#kozintsev

[semioticapocalypse]

Scene from "Hamlet" by the Soviet film director Grigory Kozintsev. 1964

[cubiclelifestyle]

The ghost scene from the Kozintsev’s Hamlet

[flappyfluellen]

kozintsev hamlet

I just saw this really incredible movie of hamlet by this guy called kozintsev. it's from 1964, it's in black and white, and it's in Russian with English subtitles. but it's widely considered an amazing adaptation, and I totally agree. here are my thoughts... the most interesting part was that... there were so many people in many of the scenes. like Laertes' soldiers were all in the Ophelia madness scene, and a bunch of court members were in the "play me like a pipe" scene. hamlet says (or thinks, rather) "o that this too too sullied flesh" while walking through the crowded halls, and "o what a rogue and peasant slave" while the player is doing his speech. and there was this incredible moment where hamlet pushed through doors, shoving people out of his way as he went to Gertrude's closet. just showed you how big Elsinore is... and what made this so interesting was that everyone was t e r r i f i e d of hamlet. they all thought he was crazy, and he definitely acted like it (it was left ambiguous as to whether or not he was actually mad). the "play me like a pipe" scene was the best. r&g were so scared and hamlet was just creepy and calm... also the scene where they're looking for polonius' body was creepy. other characters -- - polonius was fascinating because he wasn't so much of a jerk? and he actually came to talk to hamlet when everyone else was avoiding him, which was almost kinda nice. and hamlet looked truly anguished when he found out he'd killed him - Claudius definitely did not regret killing his brother. it was pretty chilling. also he started clapping to interrupt the murder of gonzago, which was fascinating... - Ophelia was hella creepy and sad and good. the nunnery scene was really sad. and there was this one scene where all of Ophelia's attendants dress her in this black corset... - Horatio was in scenes!! and he laid his head in hamlet's lap when hamlet died which was so sad and gay - I loved laertes -- he was sufficiently sad/angry. don't have much to say about him. he was just good. - Gertrude didn't get many lines, but she was very emotional which was interesting - they kept many of osric's lines! he was foppish and awkward - they translated it so that the players' speech in the murder of gonzago both rhymed and was in ibpt!! so impressive it was cut in a strange way -- some of the edits definitely made sense, but some of them were kinda odd or non-intuitive. like cutting the part where Gertrude describes Ophelia's death, or removing large parts of speeches. overall it was fantastic and I'm glad I saw it!!

[trimabot]

[russianlitfilm-blog]

SMOKTUNOVSKY AS CHEKALINSKY IN  MASLENNIKOV’S QUEEN OF   SPADES

Innokenty Smoktunovsky (1925-1994), widely remembered as the greatest Soviet stage and screen actor of his time, brought his light sophistication to the role of the aristocratic Chekalinsky, a professional gambler who has brought his salon to St. Petersburg.

Smoktunovsky gained an international reputation with his interpretation of  Boris  Pasternak’s translation of Hamlet in Grigory Kozintsev’s ground-breaking 1964 film.  In Maslennikov’s Queen of Spades Smoktunovsky shows his emotional range as Chekalinsky, seeming to go into a cold sweat while maintaining a wordly civility as he loses large sums to Germann on two successive nights.  We feel his considerable relief  - although with graceful  noblesse oblige  - when the luck changes on the third night.

[reesmoggcoupplot]

The New Babylon

According to experts, Grigori Kozintsev's The New Babylon (1929) translates Zola's department-store rom-com The Ladies' Paradise to the Franco-Prussian War and Paris Commune, but sans com. There are few things less historically dialectically materialist than a Soviet propaganda film. The Commune was due to the high price of parasols, or a dispute over facial hair, or something. Also the most hilariously ridiculous "happy communist workers" imaginable - looks like the Joker's taken over a laundry and glued seamstresses' hands to ever more rapidly rotating sewing machines. The film does include Shostakovich's take on the Can-Can on the soundtrack, as well as nice gargoyles and pretty, wet cobble-stones (until they're dug up by the communards). 9/10 for imagery, 1/10 for plot.

Postscript: I re-watched Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg recently, and I’m fairly sure the strike scenes in that film draw heavily on Kozintsev.

[homilius]

I have no problem with film music. I do not take it upon myself to judge what sort of music one should have--whether symphonic, electronic, twelve-tone, or whether music has altogether gone out of fashion in the cinema. I really don't know the answer. I have not given it any thought. Shostakovich's music is another matter. There is no point in my thinking about it. I would not be able to make a Shakespearean film without it just as I would not be able to do without Pasternak's translation. What do I think is the main point about it--the feeling of tragedy? This is an important quality. But not just tragedy...philosophy, and a general concept of the whole world? Yes of course, how could you have Lear without philosophy?...But all the same it is another feature which is most important. A quality about which it is difficult to write. Goodness. Kindness. Mercy. However, it is a special kind of goodness. Russian has an excellent word--'lyuty'--or, fierce. In Russian art, goodness does not exist without a fierce hatred of everything which destroys a man. In Shostakovich's music I can hear a ferocious hatred of cruelty, the cult of power and the oppression of justice. This is a special goodness: a fearless goodness which has a threatening quality.

Grigori Kozintsev, from 'King Lear: The Space of Tragedy', Chap. 24 (1973)

[the-mighty-groot-blog]

Shakespeare in Film [10/?] - King Lear (1971) dir. Grigori Kozintsev

When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools