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..The DVD Page
Kenneth Branagh's
Hamlet
Kenneth Branagh's definitive 1996 production of Hamlet has been released as a Two-Disc Special Edition by Warner Home Video (UPC#053939268324, $27). Running 242 minutes, the film has an intermission, which is where the platter break has been placed, and represents the conglomeration of several versions of the William Shakespeare play, which are normally and sensibly abridged not only for other film versions, but even for most stage productions. Branagh also stars in the title role and has included a vast array of great actors for the major supporting parts, as well as the smallest roles-Billy Crystal as the gravedigger, Robin Williams as Osric, Gerard Depardieu, Richard Attenborough and Jack Lemmon, along with John Gielgud and Judi Dench in the briefest of flashback sequences. Derek Jacobi is Claudius, Julie Christie is Gertrude, and the then mostly unknown Kate Winslet (her next role was another 4-hour feature, Titanic) as Ophelia. The film was shot in 70mm and never scrimps on population or décor (not to mention the marvelous widescreen close-ups of eyeballs). And yet, for all of the film's grandeur, it is not the least bit stodgy. Shot in Britain, much of it around an enormous mansion, the setting and costumes suggest the early Nineteenth Century, just enough to feel archaic, but not medieval or Spartan. Branagh, who clearly loves what he is doing, infuses every moment of the film with life and excitement, building the complex and ambiguous psychological drama intelligently while delivering the best known scenes and lines with a confident zest.The picture is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 2.2:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback, which is especially effective at delivering the riveting depth of field and intricate color details. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound has a full dimensionality, a decent bass and rich tones. There are optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. The first platter contains an 8-minute introduction to the film by Branagh, and the second platter has two 1996 promotional featurettes, running a total of 37 minutes, and a trailer.
As if the film itself were not enough to qualify the title as the only version you really need to watch if you've been assigned the play at school and don't feel like reading it, Branagh and his principal advisor, Russell Jackson, supply an excellent commentary track from beginning to end. They keep the literary interpretations of the drama to a minimum, but discuss at great length the specific alternatives to approaching the major scenes and relationships, and what purpose almost every sequence serves to the drama as a whole. Having plenty of time, they also talk about the production logistics (it started snowing one day, so they quickly grabbed a scene where a character is reading a letter aloud, and had the actor actually read the letter as the snow swirled around him; Ophelia drowning a few moments later with a garland of fresh flowers-off screen, at least-must mean that it was a late spring storm), the personalities and methods of the cast, the contributions of various crew members, the alternate approaches to various conceptual quandaries, and many other matters.
On 'To be or not to be': "This particular speech felt to me like doing the 100-meters of the Acting Olympics and you're in the final. It was impossible not to understand that the familiarity, the recognition of those famous opening lines, and then its concentration of what one might call a central human dilemma, where man questions why he is here and what there might be on the other side. What death is and whether it is an attractive option, something that in lesser or greater degrees, I think people are forced to consider across their entire lives as they lose loved ones, as they face difficulties in their own lives, and it's an extraordinary concentration of what those possibilities might be, what death might involve. And so, you're aware of carrying the weight of an extraordinary piece of thought. The grip, David Appleby, the man pushing that dolly along that track and making sure he was bent low enough not to be reflected-it seems rather simple when you don't see the camera there, but it took us a couple of hours to get the perfect position to not see the camera in any of the other reflections. He started giving me notes by about Take 3 or 4 of the rehearsal, saying, 'Ya know, governor, when you get to "undiscovered country" you really need to move forward a little more quickly, otherwise you see the top of the, you know, the knob on the dolly, there.' To which I would reply, 'Well that's very interesting, David, and I value your contribution, BUT I'M TRYING TO ACT HERE.' He was a fine fellow and there needed to be harmony and rhythm between the machinery and the performance."
On 'Alas, poor Yorick': "As an actor, you know, in the theater, one of the things even more palpable than the preparation for 'To be or not to be,' which often people are surprised by because they're not quite sure of exactly where it comes in the play, but here, having seen the gravedigger, they know that at some point after Hamlet's arrived, that he will be saying, 'Alas, poor Yorick.' And so underneath this scene is this constant sort of hum and hush of expectation. There's something about the experience of watching Hamlet in the theater-maybe it's true in film-of knowing that these famous and familiar lines, even if one knows nothing about the context in which it's said, that a line like, 'Alas, poor Yorick,' is on its way in a production of Hamlet, with Hamlet about to say it, with the skull, with the famous image-man looks at skull, holds skull in some way-creates a strange atmosphere. And they want to see it. And they're excited by it. There is a tingle, there is a tingle factor that is to do with this iconic image being served up live in a production. And as an actor, I mean you can't fail to respond to it, and I must say, you can't fail to be thrilled by everything that goes with it, and the things that go through one's mind are, you know, a whole collection of one's own initial first impressions and having seen it for the first time. Your mind pictures all of the actors in the past who've seen it. You are aware of a weight of tradition of playing Hamlet when you pick up that skull or when you're looking at that book, saying, 'To be or not to be.' You're aware. 'Goodness, me. 400 years on.'"
October 12, 2007
DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
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