![]() ![]() A play is to divert, to entertain, to allow us to identify with others who trials and tribulations are so like our own. Branagh's ambitious Hamlet is also one of the most accessible and entertaining, yet without the faintest hint of any dumbing down or abbreviation. ![]() How they would have bemused and delighted an Elizabethan audience. The use of flashback scenes of things implied, such as the amorous union of Ophelia and her Lord Hamlet abed, or of a vast expanse of snow darkened with distant soldiers to represent the threat of Fortinbras' army from without, and especially the vivid remembrance in the mind's eye of the new king's dastardly deed of murder most foul, helps us all to more keenly appreciate just what it is that torments Hamlet's soul. Recall that for Shakespeare-the ultimate actor's playwright who wrote with precious few stage directions-interpretation was left to the direction and the actors, an open invitation that Branagh rightly accepts. Branagh has not condensed the acts like some mass market soup, as was done in Olivier's 1948 Oscar-winning production, or in, say, Zeffirelli's 1989 Hamlet lite starring Mel Gibson (both excellent, though, within their scope), but has kept every word while directing our understanding so that even those only casually familiar with the play might follow the intent and purpose with discernment. Part of the genius of Branagh's interpretation of Hamlet is in the use of the techniques of the cinema to enhance the production.
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