Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet [1996] 242mins
9/10
Shot in 70mm which greatly adds to the wonderful sense of place (the palace and all its hidden doors feel traversable from the mind) and some great acting all-round; all upon the bountiful tapestry of Shakespeare, who it must be said, understood the human condition with such ease and eloquence.
The post 4 hour running time really allows the work to breathe: Shakespeare's plots were never groundbreaking, but the dimension he adds to characters is astonishing. Their inner turmoils and unsaid tangents. Even characters such as Horatio feel real.
My favourite monologue from the whole play is as follows:
“Seems,” madam? Nay, it is . I know not “seems.”
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed “seem,”
For they are actions that a man might play.
But I have that within which passeth show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
Its about not needing to display anything to anyone when you know something to be true from within. When you are happy you shouldn't have to show anyone that you are happy to be justified in your happiness. And likewise for sadness: crying, sighing and looking utmost morose does not truly denote the deepermost feeling of grief. For these are humane gestures which people can play -- like cards -- to 'seem' some certain feelings or another. Never do these tangents touch upon the absolute truth of the soul.
And so Hamlet doesn't need to show his sadness for validation of it. He is upset, calcified even more so without any of the outward shows of it... It is. Emotion is . Why dress it up.
I am Hamlet. I love my sister but rarely do I outwardly show it. As for anger, as for sorrow, as for argument, as for passion. These things reside within me with such raw, flipping, spooling fervour that not only is it difficult to filter them outwards, but rarely do i feel the need. They have already reached truth within. Anything more is a facsimile of it.
And it is not that i don't want to outwardly show affection or personal passions but with Hamlet, Shakespeare has noted the pitfalls and sometimes folly of the attempt. Of ever being able to truly denote ourselves to others through the hazy medium of gestures and almost-truths.
We must simply be how we feel.
TL:DR - Just 'do' shakespeare. In any form.