M - “Mirrors”
In answer to the question “What is the best and worst thing about [Hamlet]?”, the film’s camera operator, Martin Kenzie, responded with “The mirrors.” Branagh’s keen intuition for mise en scene in Hamlet is so genius as to seem simple and obvious, but it is neither when it comes to the actual process of filming. This bold choice demonstrates the inherent risks of “too much reflection,” as regards both Hamlet and the cinematography.
Hamlet is often cited as “the first modern play” due to the characters’ psychological depth and display of interiority. Shakespeare took the straight-forward and well-known ancient Danish revenge tale and molded it into a complex, self-reflective drama so boundless that it still confounds scholars and audiences to this day. Being described by Ophelia as the “glass of fashion,” Hamlet is especially concerned with reflection. His explicit instructions to the Players include “to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to Nature,” and he forces Gertrude to “set you up a glass / Where you may see the inmost part of you.”
Earlier in Shakespeare’s career, we see the seeds of such obsession in Richard II, who notably soliloquizes and speechifies on the subject of personal contemplation, chiefly on the theme of monarchy and rule. He also uses the imagery of mirrors, most famously comparing his fractured identity to that of the shards of the looking glass he shatters on the ground.
Branagh’s initial thought upon seeing his completed set was of two-way mirrors, and how “they are evocative of a lot of things,” such as “vanity” and also “forever being watched or [characters] forever watching themselves.” In perhaps his most cunning turn of filmmaking—when Hamlet comes to deliver the “To be” speech—Branagh incorporates all of these themes at once.
Claudius and Polonius are observing him from behind a two-way mirror, framing Hamlet in an almost Magritte-like portrait—Ceci n'est pas un Prince. Cut to Claudius and Polonius staring in silence. Cut to hovering behind Hamlet’s shoulder, where we see two images: the back of his head and his entire figure, standing at attention. Slowly, he steps closer to the mirror, delivering the soliloquy, uncut except for the moment when he brandishes the dagger and we see a second of Claudius’ fearful reaction. As the speech commences, the camera closes in and we see only the reflection—one Hamlet, reversed, but singular in his philosophy and his resolve. This scene presents a massive shift in the plot, when it appears that Hamlet takes control of the entire enterprise, as if he has come to life and is now writing the remainder of the story in the name of Shakespeare.
In this same scene, to the distaste of anyone who has ever seen the play, Hamlet very suddenly becomes a tyrant and a monster, verbally and physically abusing Ophelia, and in Branagh’s version, very much with the knowledge of being watched by her father and his uncle. He presses her up to the same mirror, and the glass distorts her face, marking the first cruel twist of her psyche. Later, when Laertes returns from France to find his father murdered and his sister gone mad, they both sit down beside a mirror as she sings a languid lament, the silver backing visibly flaking from the glass just as the scales of her reason fall away.
With Branagh’s tendency for long, uncut dolly shots that often whirl about groups of actors, Kenzie and cinematographer Alex Thompson would have had a hell of a time framing and planning all this in a literal hall of mirrors. No CG touch-ups were applied to eliminate any inadvertent reflections, and miraculously, only one scant instance of the unintended appearance of a crew member is noticeable for an eagle-eyed viewer. It is a masterful execution of vision and narrative theme captured on film, perfectly exemplifying director Christopher Nolan’s reverential statement regarding Branagh’s ability to “aggressively” communicate Shakespeare.
Sources:
Christopher Nolan presents to Kenneth Branagh at the Britannia Awards, YouTube, 11/13/2017
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