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“Franco was quite irreverent with the play and not at all frightened of it,” says Helena Bonham-Carter, who plays Hamlet’s lover Ophelia.
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He often acts things out as if he were in a silent movie as a way of making himself understood, and though it can be quite funny, it does help you get the gist of what he wants.” “Franco’s a passionate, decisive director who creates an exciting mood, and he has a highly operatic directorial style.
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“We had our ups and downs but mostly it was a really great set,” says Glenn Close, who portrays Hamlet’s mother. Interior scenes were shot at England’s Shepperton Studios, while exteriors were done at Dover Castle in the south of England. Finally, with the aid of producer Dyson Lovell, who’s collaborated with Zeffirelli on several projects, backing was secured and the 11-week filming got under way this year on April 23, Shakespeare’s birthday. In 1964, he directed a touring stage production of the play, and in 1980 financing fell through as he was about to mount it at the Ahmanson Theater. “Hamlet” is the realization of a dream Zeffirelli says he’s had for almost 30 years.
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It’s the human condition to be in this darkness of the soul because we don’t have the equipment to perceive what’s truly around us.” No matter what one achieves, finally we all must ask ourselves ‘To be or not to be?’ It’s a question of faith really, a problem we all share, because with what we’ve been given we can’t find God-no one is 100% sure. And, this supreme achievement remains unsurpassed-man has not gone beyond ‘To be or not to be,’ let’s not fool ourselves. “There’s no superstition in Hamlet, nothing of the middle ages, and he was the first dramatic character to deal with the questions that make a modern man’s mind so tormented and rich. “Hamlet is the most infuriating, magnificent character ever written,” says Zeffirelli. I chose him because in addition to the admiration I have for his work, I felt it important that people be able to identify with the actor I cast because I’m trying to lure an indifferent generation to ‘Hamlet.’ Who would’ve seen my version of “The Taming of the Shrew” in the ‘60s had it not starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton? Their presence in the film brought a lot of people back to Shakespeare, and that’s what I hope to do with Mel.” “The critics could really harm this film,” he adds, “and they must understand one thing: I didn’t cast Mel because he’s a big star.
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Who’d go see ‘Hamlet’ with a lesser actor? Today you need someone who offers the image young people worship and Mel has that. “Audiences might fret about Mel a bit at the beginning,” he concedes, during an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel, “but he quickly becomes very convincing, and I’m sure he’ll attract an audience to this film that otherwise wouldn’t see it. He brought the film in on budget ($10.5 million), his vision of the play comes across as he intended, and he’s thrilled with the performance Gibson turned in. Zeffirelli, an expansive character who’s devoted much of his life to the revitalization of great works of the past, isn’t worried-for him, “Hamlet” has been a success on every score. Will audiences who adore Gibson as a 20th-Century action hero accept him in Shakespearean drama? Starring Mel Gibson in the title role, Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet” is a risky picture on several counts-the most notable being the casting of Gibson. “I want to return the play to the audience it was written for and want this man to be remembered-and I think people will remember the ‘Hamlet’ of my film.” “Hamlet’ was written as a popular tragedy for the masses, but over the centuries it’s come to be seen as a work of art for the elite and has lost its connection with the mass audience,” says film director Franco Zeffirelli.