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{{Infobox film | name = Hamlet | image = | caption = | director = [[Juan Jos Campanella]] | producer = Juan Jos Campanella<br>[[Gerardo Herrero]]<br>Mariela

Besuievski<br>Vanessa Ragone<br>Axel Kuschevatzky | writer = [[William Shakespeare]] | starring = [[Gael Garca Bernal]]<br />[[Esther Goris]]<br />[[Antonio Banderas]]<br /><!--[[Ricardo Darn]]<br />-->[[Catalina Sandino Moreno]]<br />[[Rodrigo de la Serna]]<br />[[Diego Luna]]<br />[[Javier Bardem]]<br />[[Benecio Del Toro]] | music = [[Federico Jusid]]<br>[[Emilio Kauderer]] | cinematography = [[Roger Deakins]] | editing = [[Daniel Rezende]] | studio = | distributor = | released = {{Film date|2012|7|26}} | runtime = 162 minutes | country = {{Film Argentina}}<br />{{Film Spain}} | language = Spanish | budget = $12 million | gross = $10,708,156 }} '''''Hamlet''''' is a 2012 [[Shakespeare on screen|film version]] in Spanish of [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet|classic play of the same name]], adapted and directed by [[Juan Jos Campanella]]. [[Gael Garca Bernal]] stars in the title role as [[Prince Hamlet]]. The film co-stars [[Esther Goris]] as [[Gertrude (Hamlet)|Queen Gertrude]], [[Antonio Banderas]] as [[King Claudius]], [[Ricardo Darn]] as [[Polonius]], [[Catalina Sandino Moreno]] as [[Ophelia (character)|Ophelia]], [[Rodrigo de la Serna]] as [[Laertes (Hamlet)|Laertes]], and [[Diego Luna]] as [[Horatio (character)|Horatio]]. Although the dialogue remains largely faithful to Shakespeare's original text, the play's setting is changed to mid-[[20th century]] Argentina. The [[Casa Rosada]] is the location used for the exterior of Elsinore Castle. ==Cast== *[[Gael Garca Bernal]] as [[Prince Hamlet]] *[[Esther Goris]] as [[Gertrude (Hamlet)|Queen Gertrude]] *[[Antonio Banderas]] as [[King Claudius]] *[[Ricardo Darn]] as [[Polonius]] *[[Rodrigo de la Serna]] as [[Laertes (Hamlet)|Laertes]] *[[Catalina Sandino Moreno]] as [[Ophelia (character)|Ophelia]] *[[Diego Luna]] as [[Horatio (character)|Horatio]] *[[Javier Bardem]] as the [[Ghost (Hamlet)|Ghost of Hamlet's Father]]

*[[Benecio Del Toro]] as [[Fortinbras]] *[[Guillermo Francella]] as [[Characters in Hamlet#Osric|Osric]] *[[Pablo Rago]] as Reynaldo *[[Salvador Zerboni]] as [[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern|Rosencrantz]] *[[Benjamn Amadeo]] as [[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern|Guildenstern]] *[[Mario Alarcn]] as Marcellus *[[Luis Guzmn]] as the [[The Gravediggers|First Gravedigger]] *[[Danny Trejo]] as the [[The Gravediggers|Second Gravedigger]] *[[Joaqun Cosio]] as the Player King *[[Soledad Villamil]] as the Player Queen ==Background== Coming off the award-winning international success of [[The Secret in Their Eyes]], [[Juan Jos Campanella]] was able to raise a considerable sum of money to finance his next film and used the opportunity to bring Shakespeare to Argentina on a scale never before realized. The film had the largest budget in the history of film in Argentina, leading to some comparisons to [[Akira Kurosawa]]'s lavish 1985 adaptation of [[King Lear]] as [[Ran]]. In 1999 he had planned a film for Argentine television of Hamlet, but the plan was not put into action, and his energies shifted back into more commercial international film and television productions. Campanella has said he was heavily influenced by the 1964 [[Grigori Kozintsev]] Russian film adaptation of the play, which notably emphasized the political aspects of Shakespeare's tragedy. As a fictionalized version of the history of Argentina serves as a backdrop for the film, [[Campanella]] worked to show how the play can reflect the darkness present in the politics of nearly any nation in any age. Campanellas success with The Secret in Their Eyes made him uniquely suited for taking on Hamlet, as that earlier film was widely praised for its blending of personal drama and larger political tensions. As the [[Globe and Mail]] commented about Campanellas Oscar-winning hit, The wonder is that the film balances its many genres, from the thorns of murder to the bloom of romance to the thickets of politics, with such easy grace. ==Adaptation== Campanella's film follows the general structure of the play, but the text is abridged to achieve a running time of 2 hours 42 minutes including credits. The opening scene of the play is cut entirely (just as in Kozintsev), and Act II Scene 2 and Act III Scene 2 are considerably truncated. Thus, the play-within-a-play, here dramatized as a national radio broadcast, moves much more quickly and becomes as much about politics as performance. Claudius cuts off the broadcast as much to prevent a general uprising (commonplace in those turbulent days) as to hide his shame. Campanella also trimmed Act IV Scene 7 and Act V Scene 2 in order to keep up momentum for the ending and deemphasize the role of fencing in the plot.

In this adaptation, Hamlet's mother and father are clearly based on [[Juan]] and [[Eva Peron]]. As such, Gertrude receives enormous prominence in Campanella's treatment of the play as she fills the role of a sort of hugely popular Evita-like figure. Campanella shows throughout the movie that Claudius must be ever vigilant in the face of the universal glow of admiration for his wife and nephew as the surviving symbols of the new populist Argentina. Goris had previously played Eva Peron in a more realistic take on the life of the notorious public figure of Evita than the internationally known [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]] musical. Campanella's opening owes much to Kozintsev's earlier film as well as [[Richard Loncraine]]'s adaptation of [[Richard III]]. Claudius' speech is divided up into different locations. Claudius discusses the death of his brother with a knowing irony to a close circle of generals that helped engineer his coup, but speaks about his marriage to Gertrude on the populist lectern of a public arena to throngs of supporters. We also see Argentines listen to this broadcast on radio in a clear nod to Kozintsev's inclusion of public communication in the form of a town crier. ==Style== By contrast to the solitary claustrophobia of Laurence Oliviers version, which many consider to be the standard by which all other cinematic Hamlets are measured, this version of Hamlet is cosmopolitan and teeming with extras standing in as the Argentine masses. During many of Hamlets famous soliloquies, usually delivered by a lone actor on stage, Bernal is surrounded by bustling throngs of people. The camera focuses on a still or slowly moving Bernal as he speaks his part in voiceover, with the crowds around him moving at a furious pace seemingly unaware of his very existence despite his fame as Argentinas favorite son. Campanella explains: <blockquote> Throughout the play Shakespeare develops Hamlet's sense of increasingly paranoid isolation, and I think that in any adaptation that sets the story in modern times, we must see isolation as many have experienced it in the past century: a sense of alienation as a faceless individual amongst the multitude. How can one feel alone in a city of millions? Thats the question we must ask. Shakespeares poetry is very relevant to these concerns of our age, the sense of being a statistic in a world full of genocides and labyrinthine bureaucracy and marketing to the lowest common denominator. And the crowd was also very much the politics of the period we have chosen as our setting, a populist age marked by an ordered yet impassioned rule by mob in the public square. Surveillance is another key piece of the puzzle, even more prevalent today than 400 years ago. With people around every corner, there is no way to be completely alone with one's thoughts. There could be spies anywhere and everywhere. And so, with our movie, we show this by never letting anyone get a moment alone. The people of Buenos Aires are meant to be everywhere we shoot. Even the most introspective moments bubble over with them. So this is very much a political Hamlet of the public square, and he is both thrilled and tortured by the

omnipresent crowd. Ultimately it is this combination that paralyzes him and destroys his family. </blockquote> Many critics noted the rapidity of the dialogue and the overall noisiness of the movie. [[James Berardelli]] notes, Though its more thoughtful and less MTV than Baz Luhrmanns take on [[Romeo and Juliet]], it certainly shares something of that earlier films furious pace. [[Roger Ebert]] argues that Campanella succeeded in setting the play in 1940s Argentina: This is a blistering and very loud Hamlet, with lots of ambient language in the background beyond the Bards original play. You get a real sense of how dominant radio was as a medium of communication in this period, and the busy style reflects the expansionist, modernizing, railroad building fury of Peronist Argentina. ==Reactions to Casting== Many in Argentina criticized the directors decision to cast internationally known Spanish-speaking actors in the major roles rather than Argentine performers. Some noted that casting one of the biggest movie stars in Argentina, Ricardo Darn, in the smaller role of Polonius seemed like an insult. International critics were kinder, praising a number of the actors for what they brought to the classic roles. A following are a selection of what film critics in the U.S. and UK had to say about some of the performances: *In Gael Garcia Bernal, we find an ideal Hamlet. After portraying a loss of innocence in [[Y Tu Mama Tambien]], youthful existential questioning in [[Motorcycle Diaries]], dreamy madness in [[The Science of Sleep]], ruthlessly murderous politicking in [[Blindness]], and hesitant yet artistic pragmatism in [[Even the Rain]], Bernal puts it all together beautifully in Shakespeares most complex of tragic heroes. *Esther Goris essentially reinterprets her earlier performance as Eva Peron in this fairly Gertrude-centric version of Hamlet. Her performance exudes an effortless political pragmatism in the face of tragedy and setback. Her celebrity-like magnetism is palpable but highly manipulative. *Antonio Banderas so often takes roles as the generic lead in bland actionadventures and romantic comedies that one forgets how good he really is he can play manipulative and creepy with remarkable ease as he has done recently in Woody Allens [[You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger]] or much earlier in [[Interview with a Vampire]]. Thanks to Campanella, we get the treat of seeing Banderas apply his considerable talents to one of the great roles of all time. Banderas experience as a lead actor aids in revealing how Claudius paradoxically serves as the plays protagonist it is his actions that move the story along as often as it is Hamlets. *Ricardo Darin, who previously appeared as the lead in Campanellas triumphant The Secret in Their Eyes, takes on the role of Polonius with a combination of

conniving selfishness and wry humor that made his performance in [[Nine Queens]] so memorable. *Diego Luna has played Gael Garcia Bernals best friend in Y Tu Mama Tambien and his brother in [[Rudo y Cursi]]. They have also spoken openly about their long friendship outside the movies ever since they were young children. Thus it is only fitting that Luna play the Horatio to Bernals Hamlet. Lunas Horatio is quiet, understated, almost shy a perfect complement to Bernals dark and tortured yet highly brash performance. Because of their storied chemistry, Diego Luna brings a particularly mournful hope to the final minutes of the movie. *Javier Bardem uses his brief appearances as the ghost to haunt the film just as assuredly as he did in his electrifying performance in [[No Country for Old Men]]. *It is a testament to his skill as an actor that Bardem can combine menace and pathos with as little screen time as he has here though viewers of his performance in [[Biutiful]] wont be surprised. *One of the advantages of adapting Shakespeare into lavish big screen productions is the ease that world class actors of the caliber of Javier Bardem and Benecio del Toro will sign up for smaller roles they would never dream of accepting on stage due to the larger time commitment. Benecio del Toro breathes his considerable screen presence into the oft-forgotten role of Fortinbras (Laurence Olivier famously cut Fortibras out altogether). The result is the actualization of Fortinbras as a charming, calculating and dangerous threat to Claudius. Fortinbras crucial importance in the resolution at the end of the play works much better than usual because of del Toros gravitas. This is by no means an actor lucky enough to get a role beyond that of Hamlets understudy. ==Critical and Audience Reception== Critics greeted the movie warmly, praising the cast, the production design and the direction in particular. However, many critics noted that Shakespeares original text translated to Spanish seemed to impede the production as much as it benefited it. [[Anthony Lane]], writing for the [[New Yorker]], offers a fair summation of these criticisms in his review: Had Campanella written a loose adaptation of the play to suit his visions needs just as Shakespeare adapted from Thomas Kyd and previous versions of the story, he may have ended up with a true classic. Instead, because of his rather slavish devotion to the Bards masterpiece, the resulting film is only an occasionally riveting novelty. Despite the considerable attention and promotional hype the movie received in Argentina, it did not perform exceptionally at the box office. While it was one of top ten box office hits of 2012 in Argentina, it made less than half of what Campanellas previous film had grossed. Grosses in other countries were not much better, and it is unlikely that the production will recoup its costs before it hits ancillary markets.

Considering the track record of Shakespeare at the cinemas box office, it did not to so poorly but hardly found the kind of commercial success experienced by Baz Luhrmann, Franco Zefferelli or Laurence Olivier.

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