Tony Richardson's Hamlet is based on his own stage production. Filmed entirely within the Roundhouse in London (a disused train shed), it is shot almost entirely in close up, focusing the attention on faces and language rather than action.
Acting
Williamson's mercurial Hamlet shifts between rage and catatonia in seconds.
Direction
Richardson's train-shed staging forces you into suffocating intimacy.
Cinematography
Relentless close-ups make faces landscapes of anguish.
Director
Tony Richardson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Richardson shot this in 21 days on a $600,000 budget after his stage production, using the Roundhouse's circular space to trap viewers in Hamlet's psyche.
This was Marianne Faithfull's first film after her infamous 1967 drug bust, making her Ophelia's fragility uncomfortably meta.
US
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