Michael Almereyda’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a unique combination of two approaches: commenting on both the play’s stage/screen existence and its place in the global culture of today, and discovering such aspects of the play that have not been shown, or at least highlighted, before. On the one hand, Almereyda seems to be too aware of Shakespeare’s position as a cultural icon and of the play’s history of criticism and performance to believe that he can create an entirely new film version of Hamlet. Therefore, he chooses to acknowledge the achievements of his predecessors and refers not only to the iconography of Shakespeare on stage and screen but to various other cultural influences, from ancient sculpture and classical painting to popular cinema and high technology.
