The Film Adaptation Of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet

Film adaptations of Shakespeare plays often take on obscure production designs, in an attempt to modernize the story, and demonstrating the language’s timeless nature. These films can lead to a loss of depth in thematic aspects of the play. The 1996 film adaptation of Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh, however, sets the play in a time period and setting that heighten the themes and character arch’s that course throughout the plot. With a budget of 18 million dollars, the producers and directorial team, had the ability to fully achieve their overall production concept for the film. Starring Kenneth Branagh, who was 35 at the time, as the title character of Hamlet, and well versed actors as the other parts, the cast was successful as an ensemble.

The soliloquy includes lines such as, “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,” which inform the reader that Hamlet has developed a low regard for living (1.2.32-33). The film was able to emulate this by physically having the camera angle of Hamlet be from beneath him. Hamlet’s thoughts of mortality are not the only subject of the soliloquy, as he also tells the reader of the anguish he feels towards his mother and the new king. As an effective acting choice, Kenneth elected to have dramatic shifts in facial expressions throughout the soliloquy, to make it clear when he was muttering to himself, or addressing the King and Queen. Another effective moment in the scene was Kenneth Branagh's brushing off of the confetti that rested on his shoulder. When the King and Queen entered there were cheers, and the confetti fell, so this moment represents how Hamlet wants to remove any aspects of his mother and the king’s lives together from his own. The coupling of successful technical elements and a clear performance brought the soliloquy to life, while clearly delivering the important information included in