Kenneth Branagh interview on "Hamlet" (1996)

[@ManufacturingIntellect]

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[@lynnturman8157]

What makes this version so great is that unlike most movies of Shakespeare, it is incredibly cinematic. Even if you don't understand most of what is said, you will follow the story clearly because Branagh does such a great job of directing your eye to the story being told.

[@docflights]

I don't remember any lines from hamlet beyond the iconic ones. but I remember the emotion clear as day

[@greg55666]

If you don't understand the words, it's because in fact it was NOT done that well.

[@goodlookinouthomie1757]

The best way to get into Shakespeare is to watch the movies first, so you are armed with an overview of the plot. Then progres to listening to the audio plays (of which there are hundreds available here on KZbin). The BBC have been prolific in producing high quality, dramatic versions with well known actors. After that, or during the audio, you can start marrying up the text to what you've already learned. This is how I got into Shakespeare in later life after the awful school curriculum put me off it for 20 years.

[@marijoe19]

Well said!

[@ZeroZen27]

​@@greg55666no. The English that is used in the movie is different to what you use now. It's because you lack vocabulary.

[@Twentythousandlps]

Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and Branagh was quite right to give audiences the rare opportunity to experience all of it.

[@VictorMaxol]

He was quite right to give us a damn good showing. Serves us right.

[@choeyoonsun1]

Wow, Sir Kenneth Branagh's interview achieved what my secondary education failed to do in several minutes.

[@allen5455]

You had a secondary education that lasted several minutes?

[@goodlookinouthomie1757]

Amen to that. Either secondary education in Shakespeare is done completely wrong, or as teenagers we were just too young, impatient and ignorant and his plays were wasted on us. I can't decide which. But I can say in later years I rediscovered the bard and it changed my life.

[@brucejackson6451]

Jesus, that guy can talk! Having just watched the movie, and now listening to him speak with such force and eloquence, I half expect to find what he says to Charlie somewhere in the play! I remember when "Henry V" came along and everybody I was in college with, we were set afire talking about this new guy Branagh and his amazing interpretation of Shakespeare. He truly was the theatre nerd's Tarantino.

[@exaybachey284]

the bestversion of hamlet, you can follow with book word for word

[@peters8826]

Derek Jacobi is the best Hamlet by a long shot

[@pedrocastelo7100]

What is the edition?

[@jasonmarvel]

@@pedrocastelo7100 Combination of different folios to make the most complete text possible.

[@pedrocastelo7100]

@@jasonmarvel thanks, my friend! Im trying to learn English and i love Shakespeare. Can i use the Arden Shakespeare edition to read the text from BBC audiodrama (Hamlet, the prince of Danmark)?

[@jasonmarvel]

@@pedrocastelo7100 I believe so. The Arden appears to incorporate the Second Quarto. The Branagh Hamlet Movie is comprised of mainly this version with additional material taken from the first folio edition. They should line up in most areas. Not sure what the BBC Audio editon was based upon, but I imagine it is very well done!

[@williamg780]

Weird comment, but I just love hearing Kenneth Branagh speak. I mean, it’s like hearing my native tongue for the first time, every time. He has a beauty in his speech that has largely been lost, I think. And it’s not just his accent. It’s so alive and beautiful. Oh yeah and great interview 😬

[@brianmessemer2973]

Must learn to speak as, BE as eloquent as, as elegant as Ken Branagh. What an artist, what a learned man.

[@3dbadboy1]

Lol, be sure to pronounce out the 'ned' in learned (learn-ned).

[@garymaccagnone3669]

Branagh created a masterpiece. Shakespeare is quite proud

[@UlyssesWachowski-lu2yk]

So well said. Shakespeare is proud.

[@brandonbandstra226]

He expressed it so well. It was so much easier to understand. A gift to us all

[@erniereyes1994]

I teach a freshmen English course at the university, and I've been on the ropes teaching Hamlet. This conversation, however, solidifies my decision to bring Shakespeare's great play in the classroom.

[@renan.csmaia]

Branagh is handsome and very talented as actor/director/screenwriter/producer!

[@kennethwayne6857]

Love his description 'the theatre was pulsing with life'. That doesn't happen often but I have experienced it.

[@julianeh5584]

His Hamlet movie is my very favourite version. Kenneth is just brilliant - not only in Hamlet but almost in all of his movies.

[@windycityliz7711]

My absolute favorite Hamlet, true to the text and possibly the most generous.

[@BlackSilver23]

I was vaguely interested in Shakespeare, and so I saw this film. That was it; I was hooked. I have been an avid Shakespeare fan ever since. Thank you Kenneth Branah!

[@spiritindasky1311]

The love of of my life, alas not in my life any longer, and I went to see this on a slushy winter day. I was enchanted. The dearest time of my life. Thank you.

[@colleencupido5125]

This is the first time I've seen Kenneth Branagh speaking as himself and not a fictional character. My jaw dropped. I have never heard anyone describe Hamlet closer to the way I see him, with the brief exception of John Guilgud saying, in effect, that he doesn't see Hamlet as neurotic, but lively, full of humor, and at his best when confronting the great issues of life and death- that was from Guilgud's recording of his one- man performance of Shakespeare called Ages of Man. Maybe the followings will cut or "edited" but here is my opening paragraph on my University paper on Hamlet I wrote in 2007: From the time a bird feather was first dipped in ink to the ease of writing on computer software, a reader or playgoer's first desire upon finishing Hamlet has been to try to determine the heart of the Danish Prince's mystery. So many blanks have been left in this play that consistently poses more questions than it answers, that Hamlet is a perennial favorite acting role for any thespian worth his salt. Sarah Bernhardt did not let the fact of her being the wrong sex stop her from interpreting the melancholy prince. Coleridge may have put his arrow in the bull's eye when he said he was Hamlet. Whether Hamlet is the faceless part of our inner selves or some outer "other" that we will never really know, no end is in sight for written Hamlet commentary. Hamlet's character is hardly without spot or wrinkle, but I agree with Horatio that flights of angels did sing Hamlet to his rest. Hamlet's conscience is not a pothole in the road but the Grand Canyon, and it is what I seek to uncover with the help of his creator, Shakespeare. ( End of first paragraph) By Mrs. Colleen Cupido

[@shakespearaamina9117]

This is fascinating! I totally agree with you and I confirm that Hamlet is not mad as he just displays to us a theatrical madness, a glimpse of his unconscious mind described in the complex, most eloquent and philosophical lines he poetised. Sometimes, I feel that Hamlet is Shakespeare himself; a divinely humanist thinker who could weave meaning and make sense with his beautiful language and align the heart and mind of man via his reasoning. The more we delve into the character of Hamlet, the deeper we discover about ourselves and others. Greetings from Algeria 🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿

[@paulsolon6229]

Wordy

[@jennyrust8334]

He did an excellent job This Hamlet was such a work of art. You’re right Mr. Shakespeare would be vey pleased

[@mikerossscuba]

Brilliant. We saw Mr. Branagh's Hamlet when it came out in the mid-90s. So engrossing that it seemed little more than two hours long, rather than four. The best monologues ever on film. Also, I love the way Mr. Branagh mowed down Charlie's incessant, trademark interruptions and just kept on going. Charlie has ruined many an interview either by interrupting his guest or by exercising - as here with Hamlet - his monumental, pedestrian ignorance of the subject of the interview.

[@martinberchenko7659]

I think this is an incredible source 4 Hamlet, life & living happy.

[@scrainbow1234]

One of my idols. Truly brilliant.

[@beatrizbecker3728]

Thanks for sharing. Great interview. What passion!

[@itascaparkk]

Wow! Amazing interview! Will have to see the movie again.

[@elizabethagnese5474]

So happy that you said it was totally "unique." Thank you for your talent and ensemble brilliance.

[@Enrique-h6g]

There's nothing I enjoy more than teaching Hamlet. It's my all-time favorite work of literature as I can think of no other work more profound and deeply human. There is no character as noble as Hamlet, and I believe the reason for that is it was Shakespeare's attempt to write an idealized, adult version of his deceased son (whose name was Hamnet).

[@BalzarRitchin]

It's such a wonderful memory, seeing it in a theater on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks after it opened, on an otherwise dreary winter day. It was a beautiful film, like a painting. This is my favorite version. I have the utmost regard for Branagh's work. I loved his Henry V too, having seen it several times.

[@waterglas21]

12:58 Totally agree with him. He understand the charachter.

[@smit4459]

The play and the film are superb in my opinion! I am also looking forward to seeing Branagh's film adaptation of, "Murder on the Orient Express".

[@XuYan-w6s]

Undoubtedly, Kenneth Branagh is the best actor in the world. I do love his specific way to talk about what is Shakespeare and how to show that. He is the authorized Explainer about Shakespeare by acting on stage rather than on screen.

[@sunflowerkidworld]

Fucking love this man! Such a treasure he is!

[@paulsolon6229]

Language

[@emilydiveley9661]

i love his Shakespeare's movies and way to go ken

[@udbhavseth799]

"watching him was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning"

[@seanadams6879]

a fantastic feat! Truly something that will live on. I still remember the first time I saw Heston tell the story of the fall of Troy.

[@1dbanner]

@1:32 exactly how I felt after seeing Branagh's Hamlet when I was 16.

[@NickLysander]

I really hope Branagh returns to Shakespeare. New adaptations like the Hollow Crown have left me cold and squander the excellent actors that participate in them. Branagh's films (mostly Henry V, Hamlet, and Much Ado) have such a bombastic energy of love behind them. Kenny's sixty this year, surely he won't miss the opportunity to give Old Lear some justice on screen soon, right?

[@paulsolon6229]

Great actor Great director Sneak w Emma

[@jylyhughes5085]

Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet" is magnificent, marvellous and magical

[@cybermonk8246]

Brilliant

[@Paul5520]

When I was in my last year of school we did hamlet. Obv reading it is pretty boring. I rented the film & it was Mr Branagh’s version. Loved it. Never forgot him. ‘Ohhh horrible’😂😂😂

[@willcwhite]

Branagh had a real glow-up between '93 and '96!

[@mirandac8712]

Interesting to hear KB quote Coleridge (it's often, as here, misattributed to Hazlitt -- remember though that Branagh's performing on television even here) watching Kean's removal of all traces of English high-fallutin' tradition to Brando-style incomprehensibility like seeing Shakespeare "illuminated by flashes of lightning" : Woodrow Wilson said watching _Birth of a Nation_ was like history written in lightning, I wonder if Wilson was consciously quoting Coleridge

[@samferguson9171]

miranda c I knew I’d heard that line before (in Wilson’s praise of Birth of a Nation).

[@colleencupido5125]

I'm glad you caught that. Was this how Coleridge put it : I think I have a smack of Hamlet in myself. Also, your photograph ID: My, my, you look just like Louise Brooks playing Pandora's Box!

[@anthonyburn1010]

That quote from Wilson is reminder of how much of an irredeemable racist he was. I would describe Birth of a Nation as "History written in excrement" even if it moved technical elements of the medium on.

[@3dbadboy1]

Wow, what a Christmas present to open!

[@goodlookinouthomie1757]

I acknowledge Geilgud is a force of nature and doubt not the validity of others' claims to him being the greatest Hamlet, but for my money Brannagh is my favourite. Not only theatre and film; there is an audio play version in which he is exquisite... His interrogation of Ros and Gild, the scene in which he eviscerates his mother, his handling of the mousetrap scene, all the nuances that make the character such a never ending joy to experience.

[@moatazabdelrahman5691]

Kenneth would make a great rapper

[@ProdSangreNueva]

Branagh is a very good salesman.

[@J.B24]

Pretty nice when you don't have to pay a writer, the director and star are the same person, and the scenery, while elaborate visually, are pretty simple.

[@hamzahahmed9261]

Good Conversation

[@benv7933]

I need a Kenneth Branaugh and Thanos conversation

[@shuvo5168]

why on earth 😌

[@harp3386]

@@shuvo5168 why ever not

[@whippet71]

The best Hamlet

[@nobodysfavorite4465]

To this day I'm trying to figure out why the late Richard Harris said Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh and Ian Mckellen are technically brilliant actors but they are passionless. 🤷‍♂️ 🤔🤔 That's not what I see when I watch them.

[@AntPDC]

He was jealous. And Irish.

[@gamers7800]

@@AntPDC he was brilliant and maybe a little drunk...no biggie Keith Richard hated Led Zeppelin...honesty can be refreshing.

[@colleencupido5125]

Possibly because Richard Harris was an over-the-top Lunatic? And as for jealous, try looking up the English poet Lord Byron's opinion of Shakespeare. The meanness of Byron's remarks( not to mention out in out stupidity) show a jealousy off the charts

[@HiNinqi]

Who's show is this that he's on? [Edit: Found it, Charlie Rose]

[@dwnlg565]

Does anyone know about the book that was passed down by the actors playing Hamlet? Did David Tenant receive it by now? Or Cumberbatch? Curious as to who Branagh handed it down to...

[@hasnainnawab7452]

He apparently passed it down to Tom Hiddleston. Not sure if he'll ever play Hamlet though.

[@beatrizbecker3728]

@@hasnainnawab7452 He did, last year. Not onscreen, but in a limited-time theatre production, a fundraising of some sort. He seems to have done very well.

[@timholbrook7671]

So surprised that during the course of the interview, in regard to listing the actors who have done well at portraying Hamlet, that the great Ralph Richardson was NOT mentioned. This, of course, will be be quite distressing to current Shakesphere expert, Harold Bloom.

[@lizaluk]

Nowadays audience do not like their valuable time for loose movie but fit jolly 30minutes movie without commercial within.

[@slavenkat2927]

You should read "Philosophy in Hamlet" to understand Shakespeare's Hamlet.

[@loriscunado3607]

Kenneth Branagh: the Bono of Theatre

[@BenB-yk7kd]

The glory and the insignificance

[@BenB-yk7kd]

Tale told by an idiot

[@CaesarDarias]

Did he say “Thank you very much, John,” to CHARLIE Rose?

[@TimothyKnight]

He said “when an actor playing Hamlet forgot their lines they would call it Hamnesia!”

[@zippo4042]

Who disliked this? Like seriously wtf

[@paulsolon6229]

What’s in the red book? How many pages? Is it the play hamlet w marginalia by actors?

[@maximusminimus8050]

Forgive me for being biased but I got to know him first from his portrayal of Poirot which I must say was horrible. I liked the audio version of the movie and did not realize it was him much later on but it was the only complete play that I could find.

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

Did Harold bloom and Kenneth Brannagh ever meet?

[@noellegillies2874]

so they couldn't play scenes from his film? Thanks, lawyers.

[@banzobeans]

Smart guy

[@JB-kn2zh]

Where does the text say hamlet is about 30? Idk why I just assumed he was like early 20s.

[@allen5455]

Is'nt that Henry V?

[@oldprof9330]

A great interview, of a great performance. I must admit my favorite Hamlet was Ethan Hawke.

[@tnew78]

He needs to be on hot wings!

[@immapascalalorian398]

OMG YES I WOULD DIE

[@veerchasm1]

Damn, they missed out on the perfect Obi Wan for the Star Wars prequel 3 years later

[@justininfrance]

Branagh at this age would have played a brilliant van Gogh.

[@JoostJGJ]

If you're interested in van Gogh, watch Julian Schnabel's 'At Eternity's Gate' starring Willem Dafoe. Not entirely historically accurate (vis-à-vis the artists death), but having read van Goghs letters to Theo, Gauguin and others, I feel it truly captures his personality and struggle. (As far as I am capable of judging, of course).

[@IbrahimHoldsForth]

any1 else miss Charlie Rose?

[@brady8or27]

Who did he pass the Red Book to?!‽

[@nasevakurttu]

Tom Hiddleston.

[@willlowsage9603]

He's my bestie

[@snoozeking7497]

For an egghead, Branagh is very charming.

[@wasteland70]

Obi Wan?

[@TheSaltydog07]

Why did you kill Osric? It made absolutely no sense. "Henry V" is perfect.

[@brainbaskerville3341]

hamlet can hold a schul properley no finest rada joke bad haircut in henry the 5 no inmagnation

[@lamecasuelas2]

Man crush!!!

[@bonniesteel1269]

what is it about him that i just don't like?

[@deanmeyer68]

I had a difficult time with this version. Why does Branagh speak sooooo fast all the time in the film? He speeds through eloquent, delightful language, ruining the effect. Was he trying to wrap up the filming and run to catch a bus??? Just ruins it by fast-forwarding the dialogue and soliloquies. Even Maximilian Schell’s version in 1960 was better in terms of delivering the immortal lines.

[@gjeacocke]

Grief first came from jesus on the cross. It became universal. Shakespeare relied heavily on’t. By that i mean jesus was saying ‘yes, grief is hard, life is hard, look at my disciples and mother crying for me. But have hope in that death was doomed from the start’

[@EVO6-]

Shakespeare's works aren't about Jesus and Jesus didn't invent grief

[@gjeacocke]

@@EVO6- did i say that? Stop reading into what i did not say. Jesus lived before Shakespeare. He quotes a lot from the bible. I suggest you listen to what Kenneth said about grief and Shakespeare then read my comment in CONTEXT. Think kid

[@nickwyatt9498]

Well Graham you did say that grief first came from Jesus. I think you'll find that Homer, Sophocles and Euripides, to name but a few, got in there first.

[@LP-lj9ig]

Take your religious madness and get away from our beloved bard.

[@gjeacocke]

@@LP-lj9ig the Bard loved Jesus Christ. he quoted the bible enough times. he made use of it. it seems you do not appreciate TRUTH and greatness. actually being religious is NOT madness me ole mucker. pure religion in the eyes of the Judeo-Christian God is to so show COMPASSIOn for Widows and Orphans. the vulnerable people in times of the OT of the Bible. when you help FOSTER kids you are PRACTISING religion. what you actually mean is you hate CORRUPTED religion where believers do not trust God. but this was helped by athiests telling a person NOT to trust God. do you even know the psychiatrist definition of Madness? or do you play with fire boy and put words with no full comprehension? words have meaning unlike Monty Python who claims life has NO MEANING. have faith my little friend. have confidence

[@ruly8153]

I really like Kenneth Branagh as a person but not that much as an actor

[@paulsolon6229]

?coward snd sneak w Emma

[@menschkeit1]

Branagh a Stratfordian, what a shame...Oxford wrote the plays

[@tonychaseiamnotgaynotnever2043]

hamlet is a realy tough character to perfom ,have you seen any of my performances in movies and television

[@slavenkat2927]

You should read "Philosophy in Hamlet" to understand Shakespeare's Hamlet.