Discovering Hamlet

Jan 7, 1990

0h 52m

★ 5.7

Overview

IN 1988, rising star Kenneth Branagh tackled the role of Shakespeare’s prince of Denmark for the first time in his professional career under the guidance of celebrated actor Derek Jacobi. Narrated by Patrick Stewart, this hour-long film documents how Kenneth Branagh and Derek Jacobi, two intelligent and passionate men, found new depths in Shakespeare’s classic drama, Hamlet. Filmmakers Mark Olshaker and Larry Klein follow the company through four weeks of rehearsals, from the first read-throughs to opening night.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Unicorn Projects

Discovering Hamlet Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Himself

Derek Jacobi

Himself / Hamlet

Kenneth Branagh

Himself / Claudius

Richard Easton

Narrator

Patrick Stewart

Himself / Horatio

Richard Clifford

Himself / Polonius

Edward Jewesbury

Himself / Rosencrantz

David Parfitt

Herself / Ophelia

Sophie Thompson

Himself / Laertes

Jay Villiers

Himself / Guildenstern

Jimmy Yuill

A hybrid feature film that investigates contemporaneity through the body and its countless possibilities of expression and meanings. The film puts the body and the idea of the body in evidence, through metalanguage, articulation and confrontation of documentary, fictional and performative languages. The film follows the trajectory of the main character who uses her own body to formulate universes and investigate the meanings that are drawn in it. In a kind of subjective diary written on her skin, she records sensations and reflections, building relationships with thinkers, performances and archival materials, which lead her to other bodies and other stories.

7.3

George Carlin: Playin' with Your Head

Jun 14, 1986

George Carlin is in top form with these stand-up recorded at the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles in 1986. Routines included are "Losing Things," "Charities," "Sports," "Hello and Goodbye," "Battered Plants," "Earrings," and "A Moment of Silence." Also included is a short film entitled "The Envelope" co-starring Vic Tayback.

7.1

Blue Man Group: The Complex Rock Tour Live

Nov 25, 2003

Offbeat performance artists The Blue Man Group have finally been captured live on this disc that features concert footage, three full-length music videos and three songs from Blue Man Group's album, "The Complex." The live footage was filmed during Blue Man Group's successful and widely acclaimed August 2003 rock tour, where they wowed 9,000 fans in two sold-out concerts.

0.0

Mi arma

Nov 10, 2019

A young drag queen from Andalusia exposes the difficulties of adding aspects of her homeland culture to her artistic expression.

2.0

Whatever Happened to Gelitin

Mar 10, 2016

Art dealer Salvatore Viviano and director Angela Christlieb embark on a search for the lost artist collective Gelitin, which since the 1990s has shattered the borders of "good taste" again and again with extravagant actions and installations. Interviews with old companions and artist friends in the U.S., Europe, and Asia are linked with anarchically montaged Gelitin archive material: intense, transgressive, experimental, gaudily colorful, funny, and virulent.

6.6

Meat Joy

May 29, 1964

"Meat Joy is an erotic rite — excessive, indulgent, a celebration of flesh as material: raw fish, chicken, sausages, wet paint, transparent plastic, ropes, brushes, paper scrap. Its propulsion is towards the ecstatic — shifting and turning among tenderness, wildness, precision, abandon; qualities that could at any moment be sensual, comic, joyous, repellent. Physical equivalences are enacted as a psychic imagistic stream, in which the layered elements mesh and gain intensity by the energy complement of the audience. The original performances became notorious and introduced a vision of the 'sacred erotic.' This video was converted from original film footage of three 1964 performances of Meat Joy at its first staged performance at the Festival de la Libre Expression, Paris, Dennison Hall, London, and Judson Church, New York City."

6.5

Cut Piece

Jan 1, 1965

Filmed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cut Piece documents one of Yoko Ono’s most powerful conceptual pieces. Performed by the artist herself, Ono sits motionless on the stage after inviting the audience to come up and cut away her clothing in a denouement of the reciprocity between victim and assailant.

0.0

Pistolteatern

Feb 13, 2004

Pistolteatern in Stockholm, Sweden, was a leading experimental scene in the mid 1960s, comparable to the Living Theater in New York. In the years 1964-67. Pistolteatern produced theatre plays, exhibitions and happenings at a very high pace. The name, Pistolteatern, comes from two of creators, PI Lind and STaffan OLzon.

4.3

Mondo New York

Apr 22, 1988

A young woman wanders around New York City and stumbles across a number of strange characters and settings that represent the "underground" areas of the city. She sees stand up comedy in Central Park, a prostitution auction, a voodoo ceremony, an S&M club, and a number of very interesting performance artists. These are just a few of the sights and sounds of New York that she encounters.

4.0

Ocaña: An Intermittent Portrait

Jun 1, 1978

A sincere portrait, and in first person, of the multifaceted Andalusian artist José Pérez Ocaña.

0.0

First Movement Form

Jan 20, 2022

The rehearsal of a future play. Through the movement of the body, the protagonists form a structure full of tension and try to evoke past stories.

10.0

DIVISOR / VILLEURBANNE

Oct 15, 2014

Documentation of Lygia Pape’s 1968 performance Divisor - reactivated in the city of Villeurbanne (France) in October 2014. Commissioned by Institut d'Art Contemporain de Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes.

7.8

Vincent Price: The Sinister Image

Dec 1, 1987

This tribute to Hollywood legend Vincent Price sheds light on his career in film, television, radio and theater, and includes Price's fascinating hour-long interview with film historian David Del Valle. Taking place near the end of Price's career in 1987, the interview illuminates many of the horror icon's experiences. Also included are two complete television shows from the 1950s and '60s, along with "Three Skeleton Key," a 1958 radio drama.

6.8

Looking for Richard

Oct 11, 1996

Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."

6.5

Prince's Tale

Jun 20, 2018

A portrait of the life of Prince Amponsah, a young actor who survived a near-fatal fire in 2012, and the journey of mental recovery that brought him back on stage.

0.0

Diorama

Aug 21, 1983

A ritual of transformation and awakening within the walls of the only existing original ‘diorama’ building in London

0.0

Yellow

Jun 12, 2020

In these uncertain, ever evolving and changing times, inspiration and entertainment come from equally bizarre places. People long for togetherness and one thing that always brings out the best in experiencing something together, is food. But what happens when you twist around some of the core ideas of enjoying food, and what “a meal” even means? What if you have a bizarre curiosity to see someone eat really weird food combinations, and actually have someone provide you with that? What if what you’re looking for isn’t comfort and relaxation, but something that will make you question what your self-isolation mind finds as entertainment?