Page 135 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

124 / Shakespeare in the Movies

young people swarmed the place. They discovered themselves in his
melancholy prince, perfectly suited to the sixties. Hamlet was an
idealistic activist standing up to Denmark's corrupt Establishment.
This Hamlet barely stood still long enough to appear to be think-
ing, much less lost in thought; "The stage is not the place to think,"
Schell explained. "Theater is action, present tense. I do my thinking
before the play. You, as audience, see it in the action."
So soliloquies were spoken in the active rather than the passive
voice. Schell's Hamlet, Glenesk continued, is all "Sturm und Drang,
strident, cool, yet heavy with the weight of his own aggressive
approach—a Prometheus, a titan." The production was filmed specif-
ically for broadcast on Eurovision by director Franz Peter Wirth, who
sensed that the correct approach would be to play Hamlet as an inti-
mate chamber drama. He ignored any and all possibilities for epic
proportion—those very elements theatrical filmmakers emphasize,
which explains why there are no exterior shots.
The result came pretty close to being the ideal televised Hamlet;
in America, Variety praised "Wirth's imaginative staging within the
confines of the small screen." Problems began, though, when direc-
tor Edward Dmytryk (who had given Schell his first important Hol-
lywood role several years earlier in The Young Lions) became
convinced that this Hamlet ought to have a theatrical release. Those
same close-to-medium-range shots, so right for television, came off
as disturbingly claustrophobic when shown in American movie the-
aters.
Dmytryk convinced Schell, against the actor's better judgment,
to dub the film into English rather than use subtitles. Schell opened
his mouth and articulated words in German, though what we heard
was British verse. The lines in their original, abbreviated German
ran considerably shorter than the added Shakespearean counterparts,
creating the awkward situation of Schell closing his mouth before a
soliloquy was concluded. Only the multilingual Schell dubbed his
own lines; other members of the German cast were dubbed by Brits,
causing Variety to complain that "frequently the voices sound
detached from the bodies."
There were moments of inspiration, however, most notably
having Schell deliver the "To be or not to be .." speech with the
.
camera trained exclusively on his eyes. The result was a striking
alternative both to the earlier Olivier approach (voice-over) and the
later Zeffirelli decision to have Mel Gibson speak the words aloud,
theatrical fashion. Having Hamlet speak—but not allowing us to see