Cinematic Hamlet: The Films of Olivier, Zeffirelli, Branagh, and Almereyda

Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet: The Challenges of the Full-Text Screenplay

105 Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet TheChallengesoftheFull-TextScreenplay The filmed Hamlet that Kenneth Branagh would have made in 1988–89, if Zeffirelli’s plans had not materialized more quickly than his own, would no doubt have been a shortened, essayistic version in the manner of Olivier and most subsequent Shakespeare films. Branagh’s comments on the film that took its place, Henry V, indicate that at the time he recognized a need for commercial length:“My own experience of cinema-going convinced me that two hours was the maximum span of concentration that could be expected from an audience for a film of this kind.” This span dictated extensive textual deletions to streamline the Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet 106 plot for film’s more rapid pace and clearer story line. To make“a truly popular film,” he observed,“the pace and excitement of the plot would be presented with the greatest possible clarity.” Character psychology would need stricter focus. For Henry, Branagh concentrated on“elements of the king’s personality ” that included not the exalted heroism of Olivier’s filmed Henry but“the qualities of introspection, fear, doubt and anger” defining“an especially young Henry with more than a little of the Hamlet in him.”1 By the time Branagh resumed efforts to film Hamlet, he had completely changed his mind. Having performed in full-text versions on radio and on stage, by 1995 his success as a filmmaker had emboldened him to try a full-text film. He recognized the highly experimental nature of his project, noting that“aside from feeling that it would be fascinating to see all of that text played out in a film, I also wanted to see how much an audience might be encouraged to take it or to sit through it—what reaction there would be to that amount of dialogue.”2 Samuel Crowl deftly summarizes the challenge that Branagh set himself with this radical change in approach: “To release all that language and allow its energy to propel rather than paralyze his film was the ultimate challenge for the filmmaker. Branagh met it by combining in the film five crucial ingredients: landscape, cast, camera, editing, and music.”3 One must begin analyzing Branagh’s orchestration of these ingredients with the camera, for his Hamlet is not only much longer than previous films but also much wider. His unusual choice to employ a 70mm high-resolution film gauge means that every shot includes more space from left to right than in the earlier films. The wider screen of 70mm entails disadvantages and advantages. Vertical movement and perspective become less dramatic than in standard format, while possibilities (and challenges) open for horizontal movement and composition . One cannot expect the dazzling ascents and descents of the earlier films. More subtly, what part of the screen we look at will be more carefully controlled. In an influential essay, Charles Barr explains that the primary advantage of the ultra-wide-screen format is that“it gives a greater range for gradation of emphasis.”By varying depth of field,for example,the cinematographer can exploit a greater variety of levels of attention directed to objects in the background and on the enlarged periphery.With deep focus, wide-screen can produce a greater demand on the spectator“to make a positive act of interpreting , of ‘reading’ the shot” to find meaning in its abundance of details seeking attention across the wide range of our vision.4 In addition, the higher resolution of 70mm allows closer reading of faces in the middle distance, reducing the need for the conventional cutting in for a close-up to support The Challenges of the Full-Text Screenplay 107 the spoken word with visually communicated emotion. Such closer reading of faces allows for longer takes, which in turn allow for increased closely followed motion of characters and continuous camera movement. The format thus makes it easier for Branagh to film long stretches of dialogue in a single take without sacrificing the appeal of the orienting response, which camera movements can provide in calibrated fashion. With shallower focus, objects can be left unattended and demand for “reading the shot” can be reduced, allowing attention to be concentrated, although unfocused objects can also maintain a meaningful presence, hovering on some level of our awareness. Most often in this Hamlet, shallow focus will encourage scrutiny of a speaking or reacting face, scrutiny that is further encouraged...