Hamlet

In 1989 a 28 year old Kenneth Branagh challenged the enormous success of Sir Laurence Olivier's 1944 film version of Henry V. 1989 marked the death of Olivier and the death of a period in which few film versions of Shakespeare were made (Liston 1946). Branagh's Henry V was the first challenge he made to the enduring legacy of Olivier. In 1996 he made the first uncut version of Hamlet for the screen which contrasts greatly with Olivier's butchered 1948 version. Unlike Olivier's, Branagh's movie, which runs for 4 hours and three minutes, does not offer a definitive interpretation like the one that opens Olivier's film: "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind." In Olivier's version there are too many unkind cuts to catalogue here. In short, two of Hamlet's four soliloquies survive. This paper will compare and contrast the two soliloquies in Olivier's 1948 film version of Hamlet with the same two soliloquies in Kenneth Branagh's 1996 version in terms of cinema techniques.

The most striking difference between the two versions is that Olivier's is done in black and white and Branagh's is done in color. Olivier's use of black and white greatly enhances the setting and the mood he wants to achieve. Yet there is a drawback. Because it is done in black and white his Hamlet does not contrast that much from the court. There are others that are wearing costumes as dark as Hamlet's mourning dress. Branagh's color versio

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Category: Literature - H