Hamlet Film Journal: Entry #1

       Act I, Scene 2  

      1) In scene two, people celebrate and congratulate Claudius for becoming a new king. Everyone was really excited and most people wore really bright cloth to show how happy they are with this decision. Everyone, but Hamlet. Even though he is one of the representatives of the royal family and he had to stand next to his parents, Branagh decides to isolate him from everyone else and Hamlet is the only person who wears all black in the whole crowd. Hamlet is clearly disappointed with his mother’s decision to marry his uncle and he does not want to be a part of this wedding.  I think that it was a wise decision because the audience understands how different Hamlet is from his family.

      2) I think that it was not a wise decision to have Claudius, Gertrude and Hamlet to have this conversation about the death of Hamlet Senior in the middle of the wedding. It is a really important problem and I think it would have been better if they had this family time alone and not in front of this huge group of people. I don’t think it is possible to be honest with someone about your feelings if they are other people listening to what you are saying. But I guess Branagh highlights “Pretense & Performance” theme by having the actors participate in this discussion at such an inconvenient time; because Claudius and Gertrude can say really encouraging things in front of the whole kingdom, but they do not have to necessarily mean that. They can just pretend that they really care about Hamlet’s position and his feelings.  It looked like they were lying, because Gertrude had a really rapid eye movement, and there was no eye contact between Hamlet and Claudius.

      Act I, Scene 3

      1) At the end of scene three, Ophelia says: “I shall obey my lord”. She did not address this line to her father. Before she said that sentence, the audience saw a few shock cuts of Ophelia having sex with Hamlet. In my opinion, it is a very clever technique that Branagh used to deliver this line. Everything was more than just flirting between Ophelia and Hamlet. After Polonius hit his daughter and talked to her in such a demanding way, Ophelia decided to continue being this rebellious teenager and not follow her fathers’ orders.

2) I think that Laertes should have never kissed Ophelia’s lips, because it looked creepy and weird. Laertes looked really attracted to his sister. He was really close to her and stared at her lips the whole time. He was very playful and that was just wrong.