We watched the rushes every day though so soon my eyes tuned into the 70mm. Another challenge was that, in the story, the characters are stuck in an avalanche which meant shooting against a white background so that changed how all the colours and the silhouettes read. It just means you learn the hard way – the camera sees EVERYTHING. “Director Ken (Branagh) and I did Hamlet (1996) together which was shot in 70mm. Alexandra Byrne noted in a Clothes on Film interview:
#HAMLET 1996 FULL MOVIE DAILYMOTION TV#
While this Hamlet doesn’t have the scope of Lean’s film, the 70mm was similar to the demands of high-definition TV today, emphasizing every little thing on screen. Branagh shot this work in 70mm, much as David Lean had done for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). One interesting thing to note is how richly detailed the costumes and production design are. This makes Elsinore appear to be a militaristic court, emphasizing the fear of invasion by Norway’s Fortinbras that will happen at the end of the play. If anything, the prevalence of uniforms and highly tailored garments is the strongest costume theme. The women mostly wear 1890s gowns and tailor-made blouse and skirt combinations, while the men wear uniforms and suits. While the historical period in Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing (1993) was pretty ambiguous, this Hamlet is basically set in the late Victorian era. The costume designer was Alexandra Byrne in her first movie project (she’d only done TV and theater previously). The main filming location was the grand baroque Blenheim Palace, so you know this won’t be a medieval or renaissance set story. Ken, of course, stars as the melancholy Dane, and he gathered an all-star cast with Kate Winslet as Ophelia, Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Julie Christie as Gertrude, and cameos by everyone from Judi Dench to Robin Williams.
It took Kenneth Branagh to make this happen and do so in spectacular fashion. It's an excellent production.There were Olivier‘s and Zeffirelli‘s versions earlier, but nobody had the guts to put every word of Shakespeare’s Hamlet on film for over four hours. Although I personally do not find this offensive as a viewer, I have to be sensitive to the values of my community, and I strongly advise teachers who want to show this to preview this film and make sure that it's acceptable for your school, students, and district. More problematic is that during Ophelia's mad scene, when she is referring to "Young men will do't if they come to it," she thrusts her hips into Claudius and then lies on the floor raising and lowering her hips in a manner suggestive of intercourse. You do not see frontal nudity, rear ends, or genitalia.
One heads-up: If you are a teacher intending to show this to a class, please be aware that there is some brief nudity in Act IV (the second half of the movie) in a very brief flashback scene in which Hamlet and Ophelia are shown naked on a bed kissing. Branagh takes very few interpretive risks with the text, unlike Gibson, Jacobi, and Tennant, but while this does not make for an exciting re-reading of the play, it does provide a fantastic "baseline" to evaluate other productions. This is the most faithful adaptation of Shakespeare's play currently available.
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