Hamlet at Elsinore

Synopsis: 1964 television broadcast of the English/Danish co-production of the play which was filmed at Kronsberg Castle, Elsinore, Denmark. Christopher Plummer is Hamlet with a supporting cast that includes Michael Caine as Horatio, Donald Sutherland as Fortinbras and Lindsay Kemp as the Player Queen. Released on DVD in the USA by the BBC in October 2011.
Language: English
Country: Denmark; Great Britain
Medium: Television
Year of release: 1964
Transmission details: 19 Apr 1964 at 20:05 (Channel: BBC)
Duration: 170 mins

Notes: First television play to be filmed entirely with outside-broadcast cameras on location in Kronsberg Castle, Elsinore, in co-operation with Danmarks Radio.

The BFI National Archive holds a complete tape record of the broadcast, plus 495ft (16mm) extracts: Hamlet meeting the Ghost and the ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy (A3S1).

DVD released 2011, Region 1 only. Extras include a 90-minute conversation with Christopher Plummer recorded at the 2011 Sarasota Film Festival, where the restored video was first shown.
General: Other than a 1910 silent version, this is the only production of Hamlet (so far) to actually be filmed in Elsinore, Denmark, where most of the play takes place (imdb). The production was conceived and executed in eight weeks and four days. The shooting style emphasising close-ups oddly makes little use of the setting.
History: BBC’s major contribution to the Shakespeare quatercentenary celebrations in 1964. Broadcast in two parts with a ten-minute break for the news.
Awards: Nominated for an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama’
(Christopher Plummer).
Textual information: Based on 1603 First Quarto.
Reviews: Kliman, Bernice W., Hamlet: Film, Television and Audio Performance (London: Associated University Presses, 1988), pp. 154-67.
Michael Brook, "Hamlet at Elsinore (1964)'", http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1164575/index.html

Shakespeare, "Hamlet at Elsinore". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av36691 (Accessed 25 Nov 2024)

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