Books › Hamlet - Screenplay, Introduction, and Film Diary
Hamlet - Screenplay, Introduction, and Film Diary
First published 1996 · 256 pages
A backstage pass to the exhausting, exhilarating process of bringing a towering literary masterpiece to the silver screen.
What it feels like
Reading this companion volume feels like being handed an all-access pass to one of the most ambitious cinematic undertakings of the 1990s. The experience is a fascinating duality: on one hand, you are immersed in the soaring, immortal poetry of the unabridged screenplay, feeling the grand, tragic weight of the classic text. On the other, you are grounded by the intimate, practical, and often exhausting reality of filmmaking captured in the production diary and introduction. The mood shifts seamlessly from the dread-soaked halls of Elsinore to the bustling, passionate energy of a movie set. It is a steady, deeply rewarding read that will delight theater lovers, cinephiles, and anyone captivated by the sheer willpower required to translate a monumental stage play into a visual spectacle.
- Mood
- cinematic
- intimate
- grand
- industrious
- Tone
- reverent
- passionate
- analytical
- theatrical
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the creative process · artistic ambition · translating stage to screen · the weight of legacy
- The writing
- Juxtaposes the soaring, immortal poetry of Shakespeare's original text with the accessible, enthusiastic, and practical prose of a working director and scholar.
- The arc
- Transitions from the daunting weight of artistic ambition to the exhausting, exhilarating triumph of realizing a cinematic vision.
- Who it's for
- Theater nerds, cinephiles, and Shakespeare enthusiasts who love peeking behind the curtain to see how a monumental production is built.
Content notes
- depictions of grief and madness
- violence
About the book
Often credited with creating a popular movie audience for Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh has wanted for many years to bring to the screen the complete, full-length version of Hamlet, Shakespeare's greatest play. He has now done so - as director and as the prince of Denmark - making an emotionally moving, visually spectacular movie that will become a landmark in film history. The volume includes Kenneth Branagh's elegant introduction of the genesis of his role as Hamlet as well as his full screenplay adaptation. The production diary by Russell Jackson, Shakespearean scholar and script consultant on the movie, goes behind the scenes to show what it was like to film this lavish production and to work with the leading theater and movie actors of our time.
Description from Open Library.
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