Good start, but then it gets ruined

Better Late Then Never

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The subtitles on this one are terrible. Shakespeare's actual words come up about half the time; the rest of the dialogue is untranslated. If you know the story, it's at best a waste of time: the entire *adaptation* aspect is lost, and even so *you* are filling in half the story. If you dont know the story, it's probably impossible to follow. The adaptation may be brilliant but it's a form of masochism to watch for a non Russian speaker.

impressive. strange. monumental. subtle. wall of music, nuanced performances, Shakespeare play heart and Slav soul. it is an adaptation but in a strange manner. because out of words and images, out of Smoktunovski performance it is small light of mystery. that is its virtue. that sparkle like descending in heart of a world of shadows and ash. and the actors, the real actors, are Sostakovici music,the Russian language, the profound feeling front to a masterpiece. it is pure delight. with cinnamon flavor and salt taste. like an ice flower. or like looniest song.it is a dark large desert in night. and, in same measure, sand rope of existence like ladder to fundamental answer about art of unforgettable search of yourself. and Elisabethan costumes completed by Mikhail Nazvanov as Claudius - alter ego for a Henry VIII Philipp II of Spain or Anastasia Vertinskaya as Ophelia - prey of spider web - veil.

I recommend this to everyone with a taste for dramatic, striking imagery. This is undoubtedly the most beautiful black-and-white picture I've seen so far. The inevitable subtitles are not that distracting if you're familiar with the basic story (I'm not a Shakespeare buff, so I may have missed some finer points, like a political message). The acting is superb, but never upstages the camera - this is a filmmakers vision, not an expanded stage play. The drama is heightened by Dmitri Shostakovich's dark, menacing score over the backdrop of rolling waves. A visual and acoustic treat.

I have first seen Kozintsev's Hamlet back in 1963 and saw it again yesterday, as part of my job as music critic in a São Paulo newspaper, for the commemoration of Shostakovich's centennial -- he is the author of the soundtrack. The film has not aged, it is still one of the most beautiful adaptations of Shakespeare tragedy, Smoktunovsky's acting is thrilling and Shostakovich's soundtrack is marvelous. His irony reveals itself in the way he accompanies the scene at the graveyard: Hamlet's bittersweet dialog with the gravedigger (what an actor!) and his sad monologue about frailty having in his hand's Yorick's skull. A great film!