And this week's Friday night movie has been... Hamlet!
Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 21 (1948)
I recall watching the Academy Awards on TV back in 1998. It was the seventieth anniversary year so, as part of the broadcast, a montage was shown of previous Best Picture winners. Many of these winners were new to me and I saw plenty of names I recognised. But one standout was the 1948 winner: An actual adaptation of a Shakespeare play.
This was a major surprise to me because the Academy didn't strike me as the kind who would honour such an adaptation. This is compounded by the fact that, as anyone who has adapted Shakespeare will tell you, the challenge presented by Shakespeare is taking material that has been performed countless times before and putting a new spin on it.
Needless to say, when I started this year-long project, this was one movie I was keen on seeing - moreso considering that this featured Laurence Olivier, quite possibly the greatest Shakespearean actor ever lived, in the title role. And director. And producer.
And what Olivier does is approach the title with that of a horror movie. There are plenty of shadows, towering sets, lots of fog, and striking angles, all building up to an astonishing atmosphere. And even the Ghost is the most frightening interpretation that I have ever seen.
Other highlights are Jean Simmons' performance of Ophelia, nailing the moment where she goes insane, Patrick Troughton (yes, THAT Patrick Troughton) as the Player King, the handling of Claudius' character and the final duel. But in the end, it's Olivier's show and he delivers in spades.
Certainly a surprise to see a Shakespeare adaptation win the Best Picture Oscar but it seems it was a well-deserved winner.
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