Medieval Film Club: Hamlet (USSR, 1964)

Director: Grigori Kozintsev

Grigori Kozintsev (1905–1973), born in Kiev into a Jewish family, had dreamed of making a version of Hamlet since at least 1923, when he had considered the possibility of directing an abridged mime version for the stage. In 1954 he directed a ‘standard’ version at the Pushkin Theatre in Leningrad, which was the basis for this film. Kozintsev’s Hamlet (played by Innokenty Smoktunovsky [1925–1994]) has been described, when compared to Laurence Olivier’s more famous film version of 1948, as ‘not so much a lone romantic figure as a victim of group malaise’, and the film as ‘richer in insight and more cinematically mature’ (Olivier praised Smoktunovsky’s performance). Rocky cliffs and stormy seas are always present, but so are crowds of courtiers over which Hamlet’s inner monologues evolve.

In the opening sequence, following Hamlet’s ride into the castle, there is a large circular windlass lifting a drawbridge, after which we see a portcullis thundering down. Afterwards, there is a tracking shot of the camera moving back between two walls. There is a feeling of claustrophobia, of being trapped in a chain of events from which there will be no escape. There are recurring shots of a mechanical clock throughout the film, which seems to indicate the inexorable passing of time and the progression of the tragedy. The last scene of the film shows the open waves of the sea, immediately after Hamlet’s corpse has been carried outside the castle, the drawbridge lowered, the portcullis lifted. It has all come full circle. Dmitri Shostakovich’s (1906–1975) brilliant and wonderful score supplies every mood for the film, from the martial beginning to the subtle colours of Hamlet’s inner monologues.