OPHELIA
***
Director: Claire McCarthy
Screenwriter: Semi Chellas, based on the eponymous novel by Lisa Klein, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Principal cast:
Daisy Ridley
Naomi Watts
Clive Owen
George MacKay
Tom Felton
Devon Terrell
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 114 mins.
Australian release date: 1 August 2019
Previewed at: Palace Central, Sydney, on 23 July 2019.
Aussie director Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, by way of Lisa Klein’s novel for young adults, Ophelia. It is a bold attempt to match the Bard’s words, “We know what we are, but not what we may be,” by imagining an alternative version of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, to give Shakespeare’s play its full title. Scriptwriter Semi Chellas, known for her work on television’s Mad Men, has brought her writing skills to Klein’s 2008 feminist retelling of the famous tale about the events in Denmark’s Elsinore Castle in the 14th century.
Opening with a beautiful visual reference to the famous painting Ophelia by the pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais, in which Ophelia (Daisy Ridley) is floating in a river before she drowns, this story goes back in time to reveal the reason for the tragedy. Lovers of Shakespeare know the story but, in this case, it is re-imagined through the eyes of the young woman who became a significant lady-in-waiting to Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) and caught the eye of the prince. Ophelia has grown up in the castle, where she and her brother Laertes (Tom Felton, Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise) have been raised by their single father Polonius (Dominic Mafham), counsellor to the royal house. Her independent spirit is recognised by Hamlet (George MacKay) as she matures and he falls passionately in love with her. The sudden death of his father, King Hamlet, at the hands of the King’s brother Claudius (Clive Owen, sporting an awful wig), creates an atmosphere of distrust in the castle, particularly when Claudius promptly assumes the throne and marries Gertrude, leading Hamlet to ask himself if his mother knows the truth about King Hamlet’s death? Feigning madness in an attempt to find the truth of the matter, Hamlet utters his famous ‘To be, or not to be…’ soliloquy as he is spied upon by Polonius and Claudius. As the mayhem in Elsinore escalates, Hamlet goes into a downward spiral and accidentally kills Polonius. Unaware of this event, Ophelia urges the prince to escape with her and relinquish his royal birthright for love but Laertes hears of his father’s death and swears to kill Hamlet in revenge.
Ophelia is beautifully shot by Denson Baker and the characters are elaborately dressed by Massimo Cantini Parrini, whose costumes are beautifully detailed, as is David Warren’s set design. Krivoklát Castle in the Czech Republic, the country where the film was shot, stands in for Elsinore and the whole film looks like a Pre-Raphaelite painting come to life. These factors make the movie very watchable but the contemporary language in which the actors speak makes it more of a curiosity than a living, breathing thing. The young leads, Ridley and MacKay, are attractive and capable but lack the chemistry that that these famously doomed lovers require. Purists will find the play’s re-working a little strange but it fits into the #MeToo atmosphere that prevails at present. Overall, this is an interesting adaptation, albeit not an entirely successful one, but this modern interpretation could be embraced by younger audiences unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s original play.
Screenwriter: Semi Chellas, based on the eponymous novel by Lisa Klein, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Principal cast:
Daisy Ridley
Naomi Watts
Clive Owen
George MacKay
Tom Felton
Devon Terrell
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 114 mins.
Australian release date: 1 August 2019
Previewed at: Palace Central, Sydney, on 23 July 2019.
Aussie director Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, by way of Lisa Klein’s novel for young adults, Ophelia. It is a bold attempt to match the Bard’s words, “We know what we are, but not what we may be,” by imagining an alternative version of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, to give Shakespeare’s play its full title. Scriptwriter Semi Chellas, known for her work on television’s Mad Men, has brought her writing skills to Klein’s 2008 feminist retelling of the famous tale about the events in Denmark’s Elsinore Castle in the 14th century.
Opening with a beautiful visual reference to the famous painting Ophelia by the pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais, in which Ophelia (Daisy Ridley) is floating in a river before she drowns, this story goes back in time to reveal the reason for the tragedy. Lovers of Shakespeare know the story but, in this case, it is re-imagined through the eyes of the young woman who became a significant lady-in-waiting to Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) and caught the eye of the prince. Ophelia has grown up in the castle, where she and her brother Laertes (Tom Felton, Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise) have been raised by their single father Polonius (Dominic Mafham), counsellor to the royal house. Her independent spirit is recognised by Hamlet (George MacKay) as she matures and he falls passionately in love with her. The sudden death of his father, King Hamlet, at the hands of the King’s brother Claudius (Clive Owen, sporting an awful wig), creates an atmosphere of distrust in the castle, particularly when Claudius promptly assumes the throne and marries Gertrude, leading Hamlet to ask himself if his mother knows the truth about King Hamlet’s death? Feigning madness in an attempt to find the truth of the matter, Hamlet utters his famous ‘To be, or not to be…’ soliloquy as he is spied upon by Polonius and Claudius. As the mayhem in Elsinore escalates, Hamlet goes into a downward spiral and accidentally kills Polonius. Unaware of this event, Ophelia urges the prince to escape with her and relinquish his royal birthright for love but Laertes hears of his father’s death and swears to kill Hamlet in revenge.
Ophelia is beautifully shot by Denson Baker and the characters are elaborately dressed by Massimo Cantini Parrini, whose costumes are beautifully detailed, as is David Warren’s set design. Krivoklát Castle in the Czech Republic, the country where the film was shot, stands in for Elsinore and the whole film looks like a Pre-Raphaelite painting come to life. These factors make the movie very watchable but the contemporary language in which the actors speak makes it more of a curiosity than a living, breathing thing. The young leads, Ridley and MacKay, are attractive and capable but lack the chemistry that that these famously doomed lovers require. Purists will find the play’s re-working a little strange but it fits into the #MeToo atmosphere that prevails at present. Overall, this is an interesting adaptation, albeit not an entirely successful one, but this modern interpretation could be embraced by younger audiences unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s original play.