There is a 1921 Danish Hamlet with Asta Nielsen in the title role, but
that's not a sound film.  There is also a Turkish film called Angel of
Vengeance (1976), directed by Metin Erksan, where Hamlet is a woman,
portrayed by Fatma Girik, a popular Turkish actress.  Which then results in
Ophelia being a man, named Orhan, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern being two
young women named Rezzan and Gul (all three quite common Turkish names).
Hamlet is still called Hamlet, though.

Melis Behlil.

----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Andrew Hutchins <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 6:02 AM
Subject: Shakespeare and gender


> I just saw Almereyda's _Hamlet_, and in it, Paula Malcolmson plays
> "Marcella," a female Marcellus who is presumably the girlfriend of
> Horatio.  On stage this is relatively common.  I recently saw a
> Western-style production of _The Taming of the Shrew_ at Ball state
> University which had a Biondella and a Grumia, and the former seemed to
> be Tranio's girlfriend.  I know this occurred during the "silent"
> period; Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet in the 1900 film, a role she had
> played over 300 imes on stage.  Is anyone aware of any other sound films
> which did this, particularly with supporting characters like Marcellus
> whose gender was unimportant and the defaulted to male with the all-male
> casts of Shakespeare's day?
>
> Scott
>
> ----
> Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
> http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite

----
Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite