In class, we have been reading Shakespeare's famous play Hamlet, along with watching two altogether different Hamlet movies, one by Kenneth Branagh and the other by Franco Zeffirelli. We must consider with certainty that both movies made their particular rendition of Hamlet by deciphering Shakespeare's unique story in an unexpected way. In spite of the fact that they were both exceptionally successful movies, in my opinion, it is Zeffirelli who best catches the quintessence of the play in light of the way it adequately catches its viewers by the utilization of acting, and costuming, in the Ophelia madness scene and the Gertrude chamber scene. Zeffirelli exhibits a more proper perspective of the Shakespearean period, while Kenneth Branagh does not.
Helena Bonham Carter, who played Ophelia, made an extraordinary showing with playing the part of a youthful lost young lady, who has experienced numerous tragedies throughout her life, and has now gone crazy. During the Ophelia madness scene, Zeffirelli effectively uses costuming to improve Carter`s acting who played Ophelia. Zeffirelli`s decision of costumes shows the audience Ophelia's true emotions and madness caused by the death of her father and being treated poorly by Hamlet. In the Ophelia madness scene, it is evident that Ophelia has ended up going insane because of the death of her father. The crowd knows this by the adjustments in her appearance. We now see her with tangled hair, worn out attire, and showing up completely distressed and run down, instead of the previous scenes where she was delightful and composed. Zeffirelli made an extremely wise choice when he chose to have almost no cosmetics on Helena this made Ophelia look worn down and tired, which she would be suffering from with becoming mad.
Not only did Zeffirelli`s decision of costuming in the Ophelia madness scene compliment his version of the film, but the outfit choice for Queen Gertrude played by Glenn Close in the Gertrude Chamber scene was significantly more intense.