While watching
Hamlet (the film) in class on Monday, I noticed many people taken aback by Kenneth Branagh's pretty bizarre portrayal of Hamlet. I must admit, it is a little wild, but in my opinion, Shakespeare intended for Hamlet to act crazy! If we look at the text, Hamlet
himself intends to act crazy (to fool the King, Queen, and Polonius). I, for one, love Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet (although I was taken aback by the platinum blond hair at first, I've gotten used to it now). I recognized him from the
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie (which you MUST watch, Ms. King, if only to see Kenneth Branagh!), in which he played the self-absorbed, fraudulent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart. As I had never researched Branagh before, I Googled him and was surprised to discover that a man I only knew from a single
Harry Potter film had such a wide artistic range!
Kenneth Branagh has acted out a very diverse set of roles. Aside from Hamlet and Gilderoy Lockhart, he has taken on many other Shakespearian projects (such as
King Henry V, Macbeth, and
Othello), acted in action or war movies (
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and
Dunkirk), and even lent his voice to a character in an animated Dreamworks movie,
The Road to El Dorado. Branagh also directed films, including
Hamlet, other Shakespeare-based movies, Disney's live-action
Cinderella, and even Marvel's
Thor. He's also been nominated for
five Oscars--all in different categories!
In short, Kenneth Branagh is amazing. Here are some pictures from some of his roles.
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| Hamlet, Hamlet (1996) |
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| Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) |
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| Macbeth, Macbeth (2013) |
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| Commander Bolton, Dunkirk (2017) |
: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000110/#director
1 comment:
Lainey, you said everything I was thinking!!! Kenneth Branagh is so, so, so impressive (in my opinion)! Anyone's ability to memorize countless lines of Shakespearian English is impressive, but he also manages to convey them with an intense amount of passion. It's mind-blowing-inspiring even. The subtle changes in his tone and his facial expressions really kick his performance up a notch. His performance is, in short, mesmerizing.
(Also, Ms. King: Your Christmas assignments include watching The Lion King and at least one Harry Potter film!)
Branagh really emphasizes the fact that Hamlet is, at his core, a creature of emotion. Hamlet's inability to repress his emotions is one of the reasons he's unable to single-mindedly focus on fulfilling his duty: revenge.
His performance also makes me wonder: is Hamlet truly insane? I know, of course, that Hamlet is pretending to be crazy to fool others (as Lainey mentioned), but it seems to me that many factors have led him to mentally fall apart. After all, how would you feel if your lover betrayed you, your friends abandoned you, your uncle killed your father, and your mother married your father's murderer? Hamlet was dealt a tough hand and can't figure out exactly how to cope.
Also like Hamlet, Branagh is clever. Branagh possesses an artistic versatility as Lainey described, eye for creation (as the director in Hamlet, for example), and striking memorization ability. Hamlet's cleverness is evident in the lines Shakespeare composes; behind a lot of Hamlet's words are veiled meanings, and Hamlet frequently uses puns.
I don't know about you, but for me, watching the 1996 film adaptation of Hamlet has really given it a new meaning. (I might be kind of biased, though, because I absolutely loveeee that this movie follows the play exactly.)
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