THE FODOR HAMLET PHENOMENON
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REVIEWS 1
HYPNOTIC
by John Solomans
What made me watch this movie was someone griping with a keen level of disgust about how awful it was the all the “beautiful cadences of Shakespeare’s verse” had been lost. I’m familiar with one or two Shakespeare films and although they may put them in modern settings the verse remains. Somehow though director Alexander Fodor has managed to rip it out, without modernising or changing the words. That’s an achievement in itself.
However, what is more impressive is the very ‘watchability’ of the whole thing. I sat down with the DVD thinking this was going to be something I’d watch in sections. After all, two and a half hours is a long time, and it is not just Shakespeare but Hamlet, probably noted as the world’s most deep and heavy play. Incredibly though the time just vanished. It’s just one of those films you just watch, and watch, and watch…
This is all very clever stuff. Fodor seems to have created something that has all the hypnotic grip of watching an open fire. He pulls you into a very simple, pure world. It’s not a period piece, but there again it’s not a modern adaptation either – there just aren’t any references which give indication of temporal reality.
The story’s simple. Hamlet is forced by the ghost of his brutal father to exact revenge on his killer, and at the same time side-stepping being forced into a political marriage. He accidently kills Polonia (the central plotter) and her viscious, ape-like brother appears to exact vengeance. All this being steered by the omnipresent ghost. If you already know the storyline of Hamlet then I’m sure you’ll be thinking “Eh? That’s not right?”, but it is as regards Fodor’s version even though the text is Shakepeare’s, as I say “clever stuff”.
All told then, very well shot, very mesmerising, very non-elitist. Well worth seeing. Particularly if, like myself, you don’t know much about Shakespeare.
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