Hamlet

(Svend Gade and Heinz Schall, Germany 1921, 104 min., 35mm, w/ English intertitles)

“Not of an age, but for all time.” Many silent filmmakers turned to Shakespeare for source material, transforming the Bard’s verbal poetry and drama into visual equivalents, but none more unusually than this project spearheaded by the legendary Danish actress Asta Nielsen. Nielsen, who takes the title role in this production, brings more than one kind of ambiguity into her portrayal of the “melancholy Dane,” which also gains weight from being shot at some of the actual settings (such as Elsinore Castle) called for in the play.

Live piano by Philip C. Carli.