subject: Why Zefferelli did a better job at portraying HAMLET [print this page] Why Zefferelli did a better job at portraying HAMLET
Many directors have chosen to adapt William Shakespeare's Hamlet into their own movies. Two of the directors that released productions of the play Hamlet quite recently are Kenneth Branagh and Franco Zeffirelli. Both films portray the play in very different ways to make the film as effective as possible. However, Zeffirelli's version of Hamlet is more effective than Branagh's version. In the Gertrude Chamber Scene, Zeffirelli chooses to use darker colours and less lighting to establish the mood and enhance the drama. His choices of exquisite costumes which are observable in the same scene are truer to the scenery and time period. The medieval set design in Zeffirelli's film is also truer to the original setting of the play rather than the more modern setting used by Branagh. Furthermore, Zeffirelli's choice of casting in the Final Scene is better in terms of cutting any mention of Fortinbras. He decides to focus more on Hamlet and his inner problems than the outside world.
Zeffirelli's excellent lighting techniques in the Gertrude Chamber Scene make the scene seem more dramatic and establishes a tense mood. He decides to create a miserable atmosphere to resemble that tense mood by using less lighting. In this particular scene Hamlet enters Gertrude's room and starts arguing with her. The scene starts of with bad interactions between the characters where the dark lighting rightly enhances the drama by making the scene look unpredictable. Hamlet then accuses her of having something to do with the death of King Hamlet. They speak about death which againestablishes a dark and tense mood which is in turn made more effective byhis choice of dark lighting.The two characterscontinue arguing when Gertrude becomes scared of Hamlet and thinks that he might kill her. As frightened as she is, she cries out for help and Polonius who tries to answer her cry gets killed by Hamlet that blindly stabs through the arras where Polonius was hiding. Right after this incident King Hamlet's ghost appears who is only visible to Hamlet. The little light and dark background used in the scene enhances the mysteriousness of the ghost's sudden appearance because the ghost more or less blends in with the background leaving the audience with an uneasy feeling.
Beside his excellent and effective lighting techniques, Zeffirelli also uses exquisite costumes that effectively represent and are more fitting for the time period which the play Hamlet was written in. He uses medieval looking costumes that are brown, black, or beige and very simple. This way the audience tends to focus more on the internal aspects, especially the emotions of Hamlet and all other characters rather than what they look like from the outside. In the Gertrude Chamber Scene, Gertrude is wearing a black dress. Hamlet is wearing a brown shirt that matches his brown pants. The ghost that appears at the end of the scene is wearing black from head to toe. The fact that the ghost is wearing black is very effective because he blends in with the background which is a hallway where he appears from. When he walks towards Gertrude's rooms the only thing that is visible at first is a small bit of his face since that is the only thing that stands out against the dark background. This makes it more mystifying because the audience is unsure of whether it actually is the ghost or not and Hamlet is also unsure. Zeffirelli did a great job creating this mysteriousness and uncertainty by choosing dark and simple costumes.
Along with Zeffirelli's brilliant choice of costumes, he also uses his creativeness to achieve as much realism as possible by using remarkably accurate medieval sets. This is observable throughout the entire film, especially in the final scene. The final duet takes place inside the dark medieval castle where most of the furniture is black or brown. This, again, creates a dark mood that sort of foreshadows all the horrible things that are going to happen in that scene. Branagh used a very bright, shiny, and modern set in his movie, especially in this particular scene. That is the least effective way of making the audience anticipate the fight because the entire set is very light and clean with not much mystery to it. Zeffirelli on the other hand did a brilliant job in terms of making the audience anticipate what is about to happen. In this scene, which is the most important scene, most of the characters that were not supposed to get killed, die. This comes as a surprise since character like Gertrude were not plotted to get murdered. However, they did end up dieing which creates a sad and tense atmosphere. The darker and older looking walls and furniture that Zeffirelli used in the sets help establish that atmosphere. This way the audience does not know what exactly to expect and that is what makes Zeffirelli's set designs much better than Branagh's.
Not only did Zeffirelli put a lot of thought into his set designs to make it as realistic as possible, he also put a lot of thought into the casting of the movie. He chose to have all the characters from the play in the movie except for Fortinbras. He did this to abolish political issues in the movie. This play is about Hamlet and his inner problems and about the progress of his thoughts and ideas. Whether or not Fortinbras gets the throne is not of much importance to Hamlet and his issues. Therefore, Zeffirelli chose to focus more on Hamlet and his family rather than the outside world where Fortinbras belongs. He realized that the presence of Fortinbras does not alter Hamlet's thought, ideas, or even his cowardliness. In the final scene a lot of murdering happens. Hamlet kills Claudius, while Hamlet himself gets killed by Laertes and Gertrude dies of drinking the poisoned drink that Claudius prepared. Hamlet had one major plan; to kill Claudius. This is what he was obsessed with and what eventually nearly drove him to insanity. In the final scene Hamlet finally kills Claudius and that is where it ends. Fortinbras has nothing to do with any of that and can in no way change or make anything better. Zeffirelli took that into consideration and decided to cut any mention of Fortinbras throughout the movie, especially in the last scene. This is a very effective and creative idea that Zeffirelli came up with because it draws all the attention to Hamlet in the end. In Branagh's film, Fortinbras appears in the end making the audience forget about Hamlet and his issues. This is what makes Zeffirelli's casting more effective than Branagh's.
Zeffirelli has used his brilliant style to successfully create an effective portrayal of the play Hamlet. In the Gertrude Chamber Scene he used dark colours and less lighting to create an atmosphere that resembles the mood in the scene. His excellent choice of costume is true to the scenery and time period which makes the portrayal very effective. He also used medieval looking sets that are observable in the final scene to make it look more realistic. Lastly, Zeffirelli chose to cut out Fortinbras to focus more on Hamlet and the progress of his thoughts and ideas. By using all these creative ideas to portray the play, Zeffirelli showed that his portrayal of the Hamlet is far more effective than that of Branagh.
