Hamlet (1964) User Reviews

An Elsinore that looks like a castle . . . and a prison

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 18 March 2014]

Hamlet (1964) (original title Gamlet) is a Russian adaptation of Shakespeare's play, directed by Grigori Kozintsev. The film stars Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy as Hamlet, and Anastasiya Vertinskaya as Ophelia.

I saw this movie as part of a Shakespeare in Film honors seminar that I'm auditing. It surprised me that I enjoyed this version of Hamlet so much. After all, it was filmed 50 years ago, in black and white, mainly in Estonia, during a period when the Soviet government was monitoring every frame of every movie for possible deviation from the politically acceptable.

Nonetheless, the movie worked for me. Elsinore Castle--artificially constructed, as I learned from IMDb--looked very realistic. Also, the castle had life in and around it. When you think about it, most film Hamlets are shot almost in a vacuum. You don't get any sense that anyone lives in or works in the castle. This Hamlet is the exception-- extras are everywhere, working hard and keeping the castle functioning.

The acting is generally excellent. I was particularly impressed by Anastasiya Vertinskaya (Ophelia). She went on to become a noted Russian film star. This role was a turning point in her career. She's extraordinarily talented. She acts--and appears--like someone who belongs in the setting. She doesn't have the buffed, "I am a star" attitude of many women who play Ophelia.

Prince Hamlet tells us that, to him, Elsinore is like a prison. Kozintsev emphasizes this aspect of the castle. In the beginning of the film, the portcullis closes ominously. Even if you don't know the plot of Hamlet, you know that trouble is ahead after you've seen the first few frames.

Some of he students felt that seeing Shakespeare in translation just doesn't make sense. After all, Shakespeare is the greatest master of the English language. Boris Pasternak apparently translated Shakespeare's language into Russian, but that doesn't help us. I would have thought that the subtitles who have reverted to Shakespeare's English, but they don't. Unless you speak Russian, you have no idea of what the Russian audience is hearing.

Does that mean that all that's left (for us) is the plot? Some of the students thought so, but I disagree. There's a third element besides language and plot--character. Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, and Ophelia all have a distinct character, set down by Shakespeare for us to understand and interpret. I think that in this movie, even though we lose language, Kozintsev allows us to see character. So, even without Shakespeare's language, this film has much to offer us. (Music by Dmitri Shostakovich is an added bonus.)

I saw the movie on the small screen, where it worked pretty well. It would work better in a theater. If it's not playing in revival, watch it on DVD. It's definitely worth seeing, and I highly recommend it.

reviewing Kozintsev's film 43 years after seeing it for the first time

[machadocoelho · 9/10 · 16 September 2006]

I have first seen Kozintsev's Hamlet back in 1963 and saw it again yesterday, as part of my job as music critic in a São Paulo newspaper, for the commemoration of Shostakovich's centennial -- he is the author of the soundtrack. The film has not aged, it is still one of the most beautiful adaptations of Shakespeare tragedy, Smoktunovsky's acting is thrilling and Shostakovich's soundtrack is marvelous. His irony reveals itself in the way he accompanies the scene at the graveyard: Hamlet's bittersweet dialog with the gravedigger (what an actor!) and his sad monologue about frailty having in his hand's Yorick's skull. A great film!

A revelation...

[Musidora · 9/10 · 22 October 2001]

Wow! What a film! I saw it recently with three friends at Chicago's Facets Cinematheque, and we were collectively stunned by this film. On at least three occasions, it took my breath away--the ghost on the ramparts sequence, the play within the play sequence, and Ophelia's mad sequence were just incredibly wrought. I can't say enough about this film.

Finest Shakespeare ever filmed

[laurentic · 10/10 · 18 June 2006]

Utterly brilliant - I saw this film 17 times in the cinema when it first came out in 1964 - and I was all of 18. I'd never read Hamlet, never heard of Shostakovitch, couldn't speak a word of Russian - and yet this film changed my life! Now it's finally arrived on DVD in all its original splendour, complete with Shostakovitch's sensational score in stereo... The editing of Shakespeare's original by Pasternak is masterly, the direction faultless - but it's Innokenty Smoktunovsky's interpretation of Hamelt that lingers a lifetime in the mind. I've seen every other film adaptation of Hamlet, and none of them come anywhere close to this incredible cinematic masterpiece, which remains my #1 film of all time!

A Treat for the Eyes and the Ears

[dmeltz · 10/10 · 6 January 2001]

I have to marvel at the production values in this wonderful film. Exquisite sets, lighting and costumes. Stunning location. Epic original music score by Dmitri Shostokovitsch -- the music alone is more than enough to recommend this film. Great acting by, among others, Innokenti Smoktunovsky as Hamlet. Every scene an artistically complete poem of light and sound. Oh, and if you wonder what it's like to hear Shakespeare in Russian . . . it's great! The translation is by Boris Pasternak, one of the finest poets in any language. An epic treatment of the epic story.

Russian Shakespeare

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 9 April 2021]

This 1964 'Hamlet' was quite a unique experience and unlike any other adaptation of the play seen. This is meant in a very good way. 'Hamlet' is one of Shakespeare's finest and one of his most quoted and parodied in popular culture, it is also one of his most adapted with mostly impressive results (amazing considering that it is one of Shakespeare's most difficult with the characters being so psychologically complex). Also love the Russian language, which is a major reason as to why this version stands out from the rest.

After watching, for me this film replaces the wonderful Laurence Olivier film (though that is to judged as an incredible piece of film-making and a standalone, not for those that want 100 percent fidelity) as the finest screen adaptation of 'Hamlet'. One of my favourite versions overall. Not only will it be of great interest value for fans of the play and Shakespeare, as well as those intrigued by Russian film, but it is exceptional film-making in its own right. Have loved Russian film for a long time, for me this 'Hamlet' is up there with the finest Russian films ever made and that is quite a compliment to give.

Visually, this 'Hamlet' is a work of art and the best looking version of the play to exist (yes even more so than Olivier's). Easily among the best looking Shakespeare film adaptations, with sets that are both sumptuous and brooding, very atmospheric lighting, costumes that are evocative and not cheap and cinematography that is achingly beautiful and bold. Have always appreciated Shostakovich's music, his haunting, intensely dramatic and emotionally rich music here made me appreciate him all the more.

Grigory Kozintsev's direction is nothing short of exemplary and shows a master at work, although justifiably lauded (and as well as his 'Hamlet', his 'King Lear', one of the best versions of that play too, and 'Don Quixote' are deservedly highly regarded) he deserves to be wider known worldwide and his films made more accessible. The script is poetry in words, thoughtful and emotionally complex.

The story is always absorbing and highly atmospheric, with plenty of high drama, intimacy and poignancy. Everything is done in good taste, no questionable, irrelevant or gratuitous touches, and it is one of the few adaptations to nail the psychology of the characters and their complexities (Orphelia can be potentially passive, she isn't here), the play within a play elements and also putting strong emphasis on the politics without being heavy-handed or rambling. All the performances make their mark, with one of the most powerful screen Hamlets in Innokenti Smoktunovsky. As well as a touching Anastasia Vertinskaya and sinister yet noble Mikhail Nazvanov.

Summing up, brilliant and a must for Shakespeare fans and if you want to see something different but in a way that is unique and done in good taste. 10/10.

A great film now on DVD

[hamletmachin · 10/10 · 1 June 2005]

I share the previous reviewer's high estimation of this wonderful film. It is a highly political and imaginative interpretation of Hamlet, making Hamlet a man of action who is nevertheless alienated at court. The opening sequence is a stunning interpretation of Hamlet's view that the time is out of joint--Hamlet rushes back to court on horseback even as the flags of mourning are being unfurled. Claudius's speech is delivered by a herald and then translated by ambassadors. When we get to Claudius giving the rest of it to his court, it's not clear how much time, if any, has passed. nor is it clear who is in command (who is giving the orders that the flags be unfurled, cannons fired, the proclamation read, and so on). When Claudius finally addresses Hamlet aft the camera tracks him moving right down the table of courtiers, Hamlet's chair is empty. the opening sequence also moves from open external spaces ( a shot of the sea, a long shot of the land, and moves to increasingly shut in , interior spaces (the castle gates drop as the music gets ominous) to suggest that Denmark is indeed a prison. Visually and musically the film is very rich. I would rank this as the best of the filmed Hamlets.

Perfection

[sunlion · 10/10 · 5 January 2004]

Film is like a poem - nothing can be added, nothing can be taken away. Black and white shades only add to the graphic drama. Acting is as powerful as a storm on the high seas. I strongly recommend also "King Lire", also in black and white and in the same "Olympic" quality. Note! - not for the blockbuster lovers,movie is very artistic, it requires you to actually understand what is being said.

an ice flower

[Kirpianuscus · 12 July 2016]

the best adaptation of Hamlet. it is not exactly a verdict. or an impression. it is a profound feeling at each new discover of this special masterpiece. a film like an ice flower. the coldness. the delicate beauty. the moment of touch. it is an impressive mixture of Shakespeare and Russian soul. each as reflection of the other. each as revelation of profound truth. like an ice flower, it is only a detail from the entire picture on the window. the music of Shostakovich, the performance of Smoktunovsky, the costumes, the special sound of words, the new light and shadows of well known scenes, the emotion. it is Hamlet. the same who you knows. and the other who, like the veil - spider web of Ophelia or the air of Elsinore are a never heard message each occasion to see again the film.an ice flower. that , I believe, could be the inspired definition of this remarkable gem.

Amazing. Period.

[starinmoon5 · 10/10 · 13 October 2006]

Kozinstev does a BEAUTIFUL job with his Hamlet. The choice of black and white, the setting by the sea, his actors, Shostakovich's music... It's all brilliant. The interpretation of Hamlet and his motivations might seem a little sketchy at times, but the overall interpretation is far too commanding to be affected. The portrayal, especially, of Hamlet himself is , simply put, one of the best out there. Smotunovsky's controlled and deliberate performance cannot help but leave you stunned during some of his soliloquies. And in my personal opinion, anyone who has read Hamlet should have to see Kozinstev's vision of Hamlet Sr.'s ghost. SO awesome.

Starring the "King of Soviet Actors"

[alexanderhadams · 7/10 · 14 November 2019]

This is an interesting adaptation of Hamlet that tries to use the script, but bring it to life. It doesn't try to act as something it's not, but fully leans into the tragedy. The second half is much more action-packed and entertaining than the first--which in my opinion came off as a little melodramatic.

Nothing rotten here

[hte-trasme · 8/10 · 27 April 2014]

Cinematographically, this looks fantastic. That might be the most immediately striking thing about this grand Soviet adaptation of Shakespeare's play. The wide sweeping shots the castle, this cliffs, and and the story sea at this Estonian Elsinore as they are swarmed by medieval courtesans and armies is incredibly impressive. The scenes with the ghost of Old Hamlet may be some of the most simultaneously grand and spooky I have seen.

Though in some senses (such as costuming) a traditional Hamlet, this film, perhaps somewhat by virtue of being an adaptation in translation, has a outsider viewpoint that allows to to take liberties with sequence and setting while maintain a feeling of fealty. And this lends itself to the broad-scoped cinematic feel. We first see Hamlet upon his return to Denamrk, we follow him on the ship and on the way back. What changes there are only help suit the material to them medium of film.

Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy is a very good Hamlet and worth of the role. His baseline is quiet and solemn glumness (even for a Hamlet), which makes it the more impressive and disturbing when in his passion or "madness" he is furious or energetic and glib. He is complimented by a great Claudius and a fascinating performance by Anastasiya Vertinskaya as Ophelia, who makes scenes almost difficult to watch with how earnestly she plays having been driven mad.

The film is blessed to have music by the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who demonstrates a subtle and masterful hand with film scoring by writing music that doe snot intrude on the film but greatly enhances that mood and really seems to fit the windswept crags of the setting. The translation is by Boris Pasternak, who from while I can incompletely understand seems to eschew completely literalness for a more terse poetry of his own -- a debatable choice but perhaps best for the purposes of film.

In all certainly a huge achievement that can stand among the best of the many screen versions of Hamlet.

Gamlet, the Russian Hamlet.

[frankde-jong · 7/10 · 31 August 2019]

The much less known Hamlet adaptation of Kozintsev can be seen as a complement of the Olivier 1948 adaptation. The geo political aspects of the play, ignored by Olivier, are emphasized by Kozintsev.

"To act or not to act" ( in stead of "to be or not to be") seems to be the motto of the Hamlet of Kozintsev.

Personally i liked the King Lear adaptation of Kozintsev more than his "Hamlet".

Not for non-Russian speakers

[chengiz · 4/10 · 26 April 2018]

The subtitles on this one are terrible. Shakespeare's actual words come up about half the time; the rest of the dialogue is untranslated. If you know the story, it's at best a waste of time: the entire *adaptation* aspect is lost, and even so *you* are filling in half the story. If you dont know the story, it's probably impossible to follow. The adaptation may be brilliant but it's a form of masochism to watch for a non Russian speaker.

pure gem

[Vincentiu · 8 February 2013]

impressive. strange. monumental. subtle. wall of music, nuanced performances, Shakespeare play heart and Slav soul. it is an adaptation but in a strange manner. because out of words and images, out of Smoktunovski performance it is small light of mystery. that is its virtue. that sparkle like descending in heart of a world of shadows and ash. and the actors, the real actors, are Sostakovici music,the Russian language, the profound feeling front to a masterpiece. it is pure delight. with cinnamon flavor and salt taste. like an ice flower. or like looniest song.it is a dark large desert in night. and, in same measure, sand rope of existence like ladder to fundamental answer about art of unforgettable search of yourself. and Elisabethan costumes completed by Mikhail Nazvanov as Claudius - alter ego for a Henry VIII Philipp II of Spain or Anastasia Vertinskaya as Ophelia - prey of spider web - veil.

Pure magic

[kelesays · 10/10 · 18 August 2015]

To say frankly I have seen this movie when I was ten or something. I was astonished and embarrassed of the tremendous score and epic, fragile acting of Smoktunovsky and Vertinskaya. They did not perform, they lived the life on the screen. It was so true, so uncompromising, so tensely. The tragedy of the story impressed me very much. I could not explain why I was so involved in that performance and why it stroke my mind like a thunder. I think from that moment I became a bit older. Something important happened. Now I am 39 and I still feel the same emotional collapse when watching that victory of spirit and truth. Pure cinematographic magic.

A stunning visual experience

[blubb06 · 10/10 · 11 November 2007]

I recommend this to everyone with a taste for dramatic, striking imagery. This is undoubtedly the most beautiful black-and-white picture I've seen so far.

The inevitable subtitles are not that distracting if you're familiar with the basic story (I'm not a Shakespeare buff, so I may have missed some finer points, like a political message). The acting is superb, but never upstages the camera - this is a filmmakers vision, not an expanded stage play.

The drama is heightened by Dmitri Shostakovich's dark, menacing score over the backdrop of rolling waves. A visual and acoustic treat.

tsf-1962's comment

[erika_takacs · 9/10 · 22 May 2008]

In fact Smoktunovsky was not a Holocaust survivor: he was captured as a soldier wounded in the war, but as he got better he escaped from the German camp., back to the partisans and then he went back into the war. Of course he was very young: only 17-18 when this happened, and became a real actor just in the 1950-s. He was the son of a Russian Jewish family (had Polish roots), and when he was young he wanted to become a film-technician: his career was cut because of the war. After the war he decided to become an actor, but he wasn't able to finish the actor's school: he got actor's jobs in the cities of the Caucasus, where his colleagues taught him how to act, and encouraged him to go to Leningrad and find a job as an actor. He went there into a film-studio, and very hardly but fortunately got a job in the Lenfilm's theatre. The rest is history: he got most of the roles what all actors just dream of but he didn't get conceited. He just humbly served his public till the end of his life.

Very Horrorshow

[edgeofreality · 9/10 · 9 March 2020]

Not being a Shakespeare aficionado, I can't fault this beautifully shot and acted film. I read that the director studied Hamlet for years, and long pondered over what kind of style he should bring to his adaptation. In the end, he wanted to adapt film technique to the play and not the other way around. The end result: it looks both like a classical version, and manages to be highly innovative in its use of landscape, space, music, and bits of acting. The 'To Be..' soliloquy is particularly memorable, as is the appearance of the ghost. By the end of this film, I felt I understood Hamlet, his reasons for procrastinating, his foul treatment of poor Ophelia, his all devouring gloom. The other actor who shone for me here was the one who played Claudius - perfectly cast. In fact, the characters and costumes look like an illustrated Shakespeare volume come to life, while the locations in Estonia and Crimea are unforgettable and add to the drama. The only difficulty for the non-Russian speaker is reading the subtitles quickly enough.

living on the edge

[tsf-1962 · 10/10 · 21 November 2006]

I've never understood those who insist that Shakespeare's plays were written by an aristocrat like the Earl of Oxford. Only a man who lived life on the edge could have written the way Shakespeare did; it's difficult to imagine an upper-class twit writing "Hamlet" or "King Lear." Perhaps it's easier for people in eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union to understand Shakespeare than Americans; in many ways, living conditions there are much closer to Elizabethan England than anything we can imagine. Like Shakespeare, they have had to endure tyrannical governments, social injustice, religious persecutions, and other ordeals the more prosperous West scarcely remembers. Grigori Kozintsev's "Gamlet" illustrates this thesis. Here is a no-frills "Hamlet," in beautiful black-and-white, with a brilliant score by Dmitri Shostakovich and an exceptional cast. It's not surprising that Innokenti Smoktunovsky (Hamlet) was a holocaust survivor: pain is etched on his face, and for once Hamlet's suffering doesn't seem put on. Anastasia Vertinskaya is lovely as a tiny, fragile Ophelia, and Elsa Radzin is stunning as the queen. This is a surprisingly traditional Hamlet, free of trendy modernistic interpretation, almost nineteenth-century in its use of period detail. It's almost the kind of "Hamlet" one might have seen in the days of Edwin Booth or Sir Henry Irving; only Vertinskaya's beehive hairdo gives it away as having been made in the 1960s.

HAMLET - director - Grigori Kozintsev - starring - Innokenty Smoktunovsky ( 1964 )

[gwest-07331 · 10/10 · 12 April 2021]

The Russian version of Hamlet is top of the draw for imagination in film making....it brings 'Hamlet' to real life, and I love the large, white subtitles from the very words spoken -and written by Shakespeare.

Filmed in black and white, the photography is fantastic. The film has been honoured with nine awards, and would still be worthy of academy acclaim if it were shot in silence alone: but we have a wonderful film score from the music of Dmitri Shostakovich: It is film acoustics of moving image?

I would highly recommend a cinematic viewing if a rare opportunity presented itself. I love the melancholic mood of Hamlet: the feigning of his madness; Hamlet's reflection of thoughts, with the sea, crashing down upon the rocks; the black flags dangling down from the castle; the visual treachery of King Claudius - the wickedness we see upon the King's face - his laughter: I will never forget the incredible and powerful scene of the ghost of Hamlet's Father - the tone of the story is set for a remarkable film.... .

"What a piece of work is man......."

[brogmiller · 10/10 · 23 October 2019]

Released to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth this is, for this viewer at any rate, the only version of Shakespeare's play to match that of Olivier from 1948 whose own adaptation was of course less political and more of a Freudian portrait.

Grigori Kozintsev had previously staged a version in Leningrad which is clearly the basis for this film. This is ensemble playing of the highest quality with the performance of Innokenti Smoktunovsky as the title character drawing great praise from Olivier whilst the Ophelia of Anastasia Vertinskaya is of stunning sensibility.

The same team: director Kozintsev, translator Pasternak, cinematographer Gritsyus, composer Shostakovich and actress Elza Radzina(perfect here as Gertrude) went on to make 'King Lear' six years later. That film has merit but this one, despite the considerably abridged text, is nigh on faultless.

By far the best screen adaptation.

[ivanxviii · 10/10 · 30 October 2018]

From the first scenes, implicitly conveying the fact of the royal death, and Claudius' monolog, split between a herald reading a decree at a town square, courtiers repeating "in equal scale weighing delight and dole" and foreign ambassadors echoing them in their respective languages, and finally the king himself addressing his advisors - you know you are watching a work of a master. Of the three most popular screen adaptations, the classic Olivier's, the roaring Mel Gibson's and the Kenneth Branagh's parody, none is even close to this one. The excellent set and costumes, great acting, outstanding dark, gothic-like black-and-white camera work, Shostakovich's music - everything tells of a masterpiece. Of course, limitations of a screen play are obvious - lots of great lines omitted, added scenes (such as Hamlet on his way to England forging the king's letter, which was borrowed later by Tom Stoppard for his Rozenkrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead) - but it's the ultimate screen play nonetheless.

Historical not to appear critical

[Dr_Coulardeau · 9/10 · 31 December 2008]

This production is an adaptation. The text has been modified. The director is trying all he can to visualize as much of the text as possible. You then have long sections of movement, action, with no speech and all the famous scenes have had their text severely reduced. What's more the film is in Russian with French subtitles. You can imagine the result: the subtitles are too fast and you can't read them, and you approach Shakespeare's text through two levels of translating. Pathetic. But the film has an originality. It is this desire to visualize things and to make us grasp a situation in one glance, at first glance if possible. The director thus privileges action, collective movements and we most of the time have some walking choreography. In other words you find the characteristics of films that were still to come like Star Wars. But I must admit we lose a lot because of the language and the general feeling is that this situational and choreographic directing erases a lot of the deep humane and frantic passion that is Hamlet's both for vengeance, the lower side of the man, and for justice, the shinier side of the man. The film, it is true, shows how the rat nest created by the disturbance brought by the rash assassination of a king by his brother and the re-marriage of the Queen with the assassin leads to the total destruction of all the active elements in this situation and the only possible regeneration coming from outside and re-establishing a new balance of power. We wonder what this film is a metaphor of or a parable for. Is he speaking of the shifting of power from one group to another, from one generation to another? Is he speaking of Stalin or Khrushchev in 1964? Does he have a more general discourse on power and how it floats from one group to the other via assassinations and violence? But then who is he speaking of? Is he speaking of the past or of the present? That's always the problem with Shakespeare because in his days kings and queens were not saints and martyrs. Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I were not exactly paragons of patience and democracy, or even justice. Elizabeth I had one pamphleteer's right hand amputated because he had written a pamphlet she did not like about a prospective wedding of hers with some French nobleman. And in those days amputation was done with a butcher's hatchet and a wooden mallet to bang onto it once it had been placed on the wrist of the person who had to be standing all along. Mr. Stubbs, the right name for the role, the name of this last amputee, even took off his hat with his left hand and shouted "God Save the Queen" before fainting and falling. I have always considered it took some courage for Shakespeare to depict the extreme political and judicial practices of his time when it was not advised to criticize anything at all. And yet that's when the British Parliament managed to become indispensable in providing the ships and the sailors (both from the merchants and their guilds) and the money (from new taxes) necessary to defeat the Invincible Armada sent by Philip II of Spain, the brother in law of Queen Elizabeth I, since he was the husband of Queen Mary I, the elder half sister of Elizabeth I. I just wonder if Kozintsev was not trying to remain far away from direct political questions by being openly historical and locking himself in the past.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Perhaps the most visual of all the screen versions of "Hamlet"

[MOscarbradley · 8/10 · 3 October 2023]

There are people who think this Russian version of "Hamlet" is the best of all screen Shakespeare's and it is certainly up with the best. The problem I found is, being spoken in Russian, we have to rely on the subtitles which sometimes disappear before we can read them. That said, the text has been preserved yet beautifully abridged by Boris Pasternak and superbly rendered by the cast.

Director Grigori Kozintsev has opened out the play to make this possibly the most visual of all "Hamlet's", superbly shot in black and white Cinemascope by Jonas Gricius and cut to 140 minutes it fairly races along. Innokenti Smoktunovski makes for an energetic Hamlet, looking, at times, like a young Richard Burton while both Elza Radzina as Gertrude and Yuri Tolubeev as Polonius are outstanding and the whole piece is handled like a medieval thriller. This one is far from gloomy.