Cinematic Hamlet
Subtitle: the films of Olivier, Zeffirelli, Branagh, and Almereyda
By: Patrick J. Cook
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 257
ISBN-13: 9780821419441; 9780821443651
Subjects: Film adaptations
Description: Hamlet has inspired four outstanding film adaptations that continue to delight a wide and varied audience and to offer provocative new interpretations of Shakespeare's most popular play. Cinematic Hamlet contains the first scene-by-scene analysis of the methods used by Laurence Olivier, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh, and Michael Almereyda to translate Hamlet into highly distinctive and remarkably effective films. Applying recent developments in neuroscience and psychology, Patrick J. Cook argues that film is a medium deploying an abundance of devices whose task it is to direct attention away from the film's viewing processes and toward the object represented. Through careful analysis of each film's devices, he explores the ways in which four brilliant directors rework the play into a radically different medium, engaging the viewer through powerful instinctive drives and creating audiovisual vehicles that support and complement Shakespeare's words and story. Cinematic Hamlet will prove to be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand how these films rework Shakespeare into the powerful medium of film.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-251), filmography and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Laurence Olivier's Hamlet: the triumph of the cinesthetic; title: Franco zeffirelli's Hamlet: modernizing medievalism; title: Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet: the challenges of the full-text screenplay; title: Michael Almereyda's Hamlet: uncanny imagination.