Soviet Hamlet's birthday
On April 14, 1964, The New York Times published an article titled "MOSCOW UNVEILS FILMED'HAMLET'; Pasternak Translation Used —Top Actor Starred". - The article was written by a journalist who did not wish to give his name. But the content of the article left no doubt that the day before he was lucky enough to attend a preview of the film "Hamlet", staged by the Soviet film director Grigory Kozintsev.
The article, among other things, contained the assertion that on April 24, 1964, literally the day after the cultural community of the whole world celebrates the 400th anniversary of the great English poet and playwright William Shakespeare, the premiere of Kozintsev's film "Hamlet" will take place in the Moscow cinema "Russia". It is no coincidence that I quote an excerpt about the date of the premiere of Hamlet. The fact is that different sources give different data about this date. So, for example, IMDB wrote that the premiere of the film by the famous Soviet film director took place in the UK on May 3, 1964, and the Soviet premiere took place only on June 24. Kinopoisk, as usual, stupidly repeated this absurdity of the American resource. Wikipedia gives a date closer to common sense - April 19, 1964.
But it still seems to me that the information in The New York Times is the most reliable. And here's why. It is known that the creation of the Soviet film "Hamlet" was really timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the great Englishman. The exact date of birth of William Shakespeare is unknown, since at that time the date of birth was not recorded in the church books, but the date of baptism. So - it is documented that Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564. And died on April 23, 1616. So, it is quite logical to assume that the author of the NYT quite rightly pointed out that the 400th anniversary of the great playwright was celebrated on April 23, and the next day the Moscow premiere of Grigory Kozintsev's film masterpiece took place.
In the same 1964, the film by Grigory Kozintsev was nominated for the Golden Lion - the main prize of the Venice International Film Festival. The jury of the film festival, chaired by Italian film director Mario Soldati, awarded the main prize of the festival to the Italian film "Red Desert" directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. But "Hamlet" was not left without award. It was awarded the second most important award of the festival - the Special Jury Prize, which Kozintsev's film tied with Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Il vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew)". In addition, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, the leading actor in the film, was awarded the New Cinema prize for Best Actor.
Two years later, "Hamlet" received a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Film. But this award went to the film "My Fair Lady" mentioned above. The company of relative "losers" to "Hamlet" was "The Hill" by Sidney Lumet, "Alexis Zorbas (Zorba the Greek)" by Michalis Kakoyannis. A year later, the film "Hamlet" by Grigory Kozintsev was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. But the Golden Globe went to the film "Un homme et une femme (A Man and A Woman)" by Claude Lelouch.
The reviews of foreign professional film critics were mostly positive. At the same time, as a rule, it was often noted that the version of Shakespeare's play translated by Boris Pasternak, which formed the basis of the script for the film by Grigory Kozintsev, turned out to be much shorter than the original. Thus, performances staged from the original, as a rule, lasted 4 hours or more. The film is approximately 2.5 hours long. And nevertheless, comparing the film adaptation of Kozintsev with the rather numerous film adaptations made by other directors, almost all critics note the greatest academic character, the authenticity of Grigory Kozintsev's version.
Another common place in Western critics' reviews is an enthusiastic assessment of Innokenty Smoktunovsky's performance, although not without reservations regarding his age. But with regard to Anastasia Vertinskaya - no reservations. Almost everyone notes the absolutely accurate hit of the actress in the image and the brilliant performance of the role. But Kozintsev originally planned Alla Demidova for the role of Ophelia. And only the refusal of the wise Demidova made it possible for Anastasia Vertinskaya to play the role that glorified her.
The above mentioned enthusiastic review of The New York Times of the film "Hamlet" noted with deep reverence that authentic weapons of the 16-17th centuries borrowed from the Leningrad Hermitage and Moscow Historical Museum. Attention was also drawn to the fact that the shooting of the film was mainly carried out in Tallinn, which in the 13th century, in which the play takes place, belonged to Denmark. Moreover, the very word "Tallinn" in translation from Danish means "Danish town".
The film of Grigory Kozintsev was highly appreciated by viewers, either in the mid-60s, or nowadays. In the first year of demonstration, this film was watched by more than 21 million Soviet cinema goers. According to polls of the magazine "Soviet Screen" the film "Hamlet" was recognized as the best film of the Soviet film distribution in 1965. By modern moviegoers, if we proceed from the ratings on IMDB and Kinopoisk, the film by Grigory Kozintsev is rated no less highly. 75% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. And every third user rated the movie in the highest rating - "ten".
Considering the above, the rating of the film "Hamlet" by Grigory Kozintsev according to FilmGourmand version was 9.276, making it 111th in the Golden Thousand.
