Hamlet

Yes, I'll concede that Kenneth Branaugh's uncut version of Shakespeare's text (never played on the Elizabethan stage, in all likelihood) is a benchmark for cinematic *Hamlet*s, but Williamson's performance (particularly his voice-over soliloquies) is still highly thought-provoking thirty years later. The film is like a moving Rembrandt painting (*The Night Watch* comes to mind) with its restless, shifting light and dissolves. It took great courage, for example, for Richardson not to show the Ghost, but rather to reveal him as a burning white light whose impact we feel by the responses of Horatio and the guards. Big budget and big screen it's not, but Richardson's direction has meticulously thought out many significant production details. This is definitely a cerebral *Hamlet* that gives the view

I saw this production at the Round House in London, when Nicol Willianson (who destroyed his career by his undisciplined waywardness) was a hot property. The film of that production cuts Shakespeare's original by more than half, yet what survives IS 'Hamlet'. Williamson is a sardonic Prince, masochistically ready to condemn his irresolution, but his performance has a breathtaking urgency. Judy Parfitt's Gertrude and Mark Dignam's Polonius could hardly be bettered and Gordon Jackson's bespectacled Horatio is to my mind his best performance. Marianne Faithful is an endearingly vulnerable Ophelia, Michael Pennington an impassioned Laertes, and though far too young Anthony Hopkins has many fine moments as Claudius. Roger Livesey does a lovely double act as the First Player and Gravedigger, there never were a creepier Rosencrantz and Guidenstern than Ben Aris and Clive Graham and Peter Gale is a splendidly camp Osric. Tony Richardson races through the play with considerable intelligence and ingenuity. 'A hit - a palpable hit'!

I was switching channels one Saturday evening when my dial stopped--Nicol was on the screen, and there was no mistaking him. I didn't recognize the role at first, until he spoke a few words; then the play came to me like a flash. Hamlet. I stayed, and finished out the play as much as I could (I was suffering insomia and just channel-surfing to fall asleep by) before cursed sleep took over. (Sleep that knits the raveled sleep of care, oh, wait. That's another of his movies!)

In all seriousness, I was intrigued by his portray of the mad-Prince. The mood changes were all down perfectly--you could see the insanity truly right below the eyes. Now, either Nicol's a brillant actor (natch!) or he's a bit touched himself! Every little thing he did onscreen, ever muscle twitch in his facial expressions--you really believed that he was insane, and it was perfect. I had never seen any of the other Hamlet plays, just local-type ones by amateurs, and he blew my socks off.

I HIGHLY recommend this movie. Now, if you get a copy, you'd better tell me where--I've been looking for footage since that night! I even opened the TV-Guide, tore out the little paragraph that was in there about it, and stashed it so I could have all the particulars.

Never found a copy yet (video stores and libraries), but I haven't given up home.

Do check out this movie if you see it's coming on cable again--it's very worth the few hours!

:)

Dee

Tony Richardson's production, faithfully reconstructed from the stage version and filmed in situ at the Roundhouse, has some very odd casting: Nicol Williamson plays Hamlet, morose and black suited, spitting his lines at the screen like a malevolent spider; Anthony Hopkins (younger in real life) plays his stepfather and Royal usurper Claudius. Judy Parfitt (excellent) plays a seductive Gertrude, while Marianne Faithfull plays Ophelia (and actually does it quite well; I read she didn't have particularly good memories of the role but she comes closer to the character than a lot of the more accomplished actresses I've seen tackle it). Michael Pennington is wasted, really, as Laertes. Roger Livesey appears as Player King and is very good in one of his last film roles.

The play itself is shorn to minimalism, very short, very staccato. This works well for some of the scenes - the Ghost's appearance, for example; the scene with Hamlet and Ophelia when they are being observed; the 'words words words' bit; and Hamlet's visit to his mother's room before his dispatch to England. I'm not sure about the soliloquies to camera, or certainly whether they come across as well as they would have done in the theatre. But it is a fascinating record of an eccentric collection of performances.

This is a passable re-telling of Shakespeare's great tragedy, but here's the rotten thing in Denmark. Not only does Nicol Williamson not fit the concept of a young Prince Hamlet. He actually looks a good many years older than both his mother and his stepfather (Judy Parfitt and a young Anthony Hopkins).