Comparing a Play and a Film

Transcription

1 Zeffirelli s Hamlet: A Ghost of the Original? INTRODUCTION Interesting opener Are you the kind of person who thinks nothing can surpass the genius of Shakespeare, or do you wish someone would update the language and add effects to make his plays more interesting to a twenty-first-century audience? Sometimes Play and playwright, film and filmmaker Thesis statement Comparison of narrative techniques: 1. Plot play you can get the best of both worlds. William Shakespeare s Hamlet and Franco Zeffirelli s film version of the play share the same characters and the same basic story. However, in reworking Shakespeare s ghost scenes, Zeffirelli uses narrative and film techniques to create a suspenseful atmosphere and to generate feelings of empathy for Hamlet. Zeffirelli makes significant changes in narrative techniques, specifically for act 1 of the play, by reflowing the play s plot, by adding to the settings of each scene, and by cutting the dialogue. These changes reinterpret some elements of the play and intensify Hamlet s dilemma for the viewer. First of all, Zeffirelli changes the plot and rearranges the action of Hamlet to get straight to the main action and characters. The 1

2 Quotation Quotation Quotation play begins with minor characters standing guard and talking about having seen a ghost. The main purpose of this first scene is to establish the conflict: There s trouble brewing in Denmark. The audience knows there s trouble because the king is fortifying the battlements with guards and the guards have seen a ghost walking upon those battlements at night. Moreover, in the play, the action of scene 1 establishes the ghost s believability. The guards first say they have seen something fearful: What, has this thing appeared again tonight? (I.i.28). Then, the audience witnesses the ghost themselves, when one of the guards remarks, Look where it comes again (I.i.49), and the ghost walks out on stage. Also significant in this exchange between the characters is that Horatio, a scholar, or a man of education and reason, also sees the ghost and exclaims: It harrows me with fear and wonder (I.i.53). Therefore, from the very first of the play, the audience members learn that the former king, Hamlet s father, is dead and that a ghost in his armor is walking the castle s battlements at night. The characters in the scene think that the ghost s 2

3 appearance may be an omen that hints at Denmark s troubled political situation, which includes a possible Norwegian invasion. Plot film In the film, however, the ghost does not even appear until approximately twenty-five minutes into the film. Instead, Zeffirelli reflows the plot development by rearranging Shakespeare s order of the early scenes, and he adds scenes not in the play. The film action, resulting from these changes, builds up to the appearance of the ghost. Zeffirelli s film begins with a long shot of a huge castle, bathed in blue light, out on the edge of a rocky cliff. Then, the first scene of the film is of the former king s funeral a scene that is not in the play. While an organ plays formal, solemn background music, men on horseback and in medieval armor, along with women and other men, stand as if waiting news. The next shot reveals the castle s crypt, where a figure lies in state, surrounded by a grieving widow, a new king, a son, and a few other people. In one dramatic sequence of close-ups, the film links all the major characters of the play the king s counselor Polonius, the new 3

4 king Claudius, Gertrude, and Hamlet each showing their reaction to the death of the former king. With this addition, Zeffirelli has chosen to focus his film on the personal, rather than political side of the story. 2. Setting play Setting film Zeffirelli also rearranges the time that Hamlet first finds out about the ghost. As in the play, when Horatio and Hamlet first meet up, Horatio tells Hamlet about the ghost on the battlements. However, Zeffirelli moves this exchange from act 1, scene 2 of the play to the beginning of the film s suspensefilled ghost scene, allowing the film to build in intensity until that moment when the ghost actually appears. Zeffirelli also adds to his story s setting by filming the action outside and within the many rooms of the castle and its battlements. In the play, the characters move on and off an established stage area, whereas in the film, the characters are free to roam, and the camera is free to follow the characters to different locations. Zeffirelli changes the setting with almost every camera shot, tracking characters up and down stairs or showing the action in two locations by having characters on a 4

5 higher level, peering over and listening in on conversations. With such multiple settings, the film establishes its reality, recreating for the viewer a medieval castle in Denmark. The viewer depends less upon his imagination than the theatre goer. Zeffirelli changes the setting also by adding scenes only Setting play referred to in the stage directions. In the play, while Horatio, Hamlet, and friends await the ghost on the battlements, stage Quotation directions indicate A flourish of trumpets, and ordinance shot off within (I.iv.7). When Horatio asks about the noise of a party within the castle, Hamlet indicates that this is a part of the new king s custom of staying up late and carousing. Hamlet calls it a heavy-headed revel east and west (I.iv.20) by which otherwise virtuous men act scandalously (I.iv.21 41). At this point in the play, the viewer knows that Hamlet, after two months, is still sad over his father s death and that he finds the actions of Gertrude and Claudius as the new bridal couple and the new court disgusting, especially when the state may be attacked by Fortinbras from Norway. Setting film The play s audience doesn t see the celebration; 5

6 3. Dialogue film Dialogue play however, Zeffirelli s film does show it full of warmth, color, music, and laughter. Significantly, the celebration takes place in a dining hall filled with people. Everyone in the court is there except Hamlet and his friends. The celebration, filmed in reds and yellows, showing the new king and queen displaying affection for one another acts as a sharp contrast to the cold, dark, suspenseful atmosphere up above on the battlements where Hamlet and his friends encounter the ghost. Finally, Zeffirelli takes great liberties with Shakespeare s lines. All the characters speak Shakespeare s words, but Zeffirelli makes severe cuts in the amount of dialogue that the characters speak. Gone are the long speeches delivered by Horatio in scene 1, the king in scene 2, and Hamlet in scene 4. Also in the film, the characters sometimes only perform the actions that they describe themselves doing in the play. For example, when Hamlet first sees the ghost of his father beckoning to him, he makes the sign of a cross as he holds up his sword upside down, also showing the handle and hilt as a cross. In the play those actions actually belong to 6

7 Horatio and are described by him as: Lo, where it comes again! / I ll cross it, though it blast me (I.i ). All of these changes serve to make the film less dependent upon speech, and more dependent upon action and the emotion that the actors can convey not by their language, but by their facial expressions in close-up. Evaluation of film techniques: 1. Sound effects 2. Lighting The film techniques Zeffirelli uses sound, lighting, camera angles, and camera shots are as important as his narrative techniques. For example, his ghost scene incorporates subtle yet important sound effects. Footsteps on the battlements, quiet notes of soft music, and the moaning wind add to the suspenseful atmosphere. They differ greatly from the lively music and laughter of the celebration. Visually, the battlements in the ghost scene are bathed in fog, harsh moonlight, and shadows. Icy clouds of breath float through the shot, chilling the viewer. The empty sky creates a sense of being up very high in a stony, isolated place. The climactic ghost scene takes place at night, but the background lighting begins to show the arrival of day, when the ghost must 7

8 return to his place of suffering. 3. Camera angles To create another visual contrast between the ghost scene and the celebration, the camera angle shows Hamlet and the others standing on the battlements, looking down into the 4. Camera shots banquet hall through an opening in the roof. When Hamlet and CONCLUSION Restatement of thesis Closing thought the ghost go off on their own, the camera follows Hamlet as he climbs a steep circular stairway to a higher portion of the battlements. Once Hamlet is there, the camera cuts back and forth from close-ups of the ghost as it tells its tale of horror to close-ups of Hamlet s face reacting. The audience sees every detail of Hamlet s sweating, pain-wracked face as he listens. This creates empathy for Hamlet, since we can vividly see his emotions and understand what is going on inside him. Franco Zeffirelli s film version of Hamlet is interesting, dramatic, and entertaining. Although the play shares these qualities, viewers also benefit from Zeffirelli s gifted use of film techniques. The filmmaker has created a charged, suspenseful atmosphere in which the viewer feels empathy for Hamlet. While movie audiences miss out on the complexity of 8

9 the original play, they may still enjoy sitting back and taking in the thrill of this suspenseful, fast-moving adaptation. 9