I can't see an Hamlet without thinking Stoppard, and the film version of R&G is so much better than any film version of Hamlet I've seen, it makes me sad.

omigawd YES. I love the film version of R&GRDead with a deep, deep love.

Hell, that may be the ultimate film version of Hamlet, to date.

Connie, the sets on Branagh's Hamlet were, indeed, visually stunning. But I started feeling - shit, I can't describe it properly. Rather the way I felt the last time I made it through the first half of a full-cycle performance of Wagner's Ring? Mentally editing the thing for clarity, I mean.

Derek Jacobi as Claudius. Growf.

Derek Jacobi as Claudius.

"Lost your stutter, too, I see." - Livia, on her death bed.

Best. PBS. Series. Ever. We own it - the whole thing. It seriously, seriously blisses me.

I used to watch Henry V, the One True Branagh version, about once a fortnight.

This was nine years ago, when I was in an odd headspace that required a lot of soothing repeat viewing. I'd read along as I watched.

Also on repeat that year: The Young Ones: Oil, Boring, and Flood; Sleep With Me; Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle; and Orlando.

Oh, and I was *reading* R&GaD all the time, but watching it only a few times a year.

Derek Jacobi as Claudius. Growf.

See, I just giggled and giggled and giggled at his Big Death Scene, because it was SO the repeat of the Big Death Scene from Dead Again.

Which I should add to the above list of movies on repeat, if I switch the year from '95 to '93.

Mentally editing the thing for clarity, I mean.

I'd read the play, but nothing was making sense. I kept being amazed during Branagh's Hamlet that all the subplots really were interconnected with each other. Yes, expendable if really necessary, but the added dimension to the main story left me, well, amazed. And I felt sorry for Hamlet.

Ophelia's graveside, where the Queen says she wanted Ophelia as Hamlet's bride, when at the beginning Polonius is telling Ophelia that she should stop dreaming of Hamlet, because they would never be able to be together ... gosh.

because it was SO the repeat of the Big Death Scene from Dead Again.

Backwards! Claudius predates!

But Dead Again was a perfect little injoke on Jacobi's part, right down to the stammer.

Big Death Scenes--it's a fair cop. Sigh.

I've read and re-read "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God," but I've yet to see the mini-series. It's probably at teh library, but I'd want to sit down by myself to watch it, so I can mutter to myself without having to explain things to Hubby.

Backwards! Claudius predates!

I haven't had TIME to watch the DVDs!

Is Claudius skewered? Because it's the skewering that makes me giggle. If so, that's a three-fer!

Claudius gets dosed with poisoned mushrooms. No skewering.