Flak Magazine: Hamlet: For the Love of Ophelia, 05-07-00

Grand literary pretensions aside, William Shakespeare was always writing for a mass audience. So it's no coincidence that Shakespeare-related films (like Shakespeare in Love, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Puck!) have been such solid box-office draws.

Now, Europeans have decided to reclaim their native son with this straight-to-video take on one of the Bard's finest and best-known works: Hamlet.

Italian auteur Luca Damiano (Love and Pain, Orient Express) brings his considerable directorial talents to bear on Hamlet: For the Love of Ophelia, a film that takes some daring artistic liberties with Shakespeare's original incarnation of the play.

First of all, its content contains a vibrant, enhanced sexuality that is only hinted at in the original work. Queen Gertrude and King Claudius's relationship, for example, is fleshed out considerably, and with little detail spared. The intensity of their contact is shocking to Hamlet, and plays off of (and magnifies) many of his feelings of anger and confusion.

In one particularly revealing scene, Gertrude visits Claudius with the gentle touch of oral pleasure, for a good 10 or 11 minutes. Hamlet looks on – he is stunned. Many of the viewers may be as well – this sort of frank look at sexuality's power certainly isn't what our frumpy 9th-grade English teachers were telling us about!

This newly liberated (and daringly depicted) sensuality comes to its logical (and classically correct) climax when Hamlet and Horatio vigorously enjoy the company a group of washerwomen and Hamlet invites one of the young ladies to sample his "royal cream." This act — coming, as it does, in a heavily ironic context — is Hamlet's supreme statement of ambiguity about his own noble status, even if the washerwomen aren't necessarily a focal point of Shakespeare's original text.

There are, however, some "reaction shots" of horses standing around that feel a bit forced.

As a result of scenes like this, there is little doubt that this particular version of Hamlet lacks some of the gravitas more conventional incarnations of the play tend to possess. But as a whole, the work stands up to a direct comparison of the original (see below).

Traditional Hamlet Vs. Hamlet:
For the Love of Ophelia
A blow-by-blow comparison

Point of comparison Traditional Hamlet Hamlet: For the Love of Ophelia

Hamlet's most memorable line: "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come..." "Come here under my pants – I have a present for you!"

Comic relief: Death, if you're one of those people who think death is funny. A Crying Game-style fantasy sequence where Hamlet discovers a transvestite in the most unpleasant way possible.

Tragic ending: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet all die horrible deaths, from poison and/or stab wounds. Fortinbras enters to find a grim scene of death. Hamlet attempts to score with Ophelia out in the woods, but, after leading him on, she playfully ditches him. Hamlet cries out in blue-balled agony.

Post-conclusion music video production: Typically none Actors and extras alike boogie down to a trancey techno track, while bubbles blow around the set. A number of hilarious clips from the film are played backward, and then forward, to the beat.

Does Damiano's risky gambit pay off? The key to figuring this out is twofold. First, one must determine if the work's original spirit is preserved. As Hamlet: For the Love of Ophelia unfolds, it becomes clear that while there are a number of subtle digressions from Shakespeare's tone, most of the original characters are still present, and the play is still set in a castle. So, it passes the first test.

But secondly, and more importantly, we as critical viewers must ask whether the new work adds anything significant to Shakespeare's original concept for the film.

It is here that the Europeans have really pulled off their success. Damiano's Hamlet, while somewhat lighter in tone and a bit less traditional in terms of its dialogue, comes and injects Shakespeare's original script with the tangy zip of modern sensibilities and relationship angst. Loosen up, Hamlet lovers, and get ready for a brand new Bard!

— Jon Stonamer