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HAMLET in the Golden Vale
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HAMLET in the Golden Vale
Who You Callin' Crazy?: HALLOWEEN FLASHBACK
Count Bela Reviews Nosferatu and Vampyr
International Film & TV: The World of International Noir
Documentary Picks: Farmsteaders
Hollywood Notables: Fiona Shaw
Book Reviews: Conversations with Ray Bradbury
or Beware the Illustrated Man
HAMLET in the Golden Vale
by Paulette Reynolds * October 15, 2019
Hamlet in the Golden Vale
2018
Director(s): Dan Hasse, Taylor Myers
Screenplay: Dan Hasse
(Based on the play by Shakespeare)
Music by Seth Ford-Young
Cinematography by Cory Fraiman-Lott
Starring Taylor Myers/Hamlet, Constantine Malahias/Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Elise Kibler/Ophelia, Pat Dwyer/Claudius, Beth Ann Hopkins/Gertrude, Anthony Vaughn Merchant/Horatio, Jonathan Hopkins/Polonius, Yuriy Pavlish/Laertes
2018
Director(s): Dan Hasse, Taylor Myers
Screenplay: Dan Hasse
(Based on the play by Shakespeare)
Music by Seth Ford-Young
Cinematography by Cory Fraiman-Lott
Starring Taylor Myers/Hamlet, Constantine Malahias/Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Elise Kibler/Ophelia, Pat Dwyer/Claudius, Beth Ann Hopkins/Gertrude, Anthony Vaughn Merchant/Horatio, Jonathan Hopkins/Polonius, Yuriy Pavlish/Laertes
"A film is never really good unless the camera is the eye in the head of a poet." Orson Welles
Independent film is like a fickle friend - sometimes there for you and other times woefully absent. And whenever I see a production of the greatest play in history, well, I'm a bit wary. After all, I've been hurt by so many big screen versions of Hamlet - Hamlet 2000, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, Tony Richardson’s Hamlet --- well, you feel my pain.
So when I received a screener link for Hamlet in the Golden Vale my heart skipped a beat. Would I be disappointed again, but this time on a smaller budget, with unknown actors? Comforted by my low expectations, I cautiously proceeded to view yet another retelling of the sad tragedy of the Dane.
Hamlet in the Golden Vale is a lot of things, but a bad film it is not. Nestled in lonely southern Ireland (Machaire méith na Mumhan), the Golden Vale rests just this side of where the wild wind blows, and promises any Shakespearean fan a fascinating experience.
Independent film is like a fickle friend - sometimes there for you and other times woefully absent. And whenever I see a production of the greatest play in history, well, I'm a bit wary. After all, I've been hurt by so many big screen versions of Hamlet - Hamlet 2000, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, Tony Richardson’s Hamlet --- well, you feel my pain.
So when I received a screener link for Hamlet in the Golden Vale my heart skipped a beat. Would I be disappointed again, but this time on a smaller budget, with unknown actors? Comforted by my low expectations, I cautiously proceeded to view yet another retelling of the sad tragedy of the Dane.
Hamlet in the Golden Vale is a lot of things, but a bad film it is not. Nestled in lonely southern Ireland (Machaire méith na Mumhan), the Golden Vale rests just this side of where the wild wind blows, and promises any Shakespearean fan a fascinating experience.
Taylor Myers' young Dane is just that - raw in his youth, he spitefully rages about the inky corridors, spitting out his itch for revenge at whoever he happens to run into. Dan Hasse (from the American Shakespeare Center) co-directs a fine cast of Americans who explore the Bard's famous tale, melding the traditional text with unconventional settings and quirky camera shots.
Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, (skillfully played by one Constantine Malahias), usually an afterthought in most versions, finally get their proper moment in the sun as the sly friends who practice spy craft for the treacherous King Claudius.
Hamlet's love interest gets off to a rather quiet start, but Ophelia's final descent into madness takes us along the swampy shore at dawn's bleak daylight. Her soliloquy is not delivered in the usual manner either, but finds her laying on a bed of flowers, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance, pray you, love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts..." She lovingly hands out her tiny floral treasures to people who are not there, and this makes the scene even more heart-breaking.
Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, (skillfully played by one Constantine Malahias), usually an afterthought in most versions, finally get their proper moment in the sun as the sly friends who practice spy craft for the treacherous King Claudius.
Hamlet's love interest gets off to a rather quiet start, but Ophelia's final descent into madness takes us along the swampy shore at dawn's bleak daylight. Her soliloquy is not delivered in the usual manner either, but finds her laying on a bed of flowers, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance, pray you, love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts..." She lovingly hands out her tiny floral treasures to people who are not there, and this makes the scene even more heart-breaking.
If any flaw exists in this private exploration it lies in Hamlet's parents. Beth Ann Hopkins is too young and lacks the quiet majesty of Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude. Pat Dwyer's Claudius almost disappears in a vital role calling for a more robust virility. Sadly, the ghostly apparition misses the one central element that sets the entire play on its course, which is the anguished exchange between father and son. It's there, but the director's choice to rush the moment weakens the motivation.
The score and cinematography lend just the right tone of an impending funeral, allowing Hamlet in the Golden Vale to fulfill its promise by spinning an oft-told tale into a poetic sigh of infinite sadness.
Paulette Reynolds:
@PG13Reynolds
@CinesMovieBlog
p.reynolds@live.com
@PG13Reynolds
@CinesMovieBlog
p.reynolds@live.com
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COPYRIGHT 2012/2019. Paulette Reynolds. All CineMata Movie Madness blog articles, reviews, faux interviews, commentary, and the Cine Mata character are under the sole ownership of Paulette Reynolds. All intellectual and creative rights reserved.
