.. have another ‘double-feature’ for you, this time with Shakespeare
With the Kozintsev rendition of King Lear to be announced later
in April, for our next screening we give you Kozintsevs
Hamlet
(Soviet Union, 1964)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered by Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. Claudius usurps the throne of Denmark, and marries Hamlet’s recently widowed mother. Hamlet is tormented, haunted, and increasingly unstable.
Click here for a ‘long read’ review
Co-written by Pasternak and with a Shostakovich score, this late work of a Soviet hallmark, and Shakespeare enthusiast (who also adapted this play for the stage earlier) is regarded as his finest piece. Kozintsev’s Hamlet is as political and public as it is personal. A “post-Eisenstein realism” with the strong avantgarde aesthetics of Kozintsev lets even the landscape and architecture, climate and atmosphere play roles. Critically acclaimed both audiences and scholars across the globe.
Introduction and discussion as usual. Almost: together with Natalia Rubinstein, the hostess you have gotten to know and enjoy, we have a visitor and enthusiast of the matter with us on these occasions. David Margolies entered the Shakespeare industry by the back door — he studied the fiction that Shakespeare read before coming to the plays themselves. This gave him a rather different perspective. He is Emeritus Professor of English at Goldsmiths, University of London.