Internet Shakespeare Editions

Shakespeare in Performance: Film

Ophélia (1962, Claude Chabrol)

TitleOphélia
Year1962
Release LocationsFrance
DirectorClaude Chabrol
MediumBlack & white video with sound
Length1 hrs, 45 mins, 1 segments
LanguagesFrench
Play ConnectionsHamlet (derivative)

Description

The director of this film, Claude Chabrol (b. 1930), is well known as a Nouvelle Vague filmmaker and critic, one of the coteries whose serious interest in film as art was inscribed in the pages of Cahiers du Cinéma, the celebrated film journal. An admirer of Alfred Hitchcock, Chabrol shows that influence in the suspenseful sequences in Ophélia, as in the opening episode that so portentously depicts the funeral of Yvan's father. Chabrol's dislike of the French petty bourgeois also surfaces in the tavern scenes where the locals taunt the neurotic Yvan. The film was shot on location in rural France. The village name, "Erneles," is of course an attempt to link it to "Elsinore."

Description from Shakespeare on Screen : an International Filmography and Videography by Kenneth S. Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer. ©1990 Kenneth S. Rothwell. Cited by permission. — Added 2008-11-14

Cast Overview

Francois--HoratioSerge Bento
GravediggerSacha Briquet
Andre Lagrange--PoloniusRobert Burnier
WorkerRoger Carel
Adrien Lesurf--ClaudiusClaude Cerval
GinetteLitiane David
Yvan--HamletAndré Jocelyn
SparkosJean-Louis Maury
Lucie--OpheliaJuliette Mayniel
Claudia Lesurf--GertrudeAlida Valli
PaulPierre Vernier

Production Team and Crew Overview

DirectorClaude Chabrol
ComposerPierre Jansen
ChoreographyJean Rabier
CostumesClément Ollier
ConductorAndre Girard
ProductionMartial Matthieu

Company Overview

Producer Boreal
Producer Lux Compagne Cinématographique de France

Production information courtesy of: Kenneth Rothwell