Editing Hamlet (section)

===Film and TV performances===
{{Main|Hamlet on screen}}
{{see also|Cultural references to Hamlet}}

An early film version of ''Hamlet'' is [[Sarah Bernhardt]]'s five-minute film of the fencing scene,{{refn|''Hamlet'' 5.2.203–387.}} which was produced in 1900. The film was an early attempt at combining [[Sound film|sound and film]]; music and words were recorded on phonograph records, to be played along with the film.{{sfn|Brode|2001|pp=117–118}} Silent versions were released in 1907, 1908, 1910, 1913, 1917, and 1920.{{sfn|Brode|2001|pp=117–18}} In the 1921 film ''[[Hamlet (1921 film)|Hamlet]]'', Danish actress [[Asta Nielsen]] played the role of Hamlet as a woman who spends her life disguised as a man.{{sfn|Brode|2001|pp=117–118}}

[[Laurence Olivier]]'s 1948 moody black-and-white ''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' won [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]] and [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] [[Academy Awards]] and is {{As of|2024|lc=y}}, the only Shakespeare film to have done so. His interpretation stressed the Oedipal overtones of the play and cast 28-year-old [[Eileen Herlie]] as Hamlet's mother opposite himself at 41 as Hamlet.{{sfn|Davies|2000|p=171}}

In 1953, actor [[Jack Manning (actor)|Jack Manning]] performed the play in 15-minute segments over two weeks in the short-lived late night [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] series ''[[Monodrama Theater]]''. ''New York Times'' TV critic Jack Gould praised Manning's performance as Hamlet.{{sfn|Fox|2009}}

The 1964 Soviet film ''[[Hamlet (1964 film)|Hamlet]]'' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Гамлет}}) is based on a translation by [[Boris Pasternak]] and directed by [[Grigori Kozintsev]], with a score by [[Dmitri Shostakovich]].{{sfn|Guntner|2000|pp=120–121}} [[Innokenty Smoktunovsky]] was cast in the role of Hamlet.

John Gielgud directed [[Richard Burton]] in a [[Richard Burton's Hamlet|Broadway production]] at the [[Lunt-Fontanne Theatre]] in 1964–65, the longest-running ''Hamlet'' in the U.S. to date. A live film of the production was produced using "Electronovision", a method of recording a live performance with multiple video cameras and converting the image to film.{{sfn|Brode|2001|pp=125–27}} Eileen Herlie repeated her role from Olivier's film version as the Queen, and the voice of Gielgud was heard as the ghost. The Gielgud/Burton production was also recorded complete and released on LP by [[Columbia Masterworks]].
[[File:Bernhardt Hamlet2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Sarah Bernhardt]] as Hamlet, with [[Yorick]]'s skull (photographer: [[James Lafayette]], {{circa|1885–1900}})]]
The first ''Hamlet'' in color was a [[Hamlet (1969 film)|1969 film]] directed by [[Tony Richardson]] with [[Nicol Williamson]] as Hamlet and [[Marianne Faithfull]] as Ophelia.

In 1990 [[Franco Zeffirelli]], whose Shakespeare films have been described as "sensual rather than cerebral",{{sfn|Cartmell|2000|p=212}} cast [[Mel Gibson]]—then famous for the ''[[Mad Max]]'' and ''[[Lethal Weapon]]'' movies—in the title role of his [[Hamlet (1990 film)|1990 version]]; [[Glenn Close]]—then famous as the psychotic "other woman" in ''[[Fatal Attraction]]''—played Gertrude, and [[Paul Scofield]] played Hamlet's father.{{sfn|Guntner|2000|pp=121–122}}

[[Kenneth Branagh]] adapted, directed, and starred in a 1996 film version of ''Hamlet'' that contained material from the First Folio and the Second Quarto. Branagh's [[Hamlet (1996 film)|''Hamlet'']] was the first unabridged theatrical film adaptation of the play and has a runtime of 242 minutes (just over four hours).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.frenchfilms.org/review/hamlet-1996.html |title=Hamlet: Film Review |website=Frenchfilms.org |last=Travers |first=James |access-date=11 April 2025}}</ref>{{sfn|Crowl|2000|p=232}} Branagh set the film with late 19th-century costuming and furnishings, a production in many ways reminiscent of a Russian novel of the time,{{sfn|Starks|1999|p=272}} and [[Blenheim Palace]], built in the early 18th century, became Elsinore Castle in the external scenes. The film is structured as an [[Epic film|epic]] and makes frequent use of [[Flashback (narrative)|flashbacks]] to highlight elements not made explicit in the play: Hamlet's sexual relationship with [[Kate Winslet]]'s Ophelia, for example, or his childhood affection for Yorick (played by [[Ken Dodd]]).{{sfn|Keyishian|2000|pp=78–79}}

In 2000, [[Michael Almereyda]]'s ''[[Hamlet (2000 film)|Hamlet]]'' set the story in contemporary [[Manhattan]], with [[Ethan Hawke]] playing Hamlet as a film student. Claudius (played by [[Kyle MacLachlan]]) became the CEO of "Denmark Corporation", having taken over the company by killing his brother.{{sfn|Burnett|2003}}

The 2014 [[Bollywood]] film ''[[Haider (film)|Haider]]'' is an adaptation set in modern [[Kashmir]].{{sfn|Gupta|2014}}