Hamlet Machine

The myriad, extant movie versions of the property include a 10-minute, French silent film (1907); the glorious, black and white, British oedipal fantasia of Sir Laurence Olivier (1948); and the American techno-update starring Ethan Hawke (2000). Hidden amongst the lot are such gems as a 1900 sound-on-wax-cylinder dueling scene featuring the great Sarah Bernhardt in her most famous "pants" role, a TV film of the Richard Burton "rehearsal-clothes" Hamlet of the early '60s, and Kevin Kline's 1990 P.B.S. version. The '90s produced not one, but two all-star film Hamlets: the straightforward 1990 Mel Gibson/Glenn Close effort and the stultifying, four-hour, 1996 extravaganza from Kenneth Branagh. Now, the oughts have already produced one movie Hamlet per year. Is this a pattern? Are we all as fascinated with the problematical prince as are the actors who've played him?

Campbell Scott, the genial scion of the extraordinary George C. Scott/Colleen Dewhurst acting gene pool, explained his motivation for filming Hamlet the day after the movie's invitational New York premiere on August 13. "I played Hamlet on stage twice," said Scott in a telephone interview. "The first time was at the Old Globe, directed by Jack O'Brien, and then I did it in Boston at the Huntington for Eric Simonson [co-director of the current film]. But, after both stage productions, I still didn't feel 'done' when we closed. I felt as if we were just beginning to understand what we were doing, and so the play and the part stayed with me. I tried to drop it, but I couldn't. From acting it, I had also developed an intimate way of seeing the story and all of the characters. That's when Eric and I started discussing a film. Roughly the same cut [edited text] was used in both stage productions, and the play was set somewhere in the same time frame, between 1890 and 1918 or so. I had loved both of those very different casts and I didn't want to think about, perhaps, having just a few actors from each; they were each so perfect as they were. So we opted for a whole new group. When time is this short [a 29 day shoot, with three weeks of intensive rehearsal], you go to people you know. I'd worked with almost everyone in the cast, or they were friends."

The stellar, theater-trained cast includes Jamey Sheridan (Claudius), Blair Brown (Gertrude), Roscoe Lee Browne (Polonius) John Benjamin Hickey (Horatio), Byron Jennings (Ghost/Player King), LisaGay Hamilton (Ophelia), Roger Guenveur Smith (Laërtes), Denis O'Hare (Osric), Sam Robards (Fortinbras), Marcus Giamatti (Guildenstern), and Michael Imperioli (Rosencrantz), plus Simonson himself in a cameo as the second gravedigger to Dan Moran's first. "Campbell insisted I be in it as well, so I chose a really small part," Simonson recalls. "Campbell wants everyone on the set to have fun, because he does." Although Scott and Simonson are old college chums and had "done some stuff together in school," they hadn't worked together again until the Boston Hamlet. Simonson, a longtime actor/director member of Chicago's Steppenwolf company, returned to Los Angeles the day after the New York premiere of the film; he spoke to me via cell phone on his drive home from the airport.

The movie was very well received at the Seattle Film Festival, winning a fine review from Variety: "In one of the most accessible versions of Hamlet yet committed to film, Campbell Scott's self-helmed Great Dane is more than ever a man for our time." The New York Press added that the film "...enhances your understanding of the text and any previous renditions you've seen...the playful, contemplative tone of this new Hamlet seduces you into re-experiencing the play not as a spectacle or even as performed drama, but as a literary feat."

Both Scott and Simonson have moved on to their next projects: Scott's first solo directing gig (he co-directed Big Night with Stanley Tucci) is the digitally shot psychological thriller Final, starring Denis Leary and Hope Davis, to be released in December. And Simonson will be back at Steppenwolf directing Lois Smith on stage as Mother Courage as well as putting the finishing touches on his latest film, Topa Topa Bluffs, a black comedy featuring Mickey Rooney.