Hamlet Goes Business

Hamlet Goes Business (Hamlet liikemaailmassa), 1987
35mm, Black & White, 86’

Hamlet Goes Business transposes Shakespeare’s Hamlet into Helsinki’s industrial district. The film is about the characters’ struggle for corporate power and proceeds like an ironic game of chess. In interpreting the play Kaurismäki adds a dose of the absurd and, most importantly, some rock’n roll, while Timo Salminen’s black-and-white cinematography spices it up with a little film noir. Another feature that sets the play and the film apart is that in the latter Hamlet is not a prisoner of fate but an active shareholder fighting against his stepfather for corporate power.