.
However whilst cutting is both important and not without major effects, the reorganisation of scenes is perhaps of more importance. When staged, Hamlet's initial scene, the dialogue between Barnardo and Fernando moving into the appearance of the ghost, which provides both expositional effects about the nature of Elsinore and a theatrical shock, is rarely, if ever altered. Filmic exposition is however a far different prospect. A film audience expects to see the star, is used to the instant gratification of meeting the lead character first and Almereyda provides them with it. Following the precedent set by Olivier with his prologue - "This is the story of a man who could not make up his mind" - Almereyda provides us with a type of immediacy the theatre rarely does. .
Beginning with a tracking shot from within Hamlet's limousine as it moves through .
New York at night, the director uses captioning to set up the initial situation within the narrative . As this progression through New York continues, cutting to Hamlet walking across a busy roadway, with an electro-classical backing burbles on behind, a modernisation of Kozintev's movement and focusing through Elsinore occurs. With a similar use of close-ups, to that of Kozintev, the billboard of Times Square is shown displaying the logo of the Denmark Corporation and the shiny metallic sign of "Elsinore Hotel", a vast hotel, the model realisation of Hamlet/Claudius" domain is given context. .
Once this pacy and effective exposition has occurred, the introduction of Hamlet (as I have previously mentioned) occurs. A soliloquy taken from Act 2 Scene 2, which originally comes during the "fishmonger" dialogue, powerfully introduces Ethan Hawke's characterisation of a maladjusted film-student Hamlet. Acting as both the introduction of the media-saturation of the film and Hamlet's fascination with it, the speech occurs on a deliberately low quality black and white video display interspersed with images of the world (as perceived by the prince.
