Soviet Shakespeare
February 19–26

Two epic screen adaptations of William Shakespeare by celebrated Ukrainian filmmaker Grigori Kozintsev, both featuring stunning black-and-white CinemaScope cinematography and original scores by Dmitri Shostakovich!



HAMLET [Гамлет] (1964)

"This is perhaps the best film based on Shakespeare. It brings the ancient Kingdom of Denmark face to face with the real world in characterizing Hamlet as sincerely motivated and revolted by injustice, crime and tyranny. 'Into this State, where everyone swims with the stream, there comes a person who is against all of this.' (Kozintsev)" – Georges Sadoul, "Dictionary of Films"

Grigori Kozintsev's renowned adaptation of "Hamlet" features striking black-and-white CinemaScope photography, evocative location shooting in the medieval Estonian village of Keila-Joa, a distinctive score by Dmitri Shostakovich and Innokenti Smoktunovsky as the melancholy Dane, praised by no less than Laurence Olivier the definitive screen performance of the Prince of Denmark. "A spectacle...a large, mobile, realistic rendering of the melodramatic action of the play that depends entirely for its impact upon its striking scenery, the physical sweep of its performance and the grand effects that the camera achieves." – New York Times.

DIR/SCR Grigori Kozintsev, from Boris Pasternak's translation of the play by William Shakespeare. USSR, 1964, b&w, 140 min. In Russian with English subtitles. NOT RATED

KING LEAR [Король Лир] (1971)

"A commanding title performance by Estonian actor Jüri Järvet, some striking landscape imagery and Dmitri Shostakovich's anguished score help make for a spirited adaptation." – BBC. "Tone and text are interwoven with an artist's eye and a poet's ear...a strong contender for the greatest adaptation of Shakespeare's greatest play." – Film4, "Like Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD and Kozintsev's own HAMLET, this LEAR moves into the physical landscape of its poetry and abandons huge swaths of verse for its physicalization of the text...Järvet is an unforgettable Lear, a small frightened skull with burning eyes, urgent, impulsive movements — but always fear." – Take One.

DIR/SCR Grigori Kozintsev, from Boris Pasternak's translation of the play by William Shakespeare. USSR, 1971, b&w, 139 min. In Russian with English subtitles. NOT RATED