Underplayed Gems

Hamlet (1907)

Hamlet poster
Directed by
Georges Méliès
Genre
drama film, silent film
Country
France
Runtime
10 min
Rating
1.8 of 10 from 2 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

This silent short film adapts William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. It shows key moments from the play including the prince's encounter with his father's ghost and his duel.

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What happens

Hamlet, released in the United States as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is a 1907 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès, based on William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. The film, now presumed lost, was the first cinematic version of any Shakespeare play to unfold across multiple scenes. In 175 m (574 ft) of film, it presented a character study of the mentally troubled Prince Hamlet, as seen in glimpses of several famous moments from the play: his encounter with the gravediggers and the skull of Yorick; his meeting with his father's ghost; his betrothed Ophelia, seen in a ghostly vision of her flower-throwing frenzy just before her death; and his final duel with its fatal aftermath. Méliès, an early French filmmaker known for his innovations, made several films with Shakespearean themes; in Hamlet, he played the title character in addition to conceiving and directing the film. Scholars have highlighted Méliès's groundbreaking use of cinematic techniques to adapt Shakespeare's plot, as well as the adaptation's dreamlike pace and style. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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