Hamlet at Elsinore 1964 - English/Danish co-production filmed on location in Denmark
Director: Philip Saville
Main Cast: Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Alec Clunes, Michael Caine, June Tobin, Jo Maxwell Muller, Donald Sutherland
"Hamlet at Elsinore is a 1964 television version of Shakespeare's play. Produced by the BBC in association with Danish Radio, it was shown in the U.S. on NET. Broadcast a few days before Shakespeare's 400th birthday, Hamlet at Elsinore was the BBC's major contribution to the quartercentenary celebrations, as well as being a technical milestone. Up to then, television Shakespeare broadcasts were exclusively studio reconstructions or relays of live theatre productions, but this was the first time that a full-length play had been taped on location, in this case at Denmark's Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. This programme was recorded and edited on video tape and not 'filmed'. It is the longest version of the play telecast in one evening up to that time, running nearly three hours. (A 1947 telecast of the play had split it up into two ninety-minute halves over two weeks.)
The Canadian actor Christopher Plummer took the lead role as the Melancholy Dane and earned an Emmy Award nomination for his performance. In supporting roles were Robert Shaw as Claudius, Donald Sutherland as Fortinbras, Roy Kinnear as the Gravedigger and Michael Caine, in his only Shakespearean performance, as Horatio. Sutherland, Caine and Shaw were, at the time, almost completely unknown to American audiences, and just before the presentation's first U.S. telecast, Plummer began to gain popularity in the U.S. because of his appearance in the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music."
DVD links:
No comments:
Post a Comment