The Portrayal of Shakespeare's Hamlet in Cinema

... Chapter One Introduction This dissertation is an exploration of William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, on film, looking into the beginnings and history of Shakespeare on film and studying three famous and very different films of Hamlet; Laurence Olivier's Hamlet made in 1948, Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet made in 1990 starring Mel Gibson in the title role and Kenneth Branagh's full text Hamlet made in 1996. I have decided to look at Hamlet on film because I believe film is relatively new medium and is interesting to see Shakespeare that was originally written for the stage to be brought to a mass audience in different and innovative ways. It is also important to discuss the different interpretations of Hamlet by different directors. I have chosen my three focus films because Olivier's was the first big cinematic work of Hamlet, Zeffirelli's was the first all-star Hollywood Hamlet and Branagh's was the first full

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