First up it was New York, then London, and now Milan fashion week has begun. Blow us down with a feather (we're that tired, we'd crumple) if it hasn't been a busy time for team fashion
Hello all. It feels like a lifetime has passed since we last spoke, and yet it was only last Friday, you know? And we know what it's like: one minute you're obsessing over the Guardian's new fashion website layout (don't worry, it's been keeping us awake at night too) and the next minute a whole week of work has passed and you've barely looked at the site at all. You log off from the work computer everyday with those browser windows still open on the latest blogs or galleries, but their contents remain unread. You go home thinking you'll read up on the site the next day, but the next day only brings a...
Hello all. It feels like a lifetime has passed since we last spoke, and yet it was only last Friday, you know? And we know what it's like: one minute you're obsessing over the Guardian's new fashion website layout (don't worry, it's been keeping us awake at night too) and the next minute a whole week of work has passed and you've barely looked at the site at all. You log off from the work computer everyday with those browser windows still open on the latest blogs or galleries, but their contents remain unread. You go home thinking you'll read up on the site the next day, but the next day only brings a...
- 9/23/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
With a 70mm format as his extended proscenium arch, filmmaker Kenneth Branagh has boldly invigorated William Shakespeare's most celebrated play to a towering visual dimension that captures the tumultuous tragedy of "Hamlet" as no stage or filmic version has.
It's a stunning and invigorating distillation, and this 238-minute version will enthrall select-site audiences whose aesthetic sensibilities and gluteal muscles are up to the demands of the production.
Multiple Oscar nominations seem in order, and the film is certain to be a favorite among critics groups. Down the line, this Castle Rock masterwork will be released in a two-hour, 35mm version to sync up with 20th-century attention spans.
Certain to be trumpeted in many quarters as the film of the year, Branagh's "Hamlet" is a vigorous and forceful interpretation, roiling with passions and energies that have been too often lost in deferential, more timid renditions.
Opulently colored and ripe with the earthy sensibilities and undercurrents of Shakespeare's writing, this brassy and sweeping entertainment captures the breadth of the Bard's storytelling and the eloquence of his poetry.
Transformed to the 19th century from its medieval timetable and set in England's imposing Blenheim Castle, which serves as Elsinore, "Hamlet" transports Shakespeare's play to a court that he in his lifetime never encountered but one that is altogether fitting and proper for the rich veins of his dramaturgy. It is truly a time "out of joint," and this tempestuous telling taps the tale's murderously dark dimensions.
As Hamlet, Branagh has fittingly forsaken the usual coffeehouse ennui that unfortunately all too often colors the performances of black-tighted lads who undertake this grandest and most delicate role.
Branagh's Hamlet might be melancholy, but he is no mope, genuflecting before his ultimate question: "To be or not to be?" Rogue, peasant slave and prince all at once, Branagh has conveyed not only the method of Hamlet's madness but the marrow of his wisdom.
As played by Branagh, Hamlet is a considered man, surely "cursed" to "set things right," but, unlike many conventional interpretations, this Hamlet is no effete coward, grasping for a way out. He is more a man of action who equivocates not out of cowardice or fear but because he truly understands what agonies his actions will bring.
For those viewers who only know the "fair prince" through the constrictive presentations of college-town stage presentations and have only experienced the wispy warblings of coffeehouse-styled soliloquies, Branagh's blood-boiling performance is sure to be both an eye- and ear-opener.
The supporting cast also juices the play with flesh-and-blood interpretations. It's a well-chosen lot. As Queen Gertrude, Julie Christie's performance is a well-wrought weave -- hedonistic, regal and frail all at once. Derek Jacobi's cunning, sharp portrayal of Claudius fittingly shows the mettle of a man with no morals but great survival powers. Richard Briers as the obsequious Polonius and Kate Winslet as the mad Ophelia get inside the skins of their characters, clueing us to the agonies of those caught in this rotten state of affairs. Cameo players include Charlton Heston and Robin Williams.
In this mold-breaking work, the castle itself is not done up in the usual dull, gloomy hues.
Rather, Elsinore is a kingly hall, a gleaming and imposing palace and fortress, alive with passions, intrigues and appetites. Rimmed by mirrors, it reflects slants and cracked visages that expose nerve endings as well as moral voids; all the while its reflective scope catapaults the splendor and the tumult of the story to full, catastrophic dimension. Throughout, production designer Tim Harvey's designs are succinctly brilliant.
The visual embroidery is also eloquently conveyed by costume designer Alex Byrne. No bare-bones, threadbare finery here; again, this "Hamlet" is a richly passionate, kaleidoscopic evocation of the text's eruptive powers.
The technical crowning point is cinematographer Alex Thomson's glorious scopings. Thomson's compositions are majestically framed and smartly punctuated by editor Neil Farrell's sharp-swathed cuttings. Topping off the technical excellencies, Patrick Doyle's music, with its brassy salvos and whirling undercurrents, tolls bravissimo.
HAMLET
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment
Producer David Barron
Screenwriter-director Kenneth Branagh
Adapted from play by William Shakespeare
Director of photography Alex Thomson
Production design Tim Harvey
Editor Neil Farrell
Costume design Alex Byrne
Music Patrick Doyle
Music producers Patrick Doyle, Maggie Redford
Casting Vanessa Pereira, Simone Ireland
Sound mixer Peter Glossop
Miniatures, digital and film opticals
The Magic Camera Co.
Visual effects producer Antony Hunt
Color/stereo
Cast:
Hamlet Kenneth Branagh
Polonius: Richard Briers
Gertrude Julie Christie
Ghost Brian Blessed
Claudius Derek Jacobi
Reynaldo Gerard Depardieu
Player king Charlton Heston
English ambassador Richard Attenborough
First gravedigger Billy Crystal
Old Norway John Mills
Marcellus Jack Lemmon
Fortinbras Rufus Sewell
Ophelia Kate Winslet
Osric Robin Williams
Running time -- 238 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
It's a stunning and invigorating distillation, and this 238-minute version will enthrall select-site audiences whose aesthetic sensibilities and gluteal muscles are up to the demands of the production.
Multiple Oscar nominations seem in order, and the film is certain to be a favorite among critics groups. Down the line, this Castle Rock masterwork will be released in a two-hour, 35mm version to sync up with 20th-century attention spans.
Certain to be trumpeted in many quarters as the film of the year, Branagh's "Hamlet" is a vigorous and forceful interpretation, roiling with passions and energies that have been too often lost in deferential, more timid renditions.
Opulently colored and ripe with the earthy sensibilities and undercurrents of Shakespeare's writing, this brassy and sweeping entertainment captures the breadth of the Bard's storytelling and the eloquence of his poetry.
Transformed to the 19th century from its medieval timetable and set in England's imposing Blenheim Castle, which serves as Elsinore, "Hamlet" transports Shakespeare's play to a court that he in his lifetime never encountered but one that is altogether fitting and proper for the rich veins of his dramaturgy. It is truly a time "out of joint," and this tempestuous telling taps the tale's murderously dark dimensions.
As Hamlet, Branagh has fittingly forsaken the usual coffeehouse ennui that unfortunately all too often colors the performances of black-tighted lads who undertake this grandest and most delicate role.
Branagh's Hamlet might be melancholy, but he is no mope, genuflecting before his ultimate question: "To be or not to be?" Rogue, peasant slave and prince all at once, Branagh has conveyed not only the method of Hamlet's madness but the marrow of his wisdom.
As played by Branagh, Hamlet is a considered man, surely "cursed" to "set things right," but, unlike many conventional interpretations, this Hamlet is no effete coward, grasping for a way out. He is more a man of action who equivocates not out of cowardice or fear but because he truly understands what agonies his actions will bring.
For those viewers who only know the "fair prince" through the constrictive presentations of college-town stage presentations and have only experienced the wispy warblings of coffeehouse-styled soliloquies, Branagh's blood-boiling performance is sure to be both an eye- and ear-opener.
The supporting cast also juices the play with flesh-and-blood interpretations. It's a well-chosen lot. As Queen Gertrude, Julie Christie's performance is a well-wrought weave -- hedonistic, regal and frail all at once. Derek Jacobi's cunning, sharp portrayal of Claudius fittingly shows the mettle of a man with no morals but great survival powers. Richard Briers as the obsequious Polonius and Kate Winslet as the mad Ophelia get inside the skins of their characters, clueing us to the agonies of those caught in this rotten state of affairs. Cameo players include Charlton Heston and Robin Williams.
In this mold-breaking work, the castle itself is not done up in the usual dull, gloomy hues.
Rather, Elsinore is a kingly hall, a gleaming and imposing palace and fortress, alive with passions, intrigues and appetites. Rimmed by mirrors, it reflects slants and cracked visages that expose nerve endings as well as moral voids; all the while its reflective scope catapaults the splendor and the tumult of the story to full, catastrophic dimension. Throughout, production designer Tim Harvey's designs are succinctly brilliant.
The visual embroidery is also eloquently conveyed by costume designer Alex Byrne. No bare-bones, threadbare finery here; again, this "Hamlet" is a richly passionate, kaleidoscopic evocation of the text's eruptive powers.
The technical crowning point is cinematographer Alex Thomson's glorious scopings. Thomson's compositions are majestically framed and smartly punctuated by editor Neil Farrell's sharp-swathed cuttings. Topping off the technical excellencies, Patrick Doyle's music, with its brassy salvos and whirling undercurrents, tolls bravissimo.
HAMLET
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment
Producer David Barron
Screenwriter-director Kenneth Branagh
Adapted from play by William Shakespeare
Director of photography Alex Thomson
Production design Tim Harvey
Editor Neil Farrell
Costume design Alex Byrne
Music Patrick Doyle
Music producers Patrick Doyle, Maggie Redford
Casting Vanessa Pereira, Simone Ireland
Sound mixer Peter Glossop
Miniatures, digital and film opticals
The Magic Camera Co.
Visual effects producer Antony Hunt
Color/stereo
Cast:
Hamlet Kenneth Branagh
Polonius: Richard Briers
Gertrude Julie Christie
Ghost Brian Blessed
Claudius Derek Jacobi
Reynaldo Gerard Depardieu
Player king Charlton Heston
English ambassador Richard Attenborough
First gravedigger Billy Crystal
Old Norway John Mills
Marcellus Jack Lemmon
Fortinbras Rufus Sewell
Ophelia Kate Winslet
Osric Robin Williams
Running time -- 238 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/8/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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