Hamlet (2000)

Max Schreck as Graf Orlok in "Nosferatu" (1922)

Film Arts Guild

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror." This 1922 classic of cinema based on Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (but with names changed) directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schrek in one of films most famous and frightening make-up jobs.

CinemaSource

Rating: R

Release Date: May 12, 2000

Running Time: 112 mins.

Country Of Origin: United States

starring: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Diane Venora, Sam Shepard, Bill Murray, Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Karl Geary, Paula Malcomson, Steve Zahn

director: Michael Almereyda

New York City, 2000. Claudius is a high-profile media magnate running the Denmark Corporation following the death of his brother. Claudius' new wife, Gertrude, the widow of his brother and Hamlet's mother, is a poised and powerful socialite. Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, who lives in an East Village squat, never far from the disapproving eye of her father, Polonius, Claudius' chief consultant and spin doctor. When the ghost of Hamlet's father appears on Hamlet's hotel room terrace, demanding vengeance of his "foul murder," Hamlet is thrown into a turmoil of indecision, anguish and doubt.

Dust off the Cliffs Notes: Hollywood's most prolific screenwriter, William Shakespeare, is back with a new flick. This modernized Hamlet offers Ethan Hawke as a Gen X slacker who returns home from school after his father (the president of the Denmark Corp.) is killed and, well, you know the story.

Story

Yeah. Right. Like I'm going to criticize Shakespeare. What I will say is that director Michael Almereyda's screenplay adaptation brings excitement to a film that could have been dusty and dry.…