Hamlet
- Alternative title
- Hamlet: The Drama of Vengeance
- Synopsis
- Feature film which presents Hamlet as a princess. While the King of Denmark is seriously ill his wife gives birth to a daughter, telling the court that a son has been born in order to safeguard the crown. The King recovers and the baby is raised as a boy. From this follows Hamlet’s secret passion for Horatio and rivalry with Ophelia for his love. Gertrude is presented as conspiring in her first husband’s murder. Hamlet kills Claudius in a fire immediately upon returning from Norway with an army led by old school friend Fortinbras, and it falls to Gertrude to engineer Hamlet’s death in the fencing match as well as kill herself by accidentally drinking the poisoned wine.
- Country
- Germany
- Medium
- Film
- Technical information
- Black-and-white / Silent
- Year of release
- 1920
- Duration
- 86 mins; 7,764 feet
Credits
- Director
- Heinz Schall; Svend Gade
- Cinematographer
- Axel Graatkjaar; Curt Courant
- Screenplay
- Erwin Gepard
- Costume
- Hugo Baruch; L. Verch
- Cast
Additional Details
- Production type
- Fiction Films
- Plays
- Hamlet
- Subjects
- Drama
- Keywords
- Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Gender reversal
Notes
- Notes
- The viewing copy held by the BFI National Archive is 6,610ft (73mins) has English flash titles.
- History
- HAMLET had its premiere in Berlin 4 February 1921.
- Reviews
- Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968 (p272-8, 375-6). Ball gives a detailed account of the film’s various sources.
Howard, Tony. Women as Hamlet: Performance and Interpretation in Theatre, Film, and Fiction. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Thompson, Ann. ‘Asta Nielsen and the Mystery of Hamlet’ in Boose Lynda, E. & Richard Burt (eds). Shakespeare the Movie: Popularizing the Plays on Film, TV and Video (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 215-224.
Buchanan, Judith. ‘Asta Nielsen and Emil Jannings: stars of German Shakespeare Films of the early 1920s.' Shakespeare on Silent Film: An Excellent Dumb Discourse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). pp. 217-251.
Production Company
- Name
Art-Film
Archive
- Name
BFI National Archive
- Web
- http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/searching-access-collections/research-viewing-services External site opens in new window
- Phone
- 020 7255 1444
- Fax
- 020 7436 0165
- Address
- 21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN
- Name
Museum of Modern Art
- fsc@moma.org
- Web
- http://www.moma.org External site opens in new window
- Phone
- 9212) 708-9613
- Address
- Celeste Bartos International Film Study Center
11 West 53 Street
New York, New York 10019-5497
Distributor (Sale)
- Name
Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF
- schurig@deutsches-filminstitut.de
- Web
- http://www.deutsches-filminstitut.de External site opens in new window
- Phone
- 0611 97 000 10
- Fax
- 0611 97 000 15
- Address
- Filmarchiv
Kreuzberger Ring 56
65205 Wiesbaden
Germany
How to cite this record
Shakespeare, "Hamlet". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av69039 (Accessed 27 Dec 2024)