Gamlet (1964)

Director:

Grigori Kozintsev

Writers:

Grigori Kozintsev (writer)
Boris Pasternak (1941 Russian translation)
(more)

Release Date:

24 June 1964 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's Hamlet | Based On Play

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Innokenti Smoktunovsky	...	Hamlet
Mikhail Nazvanov	...	King
Elza Radzina	...	Queen (as Elsa Radzina-Szolkonis)
Yuri Tolubeyev	...	Polonius
Anastasiya Vertinskaya	...	Ophelia
Vadim Medvedev	...	Guildenstern
Vladimir Erenberg	...	Horatio
Stepan Oleksenko	...	Laertes
Igor Dmitriyev	...	Rosencrantz
Grigori Gaj
Rein Aren
A. Krevalid	...	Fortinbras
Yuri Berkun
Ants Lauter	...	Priest
Viktor Kolpakov	...	Gravedigger
V. Chekursky	...	Gravedigger

Directed by
Grigori Kozintsev

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Grigori Kozintsev		writer
Boris Pasternak		1941 Russian translation
William Shakespeare		play "Hamlet"

Original Music by
Dmitri Shostakovich

Cinematography by
Jonas Gritsius

Film Editing by
Ye. Makhankova

Production Design by
Yevgeni Yenej

Art Direction by
Yevgeni Yenej

Set Decoration by
Georgi Kropachyov

Costume Design by
Solomon Virsaladze

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Iosif Shapiro	....	co-director

Sound Department
Boris Khutoryansky	....	sound

Production Companies

• Lenfilm Studio

Distributors

• Contemporary Films (2004) (UK) (all media)
• Divisa Home Video (2006) (Spain) (DVD)
• Sovexportfilm
• United Artists (1966) (USA) (subtitled)

Special Effects

• Lenfilm Studio

Also Known As:

Гамлет (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Hamlet (USA)

Runtime:

140 min | France:148 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-8

Filming Locations:

Estonia

Company:

Lenfilm Studio

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Hamlet" (1995)

tsf-1962's comment

In fact Smoktunovsky was not a Holocaust survivor: he was captured as a soldier wounded in the war, but as he got better he escaped from the German camp., back to the partisans and then he went back into the war. Of course he was very young: only 17-18 when this happened, and became a real actor just in the 1950-s. He was the son of a Russian Jewish family (had Polish roots), and when he was young he wanted to become a film-technician: his career was cut because of the war. After the war he decided to become an actor, but he wasn't able to finish the actor's school: he got actor's jobs in the cities of the Caucasus, where his colleagues taught him how to act, and encouraged him to go to Leningrad and find a job as an actor. He went there into a film-studio, and very hardly but fortunately got a job in the Lenfilm's theatre. The rest is history: he got most of the roles what all actors just dream of but he didn't get conceited. He just humbly served his public till the end of his life.