as if he either kind of agrees and laughs at himself, or believes that his too much grief is manly grief indeed, or possibly that he doesn't think much of Claudius' manliness and/or grief. The latter is probably the best interpretation. He shows too much grief precisely because his parents show too little.

When Hamlet agrees to stay at Elsinore, that agreement is sarcastic indeed, but Claudius once again Claudius is too political to acknowledge it. He takes it at face value, spin doctoring the line in situ, if you will. Then, the Court leaves Hamlet alone.
Though he remains bitter and sarcastic through the first part of the scene, sadness finally creeps into his voice fully during the soliloquy. Here he is alone and may speak his true emotion. A device used here and throughout the play is speaking directly into the camera at the audience.
A perfectly acceptable way to do theatrical asides, but it can be unsettling. Good. We should be unsettled by this rotten Denmark. You don't think a character should break the fourth wall? Fine. Brothers shouldn't marry sisters and wives should grieve for their husbands. Time - and theatrical presentation - is out of joint here.

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
On that last line, Hamlet has another of those sad laughs. Jacobi infuses the character with a certain self-deprecation because the soul-searching Hamlet knows full well his fault. He MUST hold his tongue simply because that's how he is and he knows it. It's a nuance that takes the political and familial away from center stage and rather makes Hamlet's psychology the cause of his silence and delay.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Olivier '48

The camera tracks back from Claudius and Olivier's Hamlet is revealed at the end of the table. He's been there all along, at the furthest remove from his uncle-father. I'm not a big fan of Olivier's portrayal, though I realize he's the iconic Hamlet. This is a melancholy (i.e. depressed) Hamlet, very much tired of the world as it has become. Unfortunately, it's depressing to watch, especially compared to some of the more vivacious Hamlets. Olivier plays depression with a realistic but undramatic lack of energy.

His relationship to his mother is better than Branagh's.
She is tender and he is not unkind to her. There is no accusation in his tone even if the subsequent speech puts much of the blame on her. Before putting these lines to computer screen, it hadn't really occurred to me that initially, Hamlet is much more angry at Gertrude than Claudius. Claudius may be an opportunist, but she's the one betraying his father. We've gone past "'til death do us part", but in the more puritanical Hamlet's view, the wedding vow is still broken.

Olivier downplays this in his performance, but then, Claudius is such a villain, it's hard to blame anyone but him for what's going on. This Claudius is completely unsympathetic. He chides, scolds and mocks, is slow to dethrone to even come near Hamlet, continually plays to the audience, and even gets a laugh out of them.
Of course, this is a Claudius that seems to give cues to his courtiers that they follow out of fear. Similarly, his announcement that Hamlet is next to inherit is answered by Polonius giving signals for trumpets to sound. It's all quite practiced. Claudius is a fake and a poser.

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Olivier plays most of the soliloquy as interior monologue, i.e. voice-over, letting the emotions play on his face. Some lines are spoken aloud, a good way to use Hamlet's parenthetical speech patterns. According to Harold Bloom, Shakespeare's innovation was to allow his characters to hear themselves speak and be changed by the act of hearing. By juxtaposing voice-over and speech in this scene, Olivier demonstrates how that works. Basically, when Hamlet reacts to what he's thinking (voice-over) he comments in his though (with speech). There is thought and there is thought ABOUT thought, a model of how thinking works and, to paraphrase another line of the play, "thought will pluck on thought". Shakespeare's characters grow because their every thought affects the next.

Cuts and Bruises
There are a number of cuts for length, though the soliloquy is kept close to intact. Most notably, we lose Hamlet's first two lines/puns. This makes him more passive and less of an out-and-out rebel before the Court. We also lose something of his playful intellect. There are also some four lines taken out of his first bit, removing the various things that denote grief.

Where we lose something, I think, is in the change from "vailed lids" to "lowered lids". Was it so important the audience understand what "vailed" means at this point? Couldn't it be understood from its context? Vailed is a better word because it is an unintentional pun (for Gertrude) that reveals Hamlet's character. While "vailed" is an archaic word that means "to lower or sink", to a live audience, it sounds liked "veiled". Eyelids are truly "veils" before the eyes, and the eyes being the doorway to the soul, it speaks to Hamlet hiding something. What he hides is at once the profound emotion he feels, but also that great intellect we have yet to discover. His mother here is inquiring as to what he's thinking, so indeed is his soul "veiled". I miss the word when it is substituted "for clarity".

I.ii. Enter Hamlet - Branagh '96

As Claudius finally turns to Hamlet, the camera pans through the audience, a metaphorical wall, to Hamlet very much waiting in the wings. The camera, in a sense, reveals the actor backstage waiting for his cue. In this staging, Hamlet is not in full view of everyone, he enters when called. This works hand in hand with other elements to soften Claudius. He doesn't appear to purposefully ignore Hamlet here.

With his first pun ("A little more than kin and less than kind"), the device of hearing asides spoken in thought/voice-over is introduced. Branagh alternates between this and spoken word, mostly in spots where he doesn't want the character to be overheard, but sometimes just for variety or to keep a physical performance free of vocal affectation. Here, it keeps the pan intact, obviating the need for a close-up that might break from it, and it also makes plain that no one hears that bit of disrespect. Disrespect is conveyed more subtly by body language, in this case sitting forcefully in the presence of his royal parents.
Though there are people sitting in the crowd, anyone near the royal couple stands, so his statement isn't lost on the assembly. In fact, the camera cuts to their sour expressions. Though the play tells us the people love Hamlet (which is why Claudius stalls when it comes to killing him), here it seems like they disapprove of him. We've just been told they approve of Claudius' ascension, so Hamlet's disrespect may not sit well with them, though you could also read their expressions as concert for the grieving prince. In any case, he is "too much i' the sun" by being the object of public scrutiny, easy to spot in such a bright environment in his black clothes. The pun is that Claudius has already called him "son" enough already, a dubious honor he does not want.

Julie Christie's Gertrude finally speaks and it's to show motherly concern, and it brings us to one of my favorite line readings.
She says "Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die", to which he answers "Ay, madam, it is common." Branagh bites on the last word making us aware of yet another double meaning. It's not that he agrees with his mother's claim, it's that he finds her comment and attitude vulgar (common as root word of commoner). His entire demeanor during this part of the scene may be sadness, but there is a liberal dose of barely contained outrage as well.

What he is saying in the "trappings of woe" speech is that they're inadequate. They SEEM, but he wants them to do MORE than seem. Hamlet isn't just expressing his own emotion, but trying to stir it in his mother, to shame her. To his eyes, she doesn't even SEEM to grief, and in fact appears quite happy and in love with Claudius. Hamlet cannot reconcile how she SHOULD feel and how she appears to feel. He will inquire about her blush later in the play, but it certainly isn't here either.

As for King Claudius, it's hard to take Hamlet's side against him. He's sweet and kind, and unlike a lot of other Claudiuses, embraces Hamlet. His arguments against prolonged grief are reasonable and meant to comfort. Jacobi is careful not to chide with his delivery. He even makes the moment a private one, talking softly and closely with Hamlet, close-ups and sound doing a good job of isolating the family from the Court. He doesn't make it public until the very end, when he tells everyone the results of the discussion, and probably doesn't want rumors to go flying. And yet, just telling Hamlet that he's his father now is painful to his nephew.
Of course, Hamlet's parents are missing the point. Hamlet's grief isn't just for a father dead, but for a father replaced. A lot of this conversation is played on reactions, and Gertrude's are especially interesting. On "a fault against the dead", she has a momentary look to the left (memory). It is the smallest of regrets for her betrayal and highlights for the viewer/reader the hypocrisy of Claudius' well-turned phrases. His attacks on will incorrect to heaven and minds impatient might as well be directed at him.

When Claudius is happy with the result, there's the film's iconic confetti scene.
Flying in the face of Hamlet's sadness, it's a huge celebration. Branagh uses this moment to have Ophelia go to Hamlet and Laertes gently pull her away, setting up their relationships for later. It's the same thing we saw in Hamlet 2000, but less on the nose. Hamlet is left alone and as in his the opening line of his next speech, he physically melts.
The great weight of APPEARANCES, whether we're talking about the public eye or a son's attitude towards his mother, is lifted and relief takes it place. He's free to speak his mind, if only to himself. Throughout the speech, Hamlet is emotionally unstable, moving from anger to sorrow and back again, full of asides and parentheses. It all comes flowing out of him in a great torrent once the floodgates have been opened.

His speech turns this beautiful, glittering Denmark into an unweeded garden, where the confetti might as well be the ashes of the previous world. Hamlet's point of view is post-apocalyptic. With the death of the True King comes the death of the Nation and being left to survive in the ensuing wasteland is unbearable. And yet he holds his tongue, for both political reasons and a son's duty to his mother.

This speech was all done in a single take, a take that continues through the next bit of scene as well. Branagh gives us what we might get in a theater while also keeping the the camera dynamic and close to the actors. It helps sell his mercurial Hamlet as we're not watching edited takes from different performances. Hamlet's changeability is part of who he is.

I.ii. Enter Hamlet

The next section of Act I Scene 2 that will be examined includes Hamlet's parents discussing his father's death with him and his first soliloquy. The character we meet is unlike any other in the play and showcases well Shakespeare's ability to give each character its own voice. We've had the simple, folksy soldiers, Horatio and his histories, the ironical Claudius... And while they all used some manner of word play, Hamlet's first two lines are puns. We'll discover a character here that has mastered language so completely, that everything is wordplay and allusion to him. His is a metaphorical world, and "all the world's a stage" is perhaps its central metaphor.CLAUDIUS: But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
HAMLET [Aside]: A little more than kin, and less than kind.
CLAUDIUS: How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET: Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.

Finally, Claudius notices Hamlet. While you may take this to mean "most important for last", directors have a great many choices in how they reveal Hamlet's presence. Has he made himself elusive or has he been in plain sight all along? What is Claudius' attitude towards him? Body language and staging says a lot about just why he was saved for last and what their relationship is at the start of the play.

GERTRUDE: Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
HAMLET: Ay, madam, it is common.

Getrude's first lines, but I'm always more interested in Hamlet's response. There's yet another play on words with "common", but I think I'll keep my comment for the Branagh version which made me first realize it.

GERTRUDE: If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET: Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

Hamlet's first real speech and one of my favorites. This is where the theme of Stage/World really takes off, culminating in the bodies being placed on a literal stage where Horatio will tell/perform the tale. Hamlet comments "actions that a man might play", and the actor playing the part is literally doing that. Or is he? Shakespeare may have been the first proponent of "the method", asking his actor to go inside himself and have that something "which passeth show". In a very real sense, Hamlet is a meditation on theater itself. As far as the story goes, they are also damning words aimed at Claudius who IS feigning grief.

CLAUDIUS: 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd: whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corpse till he that died to-day,
'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;

Another example of Claudius' charismatic ability to turn an argument on its head. Here he puts Hamlet in the wrong and makes the grand announcement that the prince is next in line for the throne. It's all for the audience, once again corralling them to his side with honeyed words. It also shows his natural pragmatism: Dead is dead, you have to move on, and in any case, you're next in line and that's all that counts, right?

And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
GERTRUDE: Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.

In the Comments section, Snell made a remark that should really be included in the main body of the blog:
"A further contrast twixt Wittenberg and France: Wittenberg wasn't just a university town, but in Shakespeare's day was probably even better known as home of Martin Luther and the Reformation.

That adds, I think, to the Christain/pagan schism we discussed earlier. And, perhaps, it explains why Hamlet comes across as more Christian (even prudish) than the rest of Danish nobility. Only Hamlet considers the wedding to be incestuous; he gives an almost Puritan anti-wassailing speech; he won't kill Claudius while the King is praying because he fears Claudius will go to heaven, where Laertes would kill Hamlet 'in a church', afterlife be damned.

Those are just a few examples. And, perhaps, it explains Hamlet's reluctance to act before all the data is in, as the play becomes the struggles of the prince to be Christian in a pagan (or at least not devout) court, in a situation where rash, unchristian behavior might be called for."

A great new filter for me to play with, thanks Snell.

HAMLET: I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
KING CLAUDIUS: Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:

As soon as Hamlet agrees to Gertrude's request, Claudius washes his hands of it and is happy with the outcome. He doesn't get it, or at least wants to close the matter before his audience gets weary. He knows to finish a conversation when he's on its winning side.

Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
Exeunt all but HAMLETNow begins Hamlet's first soliloquy:

HAMLET: O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

And if you didn't already, now you know where my blog title came from. I felt it was the perfect line to appropriate since we were going to discuss adaptations. If the text is the purest form of the play (or its Hyperion), then any adapation is something of an imperfect Satyr. I don't really believe that, though some critic (like Harold Bloom) seem to resent every possible staging. The reason is simple: The text can yield all manner of interpretation, while a particular staging has to select its own interpretation and is therefore less open and bountiful.

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:

Hamlet's fourth classical allusion in this speech is an interesting one. If Hercules is known for his "Twelve Labours", and Hamlet considers himself far removed from Hercules, it prefigures his lack of action in the rest of the play.

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

The next series of articles will discuss how this part of the scene is used in various adaptations, as well as Hamlet's casting.

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Classics Illustrated

The Original
As previously stated, the wedding banquet does not appear in the original Comics Illustrated adaptation whose focus is on "adventures for boys". A wedding would seem to go against that. The adaptation leaves Laertes' introduction to Scene 3, which admittedly, covers his leaving for France as a plot point.

The Berkley versionTom Mandrake's adaptation cuts very little from this section of the play, keeping the rant about Fortinbras' ambitions, though predictably cutting the appearance of Voltimand and Cornelius. Introducing characters requires panels, and the comic's relatively low page count often requires it to do entire speeches in one panel, as above. The problem with this is that the artist cannot change a character's emotion mid-speech, and things play out all the more flatly in static shots. For example, in this panel, though Claudius says of Fortinbras "So much for him," there is no accompanying action. It's like the character is just dismissing Fortinbras out of hand (which I suppose he does), but not even with the proper physical punctuation to get the crowd's response. Also cut is Claudius' thanks to the Court for going along with the royal wedding.
Mandrake's Laertes is timid when begging to Claudius, in line with performances that play on the line "dread lord". Comics tend to physically caricature the characters, so Claudius is something of a rough sort and Laertes wise to be afraid of him. By contrast, Polonius is drawn as a kindly old man, creating an unshakable sympathy for the character that makes his death seem undeserved. I prefer my Polonius with a dark streak (as mandated by the full text). The overall effect here is that Claudius is a bully and that despite his honey-laden words, he is just using both Polonius and Gertrude for political gain.

I'm afraid the images lack the subtlety to really carry the play's truths, and the contrast between words and action is a harsh one.

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Slings & Arrows

Slings and Arrows is rather playful with the banquet scene, using our knowledge of the actors' stories to give each scene an extra level, one that actually manages to comment on the play. The Claudius of this play is only known as "Alan" and is not really a character in the series. Once he gets going, we cut to Cyril and Frank watching the performance on closed circuit and saying how he's got a good voice tonight. Cyril notes that it's really "all he's got". A perfect moment for these guys who regularly act as a comic chorus, as if on a balcony at The Muppet Show, but also a poke at Claudius as a character. He is an arrogant blowhard full of hot air and no substance, contrasting with the quiet and sensitive Hamlet. Note how Hamlet is right at the front of the stage in the staging.While we don't see most of the scene (the editing basically cuts from the first speech to Claudius' exit), we can imagine Claudius going through the motions and addressing everyone in turn, very much ignoring the elephant in the room. When you reveal that Hamlet was there and draw him out, then Claudius was perhaps forgetting him. When he's in full view like this, Claudius is actively ignoring him and prioritizing other characters over him.

During the initial speech, there is a nice bit of double-acting from Gertrude as played by Ellen Fanshaw played by Martha Burns. Jack Crew (Luke Kirby) is deathly afraid of being shown a fool (he's the action movie/teen heartthrob cast as Hamlet) and is just keeping from throwing up. Ellen/Gertrude looks down at him with a look of sudden concern.
The actress wonders if this will turn out to be the disaster she predicted, but the character seems to register something amiss with her son, motivating the interrogation/comforting to come. Works perfectly in the series, where "use it" is often used in response to something that should distract the actor (just as Jack is "using" his nausea in the scene).

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Fodor (2007)

Fodor intercuts various parts of Scene 2 and Scene 3 as if occurring more or less simultaneously at the banquet (here a cocktail party or reception). Claudius is making his speech in one part of the room, while Horatio is telling Hamlet about seeing the Ghost in another, and Ophilia and Polonia (the transgendered Polonius) give their goodbyes to Laertes near the window. I'll still deal with each part individually in its own article.

The scene (or the film, really) opens with the title card: I say "No more but so", which is a line from Scene 3 (intercut with Claudius' speech). The line has Ophelia acquiesce to her domineering brother's wishes. There's a fatalism about it that doesn't always register, but by placing it at the top of the play (even if it wasn't after a prologue that shows Ophelia's death), it takes on the greater fatalism of the entire play. "This and nothing else," a line that underscores a pervading sense of doom, a sense that there's no changing destiny. Notable since Claudius has just usurped a brother's destiny...

I spoke last time of Fodor's myriad devices in the credits sequence, which included line readings, outtakes and dramatis personae. Add to this a stylish, but ultimately irrelevant device to introduce the characters in the extended banquet sequence. Each time we meet a character, there is a freeze frame and an overlay such as this:(I'll present each one in whatever bit of scene it actually appears in.) Characters are divided into two colors, White (the Hamlet family) and Red (the Polonius family) and into chess pieces (King, Queen, Knight and Pawn). Why? There is no chess motif in the rest of the film, nor does Fodor keep up this visual style (which reminds me of Snatch and the like). The effect is to oppose the two sides of the board, with the Reds being against the Whites, which isn't normally true. I think it interesting to see Polonius as moving against or manipulating Claudius for his/her own personal gain (quite believable from the utterly corrupt Polonia of the film), using other family members in various ways against Hamlet and in some sense, Claudius (moving against Hamlet pushes him ever closer to killing Claudius and gives the king impetus to trust Polonius ever more). However, it falls apart when you examine the White side, since Hamlet and Horatio are NOT on the side of Claudius. Which piece is assigned to which character is also of note, but again, I'll talk about each when it comes up in their scene. Claudius and Gertrude are, of course, King and Queen.
Weaving in and out of various scenes within the same party reduces Claudius' initial power considerably. There is a lot of noise in the room, both from the driving electric guitar music and various groups of people enjoying themselves (and not). Claudius doesn't address the entire "Court", just a couple of people he's mingling with. From a speech designed to manipulate public opinion, his lines become anecdotes - how he came to marry Gertrude, how he got a message from Fortinbras - and the sound drops in and out and we move about the room. It's like it's just an overheard conversation (because we hear it through Ophelia's or Hamlet's ears?). Claudius doesn't thank an assembly, politics seem less important. Probably appropriate since this dreamlike Denmark never quite seems like a country.

Cuts
Completely cut from this part of Scene 2 is Laertes asking leave of Claudius. More expectedly, Voltimand and Cornelius don't make the cut, nor does the vast majority of the speech about Fortinbras. Again, Claudius' royal power is undercut. In this version, Denmark may just be two intertwined important families (Red and White), of which Claudius is the main patriarch (it was perhaps important then to transgender Polonius so as to remove the Red patriarch). Fodor eliminates the political and regal elements, bringing the play down to its basic familial drama. The father and mother are the king and queen of a family and Fodor's experiment here may show the State is not required to make Hamlet work, though it does reduce the overall feeling from epic to banal (courtly pageantry to tacky cocktail party).

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Hamlet 2000

In this modern retelling of Hamlet, the banquet is a press conference, which makes perfect sense in the point of view of the adaptation. The new CEO/King announced publicly to the world (via the press, not the court) how he has stabilized the company (Denmark) and how he's not afraid of a hostile takeover by Fortinbras. In this way, the company is a "warlike state". Makes perfect sense, as do most modern transpositions in the film.

Claudius is played by Kyle MacLachlan, who is convincing as a charismatic but tough corporate maneuverer. He and Diane Venora as Gertrude appear as a younger-than-expected power couple. Their apparent youth and sexiness is a sign of the times. In the 2000s, people tend to look younger than they are, or at least strive to. This is important, because it really puts the lie to Hamlet's later contention that "at your age, the blood is tame". Difficult to agree with that sentiment when the two are still quite attractive and openly lustful with each other.

One bit of re-attributed dialogue: The line "For all, our thanks" is divided down the middle, the latter part given to Gertrude. This is clearly staged by the characters (it's an organized event, after all), but it's a clear symbol of their joining ("man and wife are one flesh") drawing her into Claudius' culpability through that association.

On Fortinbras
Claudius holds up a newspaper with Fortinbras' picture on it. In this modern world, "pestering with message" is done a lot more publicly, which can be said to have an effect on the scene. In a traditional staging, Claudius chooses to tell the world about Fortinbras' message, whereas here he is forced to by the media. In both cases, he uses it as an opportunity to show off, with more bluster than substance. The difference is that this Claudius is perhaps not as calculated as the Medieval one. Better at improvising? Dangerous when cornered?

While the scene is replete with extra stage directions for the non-speaking characters (which I'll get to in a moment), Claudius at least manages the ripping of paper he traditionally has to do in almost every staging (the newspaper). No Voltimand and Cornelius to send another message. They are scarcely needed since the corporate adversaries are speaking through the press.

A look around the room
Hamlet is visible in the scene even before Claudius and Gertrude. He's filming the event for use in his videos/soliloquies (this will pay off later). He appears bored and disconnected from the proceedings, with dark glasses hiding his eyes. Possibly all part of "holding his tongue" in deference to his mother.

We also get a good look at the Polonius family:
From left to right then: Bill Murray provides one of my favorite takes on Polonius, here already noticing shenanigans between Ophelia and Hamlet (setting up the next scene). Ophelia is played by the omnipresent (at the time) Julia Stiles, who keeps looking over to Hamlet, trying to get his attention. Liev Schreiber as Laertes is either aloof (he can't wait to get back to France - this may be one of those Laertes who doesn't care for the new king) or simply distracted as he too notices what passes between his sister and Hamlet. This is a problem very much on the family collective mind. Also note the ghost of Hamlet Sr. hovering above them in the background as a painting.

Juxtapositions
Through the use of extra stage directions for Ophelia, the film manages to juxtapose certain characters in a new and meaningful way. For example, on "With an auspicious and a dropping eye", we see Ophelia's own hopeful eyes drop down as Hamlet ignores her. A clever subtext to the line, but also one that links Ophelia/Hamlet to Getrude/Claudius who speak (as one, remember) the actual line. If there is a relation standing in the way of Ophelia being with the man she loves, the same could be true of Gertrude if indeed she was having an affair with Claudius (with Laertes as Hamlet Sr.). Hamlet Sr. is also a character that is said to be away for much of the time AND good at warlike matters. We're used to Hamlet Jr.-Laertes correspondences, but Senior as well? Intriguing. Laertes as a young Hamlet Sr. (a Jr. in spirit) further accentuates the brotherly link between Laertes and Hamlet Jr. and his treatment at the hands of Claudius (the faux-Hamlet Sr.) as an alternative son to Hamlet Jr.

As Claudius talks about being "pestered by message", we see Ophilia frenetically trying to arrange a meeting with Hamlet by drawing (not really writing - she's an artist) a note.
It is intercepted by Laertes, not that Hamlet reaches out for it. Though Ophelia is the messenger here, we're reminded that Hamlet also used to write her (she has a lot of correspondence [pun not intended] to redeliver later). The correspondence created here is then between Hamlet and Fortinbras, two sides of the same coin (heirs apparent with opposite methods).

The sequence made me realize there is a theme of messages falling on deaf ears or being intercepted in the play. Polonius intercepts a letter from Hamlet and later Ophelia returns his letters. Fortinbras' message is ripped up, and later his answer to Claudius' emissaries turns out to be a lie or tactic. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's message to England is subverted. Claudius' payers do not rise up to Heaven. Should we also see here the Ghost's message not getting through to Hamlet?

Laertes' suit
After the high of the press conference, we have a separate scene with just the immediate families. There's dancing and kissing between the newlyweds and Claudius overlooks Hamlet completely in favor of Laertes. Laertes is surprised, but unlike the BBC version, in which he seems to think Claudius is countering the natural order, this Laertes is distracted by whatever is going on between Hamlet and his sister, finding his way to her side and bringing her back and away from the prince in between lines. There can only be two reasons for this in a modern context: Either he loves his sister unnaturally and is therefore jealous, or he dislikes Hamlet for some reason, motivating his later telling his sister not to see again. Or it could be both. We'll see as the film progresses. Ophelia, for her part, is showing rebellious tendencies usually not afforded her in more traditional stagings, but that make complete sense in a modern context. It's something that will color her lines throughout the play.

The scene ends oddly with Claudius pushing Hamlet away (something edited out?) and he'll not address his nephew until they're later out in the street after the event.

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Kline 90

The Kevin Kline version jumps right into the thick of things with a lustful kiss between Claudius and Gertrude (and they kiss again in the middle of the scene), catering to the baser animal qualities of the new king.

The staging is interesting here as the courtiers seem to orbit Claudius, almost moving about the room in a circle as he shakes hands with them.
Brian Murray's Claudius is gracious in his tactility, bridging the gulf between king and courtier, but though he is jovial, he's still a blowhard. There's one particular line delivery that I found strange. "Together with remembrance of ourselves" is played as clever word play that is immediately met with delighted applause from the crowd. There is no grief here.

Even Dana Ivey's Gertrude is unnaturally happy, apparently charmed by everything Claudius has to say, with a look of "oh he's so clever!" always on her face.
Either Claudius is a powerful charismatic or his courtiers are currying favor with their simpering flattery. Gertrude, however, seems completely taken in by his charms, heightening the emotional resonance of Hamlet's outrage and setting her up for a greater fall.

In contrast to Zeffirelli's private audience between Claudius and Laertes, their exchange is very public here as Claudius almost speaks more to the crowd than to Laertes (played by the soapy Michael Cumpsty).
Again we have a Claudius who is a social animal, living his life on a stage and relishing in it. Life as theater is the most potent theme of the play, and while we often look to Hamlet for its presentation, this Claudius is also an actor (as politicians often are). Hamlet Sr., the man of action (the warrior) is replaced by a man of acting who plays out grand conflict in public and with words. Consequently, though Cornelius and Voltimand are cut from the play, the message from Fortinbras isn't (tying off the segment at "so much for him"). Where Hamlet Sr. might have led men into the field of battle, Claudius gets applause for throwing a piece of paper away and undermining an opponent's threat level. It's a false military victory, all played in oratory.

But I digress. Laertes' suit is of course granted after a very stagy exchange (and I mean that to mean it was staged by Claudius, not as a directorial weakness). Claudius makes it plain that he is gracious and warm, and lets it be known that Polonius (veteran character actor Josef Sommer) is his right hand man.
If you have access to this version, check for the courtiers in the background during the "The head is not more native to the heart" speech for some almost parliamentary eyebrow acting. "Oh really!" they seem to imply. Where other stagings of the play have implied that this was common knowledge, here it isn't, and so the entire scene takes on that air of being a practiced spectacle for the Court.

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Zeffirelli 90

Zeffirelli likes to play fast and loose with the play's scene structure, upending certain lines, changing the sequence of scenes around, and turning single scenes into multiple ones. Act I Scene 2, which I have split into three, Zeffirelli splits into five, not to mention one of its lines thrown to the prologue/de facto Scene 1. The overall effect is to stretch the timeline of events. They don't all occur at the same time, but spaced over a vague period of time. At the same time, Zeffirelli reduces many lines to their barest essentials, which of course changes our reading of the play.The first sequence is, as traditional, the wedding banquet before the Court. The throne room is huge, a real seat of power, and the royals rather far from the Court. Though Claudius speaks, it is Gertrude we watch for signs of affection. Glenn Close plays her as a little nervous, but definitely content.
Again, this version of the play intimates that the two have had an affair prior to Hamlet Sr.'s death, or that she at least knows she jumped beds rather quickly after his passing. She is nervous to see if the Court will agree or afraid of the gossip.

Ian Holm's Polonius is rather austere here and doesn't get a line, but his demeanor nonetheless reveals something about him and the situation.
He's the one who stands in front of the Court and moves them to rise when the speech is over. He is very much the one pulling the political strings and because he controls the Court, there's the inference that the Court needs to be controlled. Are the courtiers easy to manipulate (or eager to be manipulated), explaining why there is no dissension in the ranks? Or is there something sinister in Polonius' look that speaks to some threat made on the king's behalf?

Notable cuts: The Norway subplot is absent from the film, so there is no need for Cornelius and Voltimand. That was expected. There is a missing line, however. In this version, Claudius does not thank the Court for having freely gone with the affair. This might indicate that the Court WAS threatened in some way and it has not FREELY sided with Claudius. This makes him one of the more villainous Claudiuses.

Change of Venue: Laertes
Zeffirelli has Laertes' wish to leave Denmark take place in a whole other scene. Time has obviously passed, drawing out how long Hamlet remains in his melancholy state, but also making Laertes a bit less eager to go. In the play as written, Laertes witnesses the wedding and immediately wants to return to France, speaking to the ambiguous relationship with the king revealed in the BBC staging. Note that the encounter also happens behind closed doors, not in public. It no longer occurs before the Court (so nothing is modified for "appearances"), and no longer before Hamlet (so not a slap in the face, either public or private).

And here, villainy is far from Alan Bates' performance. I'll admit to not liking his Claudius which, in large part due to the cuts, is rather two-dimensional. But if there's a scene that redeems him for me, it's this one. Claudius is affable, warm and full of good humor. If it were not for the creepy stare and delivery in the movie's first scene, we would not understand Hamlet's reaction. Perhaps Claudius is simply good humored because he is basking in his victory. "Ask me anything, for I can DO anything." But as discussed previously, it is totally correct to portray Claudius as being more familial with Polonius' family than he is with his own.

Nathaniel Parker's Laertes, for his part, is a fresh-faced, almost naive youth, awed by power and reverent. We do not feel any fear in his demeanor, and his character is generally lighter than some other performances.
Notable cuts: "You cannot speak of reason to the Dane and lose your voice." This line has several functions. First, it reveals Claudius' pragmatism (or the image he has of himself as a pragmatist), the clockwork logic that led to his fratricide and will inform his ploys at the end of the play. Second, it has an ironic undertone. What is reasonable in this disjointed state? These nuances are lost, but they don't affect our understanding of the play. Claudius also fails to say that "The head is not more native to the heart...t than is the throne of Denmark to thy father", downplaying his connection with Polonius, and Polonius' role in his political rise to power. Finally, Laertes does not consider Claudius a "dread lord", but more importantly, omits the words "that duty done". As mentioned above, this Laertes is not afraid of the king and even has warm feelings towards his "kindly uncle" (we can again look at Laertes and Hamlet as brothers).

The overall effect of Laertes' demeanor in this scene is to hide Claudius' villainy. Is Zeffirelli trying to play it as a reveal for audiences that do not know the story? Possible, since this was a high profile Mel Gibson project possibly meant to be larger audiences' "first Hamlet".

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - BBC 80

In which we find that there are no small roles in Hamlet...

The BBC's version of Claudius is famously played by Patrick Stewart, clearly having fun in his bouffant toupee.It's a performance that initially disappointed me, though I'm ready to revisit and reevaluate it now. This Claudius is not on as solid a footing politically as some others, which I now realize is straight from the text. This revelation comes from the performances of Cornelius and Voltimand, the envoys to Norway, who are very serious about their duty, so much so, they appear to be driven ONLY by duty. Granted, they have very few lines in this scene, and duty is all they have to play, but their joylessness borders on resentment, fear or resignation. Claudius may have Polonius in his corner, but surely he hasn't replaced everyone in Court. Can he trust the men who were loyal to his brother?
Suddenly, there's a warning in the words "To business with the king, more than the scope of these delated articles allow", and defensiveness in "We doubt it nothing". Claudius is just a little bit paranoid, still cajoling the enemies that surround him. He's guilty of SOMEthing.

Laertes' attitude follows this too. When he is called to appear, he seems puzzled and afraid (thus the "dread lord" line). He looks to his father, unsure of what to do.
What is going through his mind here? Like everyone else in this Court, he doesn't know if she can trust the situation. Maybe he was even loyal to the old king. Is he in a hurry to return to France because he doesn't like this new regime? Certainly, he was a friend of Hamlet's, and has certain loyalties to him. It probably isn't proper for Claudius to give Laertes an audience before he gives one to Hamlet, switching sons as we've previously discussed, so Laertes is caught unawares. He's visibly embarrassed by the event, visibly so as he leaves the Court and gives Hamlet a friendly and apologetic nod.

He has reason to be. Not only is he given audience first, but Claudius is unusually tactile with him.
Once he's done with Laertes (David Robb), he returns to the throne and AWAY from Hamlet as he addresses him, underscoring the distance between them after his unbearably inappropriate closeness with Laertes.

In this version, Hamlet is clearly visible on stage throughout the wedding banquet, rather than revealed, as he often is, on his first line. And he's active too. Standing behind his mother, he seems to be giving her away (that's right, he also went "freely with this affair along").
He also applauds sarcastically. Jacobi's Hamlet is openly disrespectful and scornful of his uncle from the first, which helps sell the idea that Claudius' reign holds by a thread. With Claudius and Claire Bloom's Gertrude standing so far apart, the wedding appears to be a stately affair, and more than ever, a political move. Perhaps Claudius loves her, but he's certainly not showing his weaknesses in this public arena.

Of Gertrude and Eric Porter's Polonius (interestingly younger and stouter than most actors cast in the role), I shall have cause to speak of later, when they get more lines.

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Olivier 48

Olivier's most intriguing contribution to the wedding banquet is actually the transition leading into it. The camera, which you'll remember is roving through Elsinore (is it God? the Ghost? 3rd person omniscient?), is looking for the wedding party and lands on an empty bed.This lends credence to the theory that the camera is actually the Ghost's point of view as, driven by jealousy, it takes a peek into the adulterous bedchamber.

The banquet itself is a much more stately affair, with everyone pretty much sitting around and talking. Claudius is a particular disappointment for me, Basil Sydney stiff in both posture and delivery.
Some of the blame should go to the costumes (gaudy, rather than rich), and Claudius' wide shoulders-tight tights combo is particularly ludicrous. The Court certainly contrasts with Hamlet's simple black attire in this, perhaps symbolic of Denmark's complicity in Claudius' corruption (audible in this version as they mutter in agreement a number of times through the speech). Everyone's getting rich in this new regime.

Unfortunately, Syndey doesn't play Claudius sympathetically (not uncommon, actually) which makes him more transparent as the villain. He's smug and self-satisfied. A glimmer of hope exists in his relationship to Gertrude. Does he actually love her?
His sighs denote lust for sure. He's helped along by a rather young Gertrude. Though I think she just barely pulls it off, Eileen Herlie is 11 years younger than Olivier who plays her son! Bizarre casting, but useful in establishing one of those Freudian through lines I dislike so much. The younger the Gertrude, the more sexual tension can be drawn from their Oedipal relationship. Herlie would return to the role more mature (one would think) in Richard Burton's version.

The other characters we meet here are Terence Morgan's young and enthusiastic Laertes, who should seem much changed when he returns from France with revenge in his heart.
One would hardly believe this fresh, naive face would be credible talking about cutting Hamlet's throat in a church! The success of the character will hinge on his ability to sell the character's moral downfall. His father Polonius is played as a typical "kindly old man" by Felix Aylmer.

The Cuts Continued
Just as in Scene 1, all mention of Fortinbras, Norway and the world at large has been expunged. This takes a chance to show off away from Claudius (I'll unkindly say "mercifully" here) and reduces this Courtly meeting to the essential family affairs of the day.

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet - Branagh 96

Branagh sets the banquet in the most important set of the film, the Hall of Mirrors. This long ballroom is bright where Elsinore is often dank and each of its mirrors is a door, lending a reflective quality to spying scenes, as we'll eventually see. Claudius, played by the always excellent Derek Jacobi, fits into this world seamlessly. His bright red military uniform and bristly bleached hair allow him to revel in this kind of opulence. Not only is his red the color of blood, the blood that is on his hands, but it also identifies him as a preening peacock, full of self-love. His red contrasts Hamlet's black. He is most definitely not in mourning, but rather celebrating his brother's death.

An important bit of staging here: Claudius' opening speech is made in front of a large audience. This is his first speech as King, having taken the previous king's queen as his own. A political move that requires a certain measure of justification. Claudius excels at what today we would call "spin", as he is a creature of appearances. A false king, in power under false pretenses. Everything looks gorgeous although we know Denmark to be diseased. That is how he uses his charisma, and Jacobi's performance is a sympathetic one. The villain does not reveal himself for quite some time and you want to believe him in this early scene. Jacobi has also chosen to make his Claudius truly be in love with Gertrude, which the full text supports.
Pretty easy, you might say, since Gertrude is played by Julie Christie, a still striking woman (she certainly doesn't look 55) whose blood may not be as tame as Hamlet would have it.

Of course, he makes it plain that this would never have happened if the Court had not "freely gone with this affair along". So the whole State is complicit in this usurped throne/incestuous bond, and so it is doomed along with Claudius himself (cue Fortinbras later).

Speaking of Fortinbras, in an often cut bit, Claudius deals with him in his particular idiom, i.e. with dramatic flair and arrogance.
The Court eats it up. Claudius is media savvy, but as everyone else's unease has taught us, he may not actually be up to the challenge of defending Denmark. Here, he dismisses the threat posed by Fortinbras, misjudging the entire situation. I've noted Claudius' military dress, but all the men in the Court also wear military uniforms. In this version of the play, war is very much on everyone's minds. Denmark is a military state, and Fortinbras' movements are part of the larger campaign Hamlet Sr. took part in.

Then comes Laertes (remember, Hamlet is last and least on Claudius' agenda) played by Branagh regular, Michael Maloney.
Maloney always gives a competent performance, though I've always thought of his Laertes as a bit wishy-washy. Maybe it's the haircut. In any case, we don't get a great sense of his character here, nor of Richard Briers' Polonius or Kate Winslet's Ophelia, except that they seem to be very nice people.
If we didn't know any better, this Denmark would seem to be a nice enough place. The new King has well judged the mood of the country and appears both sympathetic to their loss and aware of what needs to be done for political stability. The presence of civilians on the balcony and way everything is handled publicly speaks to an open government, not a tyranny. How will people react when Hamlet starts acting up? This sets up a Denmark decidedly on the side of Claudius. Does it contribute to Hamlet's doubts and delays?

I.ii. The Wedding Banquet

One of the challenges of doing a project like this is that some scenes are incredibly long. So I've decided to cut of them into pieces for both theme and manageability. Act I Scene 2 will be split into three: The Wedding Banquet (everything before Hamlet is named), Enter: Hamlet (through the end of his speech), and Ghost Stories (from Horatio's entrance to the end of the scene). The next batch of essays will only look at the first of these sections, holding off Hamlet's first lines until the next part. Versions of the play that have done away with Scene 1 will usually start with the banquet. How does that affect our understanding of the play?

This is also the introduction of a number of important characters - Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius and Laertes - so I expect to spend quite some time discussing casting. It should also be our introduction to the interior of Elsinore, which of course affects staging. But let's look at the text before doing anything else (Shakespeare's in italics, as usual).

SCENE II. A room of state in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants
KING CLAUDIUS: Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

Claudius is a practical man who presents himself as someone who gets on with things. This is an important point to make about the character not only because he uses his pragmatism to convince the court of his ascendence to the throne (and one could imagine a pre-Hamlet scene in which he used his brand of logic to explain why he'd make a better King than Hamlet Jr.), but because it may well be how he could follow through on a fratricide. It also makes him the perfect nemesis for Hamlet, with an attitude that stands in stark opposition to the lead's excessively intellectual ambivalence. Claudius is King because he acts. Hamlet isn't because he doesn't.

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.
Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
CORNELIUS VOLTIMAND: In that and all things will we show our duty.
KING CLAUDIUS: We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.
Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS

If Scene 1 was slashed in any great measure, then so will this speech which pertains to the outside world. I may still work to set up Fortinbras for the end, but seems completely useless without the Norwegian sublot. In the full play, it sets up Claudius' arrogance and the eventual loss of what his brother had won.

And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
LAERTES: My dread lord,
Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation,
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
KING CLAUDIUS: Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
LORD POLONIUS: He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
By laboursome petition, and at last
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
KING CLAUDIUS: Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will!

It is noteworthy that Claudius should address Laertes' wishes before those of Hamlet. Hamlet may be next in line, but Claudius plainly puts Laertes first. This opposes Laertes and Hamlet from their first shared scene, and this will obviously carry through to the end, with Claudius acting as adoptive father to Laertes. In effect, Hamlet and Laertes are brothers, both related to the King, one by blood and the other by politics. Polonius (and thus his family) were apparently better connected to Claudius than to Hamlet Sr. (who being gone to the wars, may not have been so well attended), and has been promoted to a place of influence in this new regime. By giving Laertes favor here, Claudius shows his true colors as a political animal first. The irony, of course, is that had Polonius been more patient and thrown his support with filial rights, his daughter might well have become queen.

Another point I'd like to make about the Hamlet-Laertes rivalry is that while Hamlet studies in nearby Wittenberg, Laertes spends his time in France. That Claudius shows preference to a "son" that has been corrupted by another country, in effect prefers the Frenchman to the Dane, speaks to the weakened state he is now the head of. The country has been usurped by a pretender who does not even love it, but would corrupt it just as a debauched country has corrupted Laertes. (This is not my opinion of France, but it is Polonius', if we go by later scenes where he treats his son's soul as being in mortal danger over there.)

I'm making points here that I don't feel were particularly made by any of the film versions, though we'll see how they play out with the "filter" in place. Perhaps I never noticed because I hadn't really thought of it before. These are relatively recent realizations, once again showing how this play opens up to me in new ways every time I read or see it.

Act I Scene 1 - French Rock Opera

In 1976, some would say at the height of his popularity, France's "Elvis Presley", Johnny Hallyday produced a studio double-album based on Hamlet. Though he had hopes of turning this 6-years-in-the-making project into a full blown rock opera for the stage, its commercial failure sealed its fate. With time, it's gotten more respect, but is still an oddity, both in Hallyday's discography and in the world of Hamlet adaptations. You can listen to clips of each track on the French Amazon to get a sense of how it sounded.

For Act 1 Scene 1, we're principally concerned with the first two tracks. The first is a musical Ouverture, just to get you in the mood. Then comes a Prologue, basically an introduction to the project. I will translate it for you here:

"I liked Hamlet's story. I'm not sure why exactly. There are certainly reasons, profound reasons. But... it's not important. I will try to tell you this story... as I felt it. Me. And you will feel the way you want to. You."

A personal vision, but not an expert one. Hallyday doesn't make himself out to be something he's not. And yet, he could be a little more committal about that vision. But since Hamlet is often anything you want it/him to be, it's not necessarily the wrong attitude.

There is no Scene 1. The story starts with Hamlet's first speech which explains the context of the story anyway. So no dancing soldiers with Horatio intoning "Speak to Me" (or some similar song). We'll return to the rock opera then. (And now on to Scene 2!)

Act I Scene 1 - Classics Illustrated

Hamlet wasn't just adapted for the screen. It was also became the focus of two issues of Classics Illustrated. The original Classics Illustrated was a comic book series designed to go into school libraries and, to be frank, was aimed at boys. The focus on the more adventurous aspects of the literary tales adapted through its long run bear this out. Hamlet appeared in #99 and was illustrated by Alex A. Blum. Though it was first published in 1952, Classics Illustrated often went through multiple editions to keep them in print and in the hands of young readers. As an example of how the original series focused on a boy's sensibilities, the soldiers and ghosts of the opening scene are spared 5 pages, but there is no following wedding banquet.

In 1990, Berkley Publishing and First Comics resurrected Classics Illustrated for a shorter, but much more mature run. These prestige format books had glossy paper and painted artwork, and featured some of the best artists of the time, from Bill Sienkiewicz to Kyle Baker to Peter Kuper. Hamlet was book #5 and was adapted by writer Steven Grant and artist Tom Mandrake, the latter whose work on the Spectre made him no stranger to ghostly revenge stories.

The Original
Meant to introduce kids to great works, Classics Illustrated oftens started with a "splash page" introduction before getting into the story. Hamlet thus begins with a quick presentation of the premise - the father's death, the hasty marriage and Hamlet's melancholy. Then on with the play. The dialogue, though a lot of it is cut, is Shakespeare's. The narration and footnotes help the young reader understand the action better.

It's a stiff adaptation, sticking to the facts of the action. Obviously, Horatio's historical context is cut, combining the Ghost scenes in a way that makes its appearances and disappearances more frenetic. The Ghost is larger than life and intangible, like he's rain or steam or being beamed up.
The adaptation is only really intriguing for its focus on heroics. What is Hamlet like if action and the supernatural are emphasized?

The Berkley Version
The first caption reads "Ancient Denmark", setting the play in a no-man's-land that is more Beowulf than it is the Middle Ages.
Bernardo's furs and the characters' oddly shaped word balloons create an atmospheric Denmark out of time. And of course, there's no one like Tom Mandrake to put fear in a character's eyes.
So as far as mood goes, it is achieved by page one. The Ghost is a steaming warrior with glowing eyes, one that tends to blend in with Mandrake's water colors quite efficiently.
What we have in the Berkley series is a Classics Illustrated for fans of literature, rather than fans of comics (although, ultimately, its audience is probably both). The focus is not on the facts of the story (this is CORRECT, since plot is not Shakespeare's focus either), but on mood and rendering of themes. Though Hamlet is not as abstract as say, Sienkiewicz's adaptation of Moby Dick, it is still highly expressionistic, marrying visuals to the emotion of the scene.

Act I Scene 1 - A Midwinter's Dream

Kenneth Branagh's A Midwinter's Dream (or A Bitter Midwinter, for UK audiences) is our second "play within a play", and as with Slings & Arrows, I'll try to focus only on the performance of the play within the movie, and not on the rehearsal scenes (which are mostly played for laughs anyway). Not to say that the performance doesn't have its own whimsy. Apologies in advance for the quality of the screencaps - the film isn't on DVD yet and I'm resorting to taking pictures directly off my cathode tube television.

Midwinter shows us very short snippets of the scenes, but enough to make a point with the staging, and uses its black and white film stock to good, moody effect. The church where the play is acted acts as a natural stage and Gothic setting, though in the first scene, it is filled with a thick fog that then tends to linger in the closed space. One thing this staging of the play isn't is easy on the audience (a reasonable effect to want to achieve, actually). Despite the medieval feel of the church, the costumes are world war era, and so Bernardo walks onstage with a machine gun.A machine gun he fires over the audience's heads as they all crouch in fear. Shakespeare has a knack for waking up his audience with the play's opening words, but "Who's there?" has never been so shocking. This is a Denmark so unstable, it might shoot you first and ask its questions later.

Played for comedy, sure, but still offers a potable staging if you were to do it yourself.

Act I Scene 1 - Slings & Arrows

So we come to our first play within a play - Hamlet as done on the brilliant Slings & Arrows. Because the show is about the behind the scenes aspect of a theater festival, we don't usually see complete scenes. And yet what we see of the plays is very sensitive to the text and even insightful. Note that while I'm not above talking about scenes only shown in rehearsal, I've tried to use Season 1 Episode 6's performance as the standard. I wasn't really expecting Act I Scene 1 to make it, but as the play begins, we do get a handful of lines. Onward!

A Minimalist HamletAn early decision of the show's artistic director was to let the text do the work of setting the scene. Black drapes and minimal sets, and costumes taken off the rack by the actors, with no concern for period. Speaks to both the power of the text and its universality.

The play opens on the character of Cyril (Graham Harley) playing the shivering Francisco, relieved by Frank (Michael Polley, father of Sarah) as Bernardo. Now, these two guys are a classic double act, often acting as a chorus on the show, and in the Hamlet parallels of the first season, standing in less for Rozencrantz and Guildenstern than the gravediggers. In the company at New Burbage, they are career thespians who play all those bit parts, often more than one per play. It's very fitting that they would open this version of Hamlet, because they also open Slings and Arrows itself, with juicy tune played at a wrap party.

And yet, for clowns, they give an excellent performance in their Scene 1 snippet. When Francisco confirms that the noise he heard is Bernardo, he is quite obviously relieved.
No enemy from Norway. No Ghost*. Phew. Which brings up one of those puns Shakespeare is notorious for. For some reason I'd never read "For this relief much thanks" as a pun, but there it is in Cyril's performance.

Shame about Frank's Asterix the Gaul costume.

*We're backstage during the Ghost's appearance, so I can't comment on it.

Act I Scene 1 - Fodor (2007)

Alexander Fodor's Hamlet is billed as "Shakespeare in the extreme!", which basically means it's highly experimental, made on the cheap, and at times doesn't work at all. And yet, there's a lot of interesting stuff in here. Act I Scene 1 isn't used, leaving a transgendered Horatio to tell the tale at the wedding banquet, but we do get a Ghost scene as prologue.It's a scene that reappears later and that I will explore more fully in its proper context: Ophelia's death. In this modernization, she drowns not in a river, but in her own euphoria, as what appears to be a heroin overdose. The Ghost appears to us, if not to her, as soon as she's injected herself with the potent opiate.
This is part of the film's use of horror, taking the "ghost story" to its next obvious level, with horror, lighting and mood to match. Simple effects that are nonetheless unnerving. What is the Ghost doing there? Well, if she dies, seeing a native of the after-life isn't too surprising, but because he appears earlier, it may be at he is a hallucination. Is the entire play then a hallucination at death's door? Is everything in Hamlet to be filtered through Ophelia's dementia? This interpretation makes everything before her madness suspect, and everything after it a dream. Ophelia as narrator has potential, but she is less reliable than Horatio. The scene makes us plunge into the surreal universe of the film and in a sense, may excuse any of its "extremes".

Whether Ophelia is meant to be the narrative filter or not, this is a Hamlet where the Ghost is a lot more prominent. He is often seen lurking, observing his family as it descends into its own decadent hell.

Though the scene is pulled from later in the play, Fodor still gives us a ghostly appearance to start off the story. Ophelia replaces Horatio and the soldiers, and doesn't live to tell of what she saw, but the feeling is much the same for the audience.

Elsinore
As with Hamlet 2000, Elsinore seems to be a hotel or estate, one that is grubby and in a state of decay. Using what looks like disused buildings works as much to the play's advantage as it does the film's budget. Outside, we can hear seagulls and the sea, though these sometimes seem illusory. If it's daylight, the bright light bleaches everything (as in this scene). This creates a dream-like Denmark as much as fog would.

Opening Credits
Indicative of the rest of the film, Fodor uses a number of different ideas in his opening montage, not a single concept. FirstThere are scenes from later in the story which serve to introduce the cast. On a transgendered Polonia, Hamlet's "rash intruding fool" line, and on Ophelia "I shall obey, my sister" are simple, revelatory lines about those characters. However, no one else gets this treatment. The credits also use outtakes where you can sort of hear the director speaking to the actors, and footage of actors diving off the pier. Breaking the fourth wall is allowed, since Hamlet is very much about being an actor in the world, but it tends to hurt the very thing Fodor was trying to do by throwing us in the deep end with that first scene (the Green Fairy moment, if you will). And there are also dramatis personae shots, again not given to everyone.
The cumulative effect of these is still one of apprehension. The last two shots show a murder and a scare, leaving the viewer in the right frame of mind, I think, to be disturbed both by form and content.

The Song
The song playing over the opening credits is You Love Me to Death by Hooverphonic. Lyrics here. The song starts with "Face your fate" and the refrain goes "You love me to death, but death may love you more", which supports the idea that this is Ophelia's take on the story (or since she just died, that this is "her song"). It speaks both to Hamlet's tragic doom and to Ophelia dying because of love. It has a haunting quality and isn't too much on the nose.

As you can see, there's probably too much going on and pulling in different directions even in a single sequence. Extreme!

Act I Scene 1 - Hamlet 2000

Hamlet 2000 takes the Romeo+Juliet route, setting the play in modern times, shuffling words around to make it all make sense in a world without swords and royalty. The film sets Hamlet in millennial New York City and right away, we're told via captions that "The King and CEO of the Denmark Corporation is dead." So the filmmaker's solution is to equate power with power. Corporations as nations, wherein the true power may well lie today. This solves a number of problems with adapting the text for the modern era. Denmark will be the name of the (family-controlled) company, something to be inherited as much as a throne, and something to kill for - power, money, women. The head of a company has advisers (Polonius), security (guards) and a base of operations, in this case, Hotel Elsinore.
The captions further reveal that the new CEO (called King in a media-savvy kind of way) has hastily married his brother's widow, and that Hamlet has returned from school suspecting foul play. This is new information. While it's entirely possible to interpret the play that way (if simply based on the line "My prophetic soul!"), Hamlet does not necessarily suspect murder until it is revealed to him by the Ghost. Of course, "foul play" may speak to adultery as much as murder, but that still informs Hamlet's frame of mind. He's not just grieving for his father's death, he suspects and is thus extremely resentful of both his mother and stepfather. Ethan Hawke's Hamlet is thus an angry young man, somewhat passive-aggressive. In modern terms, he is emo.

This Is All Prologue
In this prelude, we're also introduced to a device to "modernize" Hamlet's soliloquies: Video diaries. Less the scholar/warrior that a "student" might represent in Medieval and Renaissance settings, this Hamlet is an artist. He uses video montage to express his ideas.
These make liberal use of auto portrait, but also include "ironic" footage from secondary sources and, of course, text from the soliloquies over the action. The prologue uses a speech displaced from Act II Scene 2, on the qualities of man ("the paragon of animals"). It fits as an introduction to Hamlet's emotional state (more true than in the original scene where "I have of late, but wherefore I know not" is disingenuous), presenting a Hamlet that is far more isolated (or "dreadfully attended", since we're already quoting from that scene) than in the standard play. If the modern world tends to isolate people more than ever before, then an isolated Hamlet goes inside himself - a strong image of the soliloquies - only expressing his true self in the digital world, in coded fashion at that. It is telling that he's shown watching his own work (there are quite few instances where he allows others to see it).

From the video to static, from static to the title card HAMLET in bold letters over a red background, and then off to the wedding scene.

What About Scene 1?
Scene 1 does exist, in abbreviated form, as a flashback interwoven with the end of Scene 2. As Horatio and his girlfriend Marcella (sorry, Marcellus, you've been transgendered) tell the story of the Ghost, we see snippets from the scene as written. Horatio, Marcella and security guard Bernardo see the Ghost on a security monitor, riding an elevator (up from hell?). They follow it to another floor and Horatio tries to speak to it, and the Ghost disappears.
That is the extent of it. Fewer than 7 lines in total. The trio, reduced to bit parts, increase Hamlet's isolation, but they do remove the soldier/scholar contrast that could otherwise exist. This is not a martial world, however, soldiers being out of place.

The Ghost
Played by the great Sam Shepard, the Ghost seems a mix of solid and intangible, obviously leaning on a wall, weary in his frumpy trench coat, and yet walking right through a soda machine as he goes transparent. While the ONE Pepsi machine showing through him is an intriguing image, I'm not sure what it's meant to portray. One King? First King? Scene One? Simply an allusion to the Coke/Pepsi taste test (Hyperion/Satyr, Hamlet Sr./Claudius)? I'll let the viewer decide.

Act I Scene 1 - Kline (90)

A Broadway Theatre Archive presentation, Kevin Kline's Hamlet (co-directed by Kirk Browning) is representative of many filmed stage productions, preserving performances and staging for posterity, this one of a well-remembered New York Shakespeare Festival production. It sets the play somewhere in the 18th or 19th century, or perhaps even the early 20th, since the costuming might just as well be Edwardian. Its Denmark is a bare stage, using darkness in the way that the BBC production uses fog.We're in a no-man's land, atmospheric and universal. A moving search light in the background plays on the idea that "Denmark is a prison".

The Ghost
Played as basically a shadow here, using the back lighting to its maximum effect, and I think showing Olivier's influence (Kline's performance bears this out as well). It appears only once in this abridged scene and quite briefly, the cock crowing soon after. There is no striking of the partisans, no proof of intangibility. Given all the shadowplay, an uninformed audience might believe this IS a hoax as Horatio first believes.

And this is an interpretation sorely lacking in the supernatural. The Ghost fills Horatio with more awe than fear and cut from the scene are all mentions of the magical. And yes, that means they cruelly cut Marcellus' wonderful "Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes" speech. Obviously, Horatio no longer speaks of the dead walking Rome's streets (or explains Denmark's historical context), which is really too bad because Peter Francis James gives a strong performance as a "Roman" Horatio.
But cutting his classical references early on undermines that performance's relevance.

In this version, the scenes flies by and you're left missing key elements. Literally missing them and wishing they'd been included.

Act I Scene 1 - BBC 80

Part of the BBC's Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare collection, this production directed by Rodney Bennett is a studio-bound, multi-camera affair that almost uses the integral text. There are some cuts, mostly a line here and there, but sometimes more important. I won't forget to mention them.

Setting the Scene
This version's exterior scenes are particularly minimalist, and yet extremely dramatic. Denmark is represented as a fogbound, snowy plain with a far-off horizon. An empty studio floor painted white, basically. Bleak is a word that comes to mind, which is certainly appropriate, a luminous but empty background against which shadowy figures are heavily contrasted.The soldiers are somewhat unconvincing, or a little bit too jaded, not all that afraid of the Ghost when it appears, or easily recovering from the shock. Marcellus' "It faded on the crowing of the cock" speech is delivered so matter-of-factly, it loses the awe for the supernatural it usually holds. These soldiers are simple people, not thinkers or even folk philosophers.

Robert Swann's Horatio plays well this unbeliever who even chuckles at the soldiers' claims and so is then profoundly disturbed by the Ghost's manifestation.
Sadly, his Roman streets speech has been cut, neglecting the paganism that comes with studying classical texts, as both he and Hamlet must have done.

A couple of lines jumped out at me here that make me mistrust Horatio in the role of the chorus here (though the performance is sincere). When making the ID, so to speak, of the King, one has to wonder if Horatio was ever on the battlefield. As a scholar, it wouldn't seem so, but he knows just how Hamlet Sr. frowned when he smote the Polacks. That's a very clear detail. The potential answer is in this passage:

Who is't that can inform me?
HORATIO: That can I;
At least, the whisper goes so.

I'd never really thought about the punctuation (funny how the stops in a line reading can make you see all sorts of new things), and presumed it was "The whisper goes so: Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us..." It isn't. The whisper (rumor or story) isn't about the King, it's about Horatio being knowledgeable. "I can inform you, or so they say." Is Horatio admitting to being a teller of tall tales? An embellisher? Someone who speaks first hand of things he has only second-hand knowledge of? It could explain his intelligence on the Polack wars as well as how he fills in the details of Hamlet's story after the play. Those that would make him out to be a more sinister character can also find a way in through these lines. For Shakespeare, it may just be part of his continued juxtaposition of reality and play, a subversion of the story's historical roots.

The Ghost
Due to the production's technical limits, the Ghost is created simply with lighting and Patrick Allen's performance. Sadly, he feels a bit like an armored zombie, shambling across the stage, and that's mostly due to sound. You can hear the steps and the clinks of the armor from the on stage sound, giving altogether too much reality to this creature of the ether. In a sense, and combined with the soldiers' performances, this is a less phantasmagorical Denmark. The Ghost is solid and the people take their superstitions for granted.

Staging
Three things to notice about the staging of this scene:
1) The cock actually crows. For some reason, other films have been loathe to include a sound effect.
2) The fog is well used to make the Ghost appear in different places as the soldiers shout "'Tis here!", creating a confusion that would not be so easy to produce on stage (unless you had multiple actors doing the Ghost... not a bad idea).
3) The transition between this scene and the next. Applause from the wedding scene overlaps with the end of Scene 1. A slightly jarring, but I think appropriate, reminder that this is theater. Does make it seem like the director is giving his first scene an ovation though.