First things first: I'll be forever grateful. Thank you so much, NT Live.

So, yeah, cinema... guess the real thing is even more exciting, but I take what I can get!! Really really liked it!!

Will not say I don't have critical thoughts on minor things, because I have, but overall, it was awesome. And Benedict's performance was just stunning. So much power! Even through the cinema screen you could get a good feel of it.

I liked the set. A lot better in the second part, actually, but it was good, yes. No, I didn't think it was too much. In the beginning I thought it rather boring though, stairs, big table, yeah. But it worked for me, mainly.

The music was perfect. Really gave me shivers. Also liked the slow-motion movements in the background while Hamlet was reciting.

A few characters felt a bit hollow to me. But all the power I was missing there, our dear Hamlet took over And Ophelia... she was really amazing, truly broke my heart.

dioscureantwins wrote:

I’ve never seen a couple about to be married who were less interested in each other. They should be gobbling up each other with their eyes at the wedding banquet, not the food on their plates. Thus Hamlet’s deeply moving plea to his mother to deny Claudius access to her bed loses its impact for one can’t imagine her desperate to receive her husband nor for said husband to want to bed such an icy wife.

This, I second. There was something missing.

The fencing part didn't really convince me, sorry to say Don't know why, but in that moment, I felt the energy was missing a bit. The same I thought about the final scene... cannot really say why, just in general, during the second part, everything felt a bit slower to me. Maybe it was just that I expected more of a final big bang which didn't happen.

Overall, I did expect something like Frankenstein, but it was very different. I know, I know, it's something different by default, but... dunno. I loved it, and yet, if I had to choose, I'd go for Frankenstein again. I was impressed, fascinated, all of it, but I'm not sure it's the best Hamlet I've ever seen. Well, it's the first stage Hamlet I've ever seen No, I don't know how to put it without sounding wrong. It's just, I was expecting "once in a lifetime", and it just wasn't that. But it was still great. Which is a lot.

Now I need food, because I feel hungry after all this, just like Benedict ;-)

Ha, and when he recited the poem for the refugee help plea, some of the black stuff that covered the stage still stuck on his face... he looked so adorable, making that serious speech and having this stuff on his face... I do think all of the cinema was smiling, despite the serious speech.

The sound was mainly good, but there were a few moments when the sound wavered a bit which made me cross my fingers, but nothing happened. So glad it all worked well.

So, who else was in cinema today?
 

Last edited by Whisky (October 15, 2015 11:11 pm)

Well, Dan and I just got back from the cinema after seeing Hamlet and I loved it - lock, stock and barrel!

And surprisingly so did Dan (not that he doesn't love live theatre but he had to miss our team playing a home game for this and he said afterwards that he still would have rather seen the play, despite the game being a 3-2 overtime thriller). 

I have seen a lot of live theatre at some pretty impressive venues, with some pretty impressive casts and although this one would have been better live, the production tonight was pretty darn impressive to me (and unless you were in the top grade seats, the closeups of the actors' faces just couldn't have been beat). 

The only thing that slipped up slightly was a couple of times the mics worn by the actors crackled (and once I thought Laertes' mic went out and his voice sounded really far away as a result). 

My only other complaint was that in the final scene Horatio was a bit garbled to me in his delivery - he just didn't seem to be enounciating his words clearly enough and projecting his voice (it wasn't mic trouble - perhaps he was just tired... ?).

But other than those two very minor things, the rest was sublime. 

From the opening lonely scene of Hamlet playing "Nature Boy" on the phonograph, to the body-strewn carnage finish - beautiful, passionate, funny and fierce. 

The supporting cast (that was everyone excluding BC, because let's face it, it was HIS PLAY and he was the only main character) was great.  Sian Brooke was heart-wrenderingly fabulous as Ophelia (there were actual tears in my eyes in the scene where she wanders off to her dealth) and Anastasia Hille was equally up to the task of the role of Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. 

I thought Ciaran Hinds was perfect and evilly aloof as Claudius. 

And then there's Ben... what a wonder he is. He was everything a Hamlet should be to me.  Impetuous, thoughtful, silly, philosophical, brave, frightened, gut-wrenched emotional and icy cold and calculating.  Hamlet is a play famous for the wide spectrum of emotions displayed in the text by the lead character.  His personality is so well-rounded and complex that only an actor of immense range can do the role justice.  But Ben shouldered that responsibility and challenge with relish and poise (and, yes, a lot of humour). 

But his performance was so much more than his expert emotional rendering of those iconic lines.

Ben's physicality and athleticism was staggering to say the least. The way he pranced, jumped, dashed, and crawled around what seemed like every inch of that huge stage was just gobsmackingly amazing!

I loved the sword fight!  It was swift and realistic and yet very theatrical in that it was elegant and precise. 

I think I truly held my breath during most of the final scene. 

Dan confessed to me that he never really understood the "to be or not to be" soliloquy before tonight but the full impact and meaning came ringing clear through when Ben said those lines tonight. 

I found that connection with the words all through Ben's performance - he had such a knack for letting the feelings and understanding of the text come through so clearly.  That is what acting is all about!

Just a remarkable play, done by a remarkable actor.  I hope he has the chance to do more of this sort of thing in the future - his true calling is to "tread the boards" as far as I am concerned.  I just hope that NTLive is around to put such endeavours on film (or better still I am able to be there for myself in person to witness his performance, in the future!!).

I'm still tingling from this Hamlet, this beautiful, beautiful Hamlet.  Thank you BC for bringing this to life for me.



-Val

What Ah-chie just said...perfect. Almost my thoughts precisely.

I, too, teared up at the sight of Ophelia wandering away to her death, so small and lost, through that physical and emotional rubble.  My thought then and at many other times during the play were, "My god, what we adults do to our children!"

An amazing experience and I'm still in awe today. It feels like the first time I fully comprehended this play in all it's depth and complexity.

Please do, as they are always very good: I've been to quite a few of the NTL screenings.

My best Sherlockian pal hated it...

She hated everything.
She said they should have trusted the text...to be honest I don't know the play well enough to respond to that, but I loved what they did...
She didn't like Ophelia.
She hated the staging, you know the set (which I loved).
She hated the costumes...which I loved.
She hated the humour and playing to the audience...but my other pal(who knows the play better than me) confirms there is some humour there...
She said it didn't make her care about the characters...but I think she's possibly missing the point there.

The play didn't air on any cinema near me (I checked), but tonight I've seen quita few small clips from the show (from the interview aired just recently).

And I have to say... this will probably make me very superficial, but I really don't like theatre. It's just too artifical and melodramatic for my taste. I know where it comes from. You have to act over the top so that even the audience at the back can hear and see you. And I am not for a second critizising neither the production nor Ben. From what I could see, it was a wonderful play, and Ben does a tour-de-force of a job that is simply amazing. 

It's nothing on him, it's all on me. Theatre is just not for me. When I see how subtle he can be in other roles, I just can't get over the overacting in theatre. The archaic language that makes me unable to decipher half of what they say... it's just not for me. And I know it makes me the pleebe, Shakespeare is after all a classic. But I've seen a more modern play (on YouTube) that also featured Ben, and I didn't ike that either. For the same reasons.

Having that said, I know that what Ben is doing must be tremendously taxing both mentally and physically. How he is able to do it night after night beats me. The man is amazing, and so is his performance. I can appreciate what he does on an intellectual level, if nothing else.

 

NoSheetSherlock wrote:

Whisky, loved hearing your impressions! On my way to the cinema now... U.S. west coast time delay...Excited.

That was really incredible!
Some technical snafus (microphones)  and camera angles I didn't agree with.   Some of the
minor characters a bit uneven, it's true.

Other than that,   really amazing.   A stunning production.

I am biased.  I consider Hamlet the best written English play.  I have studied it,
as many of you have,  I have seen many adaptations,  I've written about it.
The themes it introduces,  the complex interactions and depth of character are a joy.
The sound of the language and the words words words--- I love this play.

I didn't mind the text editing at. all.   The humour sprinkled in this somber story
is actually in the text.  The humour seldoms comes through.  It did here.

It's an actor's dream to play all the facets of a charactier like this,  and Benedict is a true master.
The soliloquies should be canned,  studied.   The natural delivery of so many of these
dense speeches  really were a gift.

I was lucky enough to have seen this show in person in early September.   The differences in experience:

The close-ups in this cinema version:  priceless.
True I did not see the ripped-up photographs Gertrude peruses after Ophelia's exit, until this film version, lovely.

The set's size and impact - a bit more effective in person.   That said,  Benedict's huge
strengths- his sudden cat-like athleticism,  and stage presence,  his voice and
direct connection with a audience-- more effective in person--
but that's quibbliing.   Pretty awesome in the cinema as well, I say.   He knows what he's doing
with a camera,  and we are the lucky ones to watch.

The Ophelia and Gertrude performances improved considerably in this cinema version, IMHO.

Loved the cinema introduction interview, and the visit to the school at the beginning.
Loved the curtain speech,   just as effective in person as it was in the cinema.
 

I gather it did...did they not move the To be speech?!

Hamlet, and Shakespeare has endless possibilities, but not everyone will agree with it. 

I was happy that this production used the Second Quatro bits as well, you can never get enough Shakespeare if you ask me! 

But you can't please everyone. 

I think I've told this before... but in my case my love 'affair' with Hamlet started in high school. A traveling acting duo came to our school and performed a shortened version of Hamlet, just two people... no actual props either. (other than a red scarf and a wooden sword).. they were only in black trousers and white shirts... but what really caught me was how they played the scenes with Ophelia... the same red cloth they used to stab polonious behind played Ophelia... the guy who played Hamlet toyed with the cloth between his fingers and in the end just let it drop onto a stool. 

My friends and I stayed around after ('our' lunch place was in there and we had to be quick to reserve the good seat before someone stole them) and I gasped when the actors just put away the cloth like it was nothing. They had managed to make it come alive.