Ophélia (1963 film)

1963 film by Claude Chabrol

Ophélia

Directed by| Claude Chabrol
Written by|

* Claude Chabrol
* Paul Gégauff

Produced by| Jean Lavie
Starring|

* Alida Valli
* Claude Cerval
* André Jocelyn
* Juliette Mayniel

Cinematography| Jean Rabier
Edited by| Jacques Gaillard
Music by| Pierre Jansen

Production
company

Boréal Films

Distributed by| Gaumont

Release date

* 6 February 1963 (1963-02-06)[1]

Running time

| 103 minutes
Country| France
Language| French

Ophélia is a 1963 French drama film directed by Claude Chabrol. The story centers on a disturbed young man who becomes obsessed with the idea that his life mirrors that of the title character of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.[2][3]

## Plot[edit]

After the death of his father, a rich factory owner, Yvan's mother Claudia marries his uncle Adrien. Yvan, a troubled young man unwilling to accept the marriage, becomes convinced that his mother and her new husband killed his father. He descends into a fantasy world, imposing the story and the characters of Shakespeare's Hamlet onto the people around him. Lucie, the daughter of the family's groundskeeper, is reluctant when Yvan declares her to be his Ophelia, although she shares his feeling of affection. After confronting his mother and stepfather with his accusation in the shape of a short film he produced (analogue to the Mousetrap play in Hamlet),[4] Adrien intends to kill Yvan but, unable to do so, poisons himself instead. On his deathbed, Adrien rejects the murder accusation but confesses to Yvan that he is his biological father. Yvan, regretting his assumption and devastated, asks Lucie to comfort and look after him, to which she agrees, emphasising that she is Lucie, not Ophelia.

## Cast[edit]

* Alida Valli as Claudia Lesurf
* Claude Cerval as Adrien Lesurf
* André Jocelyn as Yvan Lesurf
* Juliette Mayniel as Lucie Lagrange
* Robert Burnier as André Lagrange
* Jean-Louis Maury as Sparkos
* Liliane Dreyfus as Ginette
* Serge Bento as François
* Sacha Briquet as Gravedigger

## Reception[edit]

Although completed before Chabrol's next film Landru, Ophélia was released after the latter and met neither with the audience's nor the critics' approval.[5] Depending on the source, the film had between 6,000[6] and 8,000[7] admissions in Paris.

Upon the film's 1974 New York opening, 11 years after its French release, New York Times critic Nora Sayre rated it an "equally boring and pretentious" film with an unconvincing leading actor André Jocelyn, finding merit only in Jean Rabier's camerawork.[2] Another 11 years later, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader came to a different conclusion, calling it an "underrated and unsettling" early work of its director.[3] In a 2001 interview with Peter Lennon of The Guardian, Chabrol himself called it an "execrable" work,[8] while on another occasion, he stated that he liked the film, although it "wasn't quite what we wanted", explaining that he emphasised the humorous side of what had originally been planned as a more serious project.[6]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Ophélia (1961) Claude Chabrol". Ciné-Ressources (in French). Retrieved 24 May 2023.
2. ^ a b Sayre, Nora (8 August 1974). "Film: Chabrol's Ophelia". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
3. ^ a b Rosenbaum, Jonathan (26 October 1985). "Ophelia". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
4. ^ Wilkins, Budd (1 May 2017). "Review: Claude Chabrol's Ophelia on Olive Films Blu-ray". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
5. ^ Current Biography Yearbook. H. W. Wilson Company. 1976. p. 69.
6. ^ a b Beach, Christopher, ed. (2020). Claude Chabrol: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496824684.
7. ^ "Ophélia". JP Box-Office (in French). Retrieved 28 May 2023.
8. ^ Lennon, Peter (16 June 2001). "Surfer on the new wave". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2023.

## External links[edit]

* Ophélia at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Claude Chabrol

* Le Beau Serge (1958)
* Les Cousins (1959)
* Web of Passion (1959)
* Les Bonnes Femmes (1960)
* Wise Guys (1961)
* The Third Lover (1962)
* Landru (1963)
* Ophélia (1963)
* Code Name: Tiger (1964)
* Marie-Chantal vs. Doctor Kha (1965)
* Six in Paris (segment "La Muette") (1965)
* Our Agent Tiger (1965)
* Line of Demarcation (1966)
* The Champagne Murders (1967)
* The Road to Corinth (1967)
* Les Biches (1968)
* The Unfaithful Wife (1969)
* This Man Must Die (1969)
* Le Boucher (1970)
* The Breach (1970)
* Just Before Nightfall (1971)
* Ten Days' Wonder (1971)
* Dr. Popaul (1972)
* Wedding in Blood (1973)
* Nada (1974)
* Pleasure Party (1975)
* Innocents with Dirty Hands (1975)
* Death Rite (1976)
* The Twist (1976)
* Alice or the Last Escapade (1977)
* Blood Relatives (1978)
* Violette Nozière (1978)
* The Horse of Pride (1980)
* The Hatter's Ghost (1982)
* The Blood of Others (1984)
* Cop au Vin (1985)
* Inspecteur Lavardin (1986)
* Masks (1987)
* The Cry of the Owl (1987)
* Story of Women (1988)
* Quiet Days in Clichy (1990)
* Dr. M (1990)
* Madame Bovary (1991)
* Betty (1992)
* The Eye of Vichy (1993)
* Hell (1994)
* La Cérémonie (1995)
* The Swindle (1997)
* The Color of Lies (1999)
* Merci pour le Chocolat (2000)
* The Flower of Evil (2003)
* The Bridesmaid (2004)
* Comedy of Power (2006)
* A Girl Cut in Two (2007)
* Bellamy (2009)

* v
* t
* e

Paul Gégauff

Films written|

* Les Cousins (1959)
* Web of Passion (1959)
* Les Bonnes Femmes (1960)
* Purple Noon (1960)
* Wise Guys (1961)
* Le Signe du Lion (1962)
* The Third Lover (1962)
* Ophélia (1963)
* The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers (1964)
* The Champagne Murders (1967)
* Diabolically Yours (1967)
* Les Biches (1968)
* More (1969)
* The Scarlet Lady (1969)
* This Man Must Die (1969)
* Les Novices (1970)
* Ten Days' Wonder (1971)
* Dr. Popaul (1972)
* La Vallée (1972)
* Pleasure Party (1975)
* Death Rite (1976)
* Ave Maria (1984)
* Frankenstein 90 (1984)

Related|

* Danièle Gégauff

* v
* t
* e

William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Characters|

* Hamlet
* Claudius
* Gertrude
* Ghost
* Polonius
* Laertes
* Ophelia
* Horatio
* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
* Fortinbras
* The Gravediggers
* Yorick

Soliloquies|

* "To be, or not to be"
* "Mortal coil"
* "What a piece of work is a man"
* "Speak the speech"

Words and phrases|

* "The lady doth protest too much, methinks"
* "Thy name is"

Terminology|

* Dumbshow
* Induction
* Quiddity
* Substitution

* Sources
* Criticism

* Legend of Hamlet
* The Spanish Tragedy
* Ur-Hamlet
* Critical approaches
* Bibliographies
* Saxo Grammaticus
* House of Gonzaga
* Damon and Pythias

Influence|

* Common phrases from Hamlet
* Cultural references to Hamlet
* Cultural references to Ophelia
* Language of flowers
* Human skull symbolism

Performances|

* Moscow Art Theatre (1911–1912)
* Richard Burton (1964)

On screen|

* 1900
* 1907
* 1908
* 1912
* 1913
* 1917
* 1921
* 1935
* 1948
* 1954
* 1961
* 1964
* 1969
* 1974
* 1990
* 1996
* 2000
* 2011

Adaptations|

| Films|

* The Rest Is Silence (1959)
* The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
* Ophelia (1963)
* Johnny Hamlet (1968)
* One Hamlet Less (1973)
* The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet (1977)
* Strange Brew (1983)
* Hamlet Goes Business (1987)
* The Lion King (1994)
* Let the Devil Wear Black (1999)
* The Banquet (2006)
* Doubt (2009)
* Karmayogi (2012)
* Haider (2014)
* Hamlet A.D.D. (2014)
* Hemanta (2016)
* Ophelia (2018)
* The Lion King (2019)

|

Novels|

* Hamlet Had an Uncle (1940)
* Too, Too Solid Flesh (1989)
* Gertrude and Claudius (2000)
* Dating Hamlet (2002)
* The Dead Fathers Club (2006)
* Something Rotten (2007)
* Hamlet's Father (2008)
* The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008)

Plays|

* Hamletmachine (1977)
* Dogg's Hamlet (1979)
* Fortinbras (1991)

Musicals|

* Rockabye Hamlet (1973)

Television|

* Hamlet (Australian TV, 1959)
* Hamlet at Elsinore (BBC, 1964)
* Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (BBC, 1980)
* Hamlet (BBC 2, animated, 1992)
* Hamlet (BBC 2, 2009)

Parodies|

* 15-Minute Hamlet
* The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
* I, Hamlet
* The Klingon Hamlet
* "Lyle the Kindly Viking"
* To Be or Not to Be: That is the Adventure
* "Tales from the Public Domain"
* The Skinhead Hamlet

Songs|

* "My Robin is to the greenwood gone" (16th century)
* "Pull Me Under" (1992)
* "Song for Athene" (1997)

Opera/classical|

* Hamlet (Thomas)
* Amleto (Faccio)
* Hamlet (Tchaikovsky)
* Tristia (Berlioz)
* Die Hamletmaschine (Rihm)
* Hamlet (Dean)

In popular culture|

| Films|

* To Be or Not to Be (1942)
* A Performance of Hamlet in the Village of Mrduša Donja (1973)
* To Be or Not to Be (1983)
* Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
* Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
* Last Action Hero (1993)
* Renaissance Man (1994)
* In the Bleak Midwinter (1995)
* War (2002)
* Hamlet 2 (2008)
* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009)
* Three Days (2012)

|

Plays|

* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966)
* Stage Blood (1974)
* I Hate Hamlet (1991)
* To Be or Not to Be (2008)

Novels|

* Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
* Theatre of War (1994)
* "The Undiscovered" (1997)
* The Shakespeare Stealer (1998)
* Interred with Their Bones (2007)
* Hamnet (2020)

Television|

* "The Producer" (1966)
* "The Conscience of the King" (1966)
* "Born to Be King" (1983)
* "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" (2001)
* Slings & Arrows (2003)

Video games|

* Last Action Hero (1993)
* Hamlet (2010)
* Elsinore (2019)

Books|

* Asterix and the Great Crossing
* The Seagull
* Sharpe's Havoc

Art|

* Ophelia (Millais)
* Ophelia (Cabanel)
* Affe mit Schädel
* Ophelia (Waterhouse)
* Polish Hamlet. Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski
* The River Bank (Ophelia)

Related|

* Hamlet and Oedipus
* Hamlet and His Problems
* Hebenon
* Hamlet Q1
* Ostalo je ćutanje
* The Chronicles of Amber
* "Symphony No. 65" (Haydn)
* The Hobart Shakespeareans
* Gertrude – The Cry
* Poor Murderer
* Something Rotten!
* Sons of Anarchy

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