Ophelia

Synopsis: Feature film. Yvan Lesurf, son of a wealthy businessman, broods over his father’s death and his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle, Adrien. Lucie loves him, despite the disapproval of her father, Andre. A showing of Olivier’s HAMLET at a local cinema suggests to Yvan that there are parallels between Hamlet and his own situation. He feigns madness, taunts his mother and plans ‘mousetrap’, a short film starring a barmaid, a gravedigger and his friend, Francois. The film is shown at a specially arranged event. Disconcerted by the plot of the film, Adrien makes a failed attempt to kill Yven and then poisons himself. As he lays dying he tells Yvan that neither he nor Yvan’s mother is guilty. Yvan distressed himself, is consoled by Lucie who reminds him that he is Yvan, not Hamlet.
Language: French (Standard)
Country: France
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of release: 1962
Duration: 100 mins; 9000 feet

Director

Screenplay

Cast

Notes: Available on DVD with no English sub-titles from French retailers, with French subtitles for the hard of hearing. The 16mm print at the Folger Shakespeare Library has English subtitles.
Reviews: Newman, Karen, ‘Chabrol’s OPHELIA: Mirror for Hamlet’, Shakespeare on Film Newsletter 6.2 (March 1982, 1+).

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British Universities Film & Video Council