File:1900 Maurice (short).jpg

{fr} Le duel d'Hamlet / {en} Hamlet [1] (France, 1900), directed by Clément Maurice, starring Sarah Bernhardt (Hamlet). <silent film>

Abstract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the central character, Prince Hamlet, was perceived as effeminate and ofter played by a woman. So it is fitting that the earliest version of the play featured famous actress Sarah Bernhardt in the leading role, following her success on the stage.

Other silent versions of the play were directed by Georges Méliès in 1907 (lost), Luca Comerio in 1908, William George Barker in 1910, August Blom in 1910, Cecil Hepworth in 1913 and Eleuterio Rodolfi in 1917. In 1921, Svend Gade directed Asta Nielsen in a version derived from Edward Vining's 1881 book "The Mystery of Hamlet", in which Hamlet is explicitly said to be a woman who spent her life disguised as a man.