Silent Shakespeare. L'Amleto cinematografico di Gade/Nielsen (Germania 1921)

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the figure of the female protagonist in Gade’s silent film version of Hamlet (1921), Asta Nielsen, the first internationally renown screen star. She is not only the heroine of the melodramatic plot who is trapped in a feigned male identity imposed on her by external circumstances and political reasons (according to Vining’s controversial reading of the original play), but because of her avant-guarde acting style and performance, and her androgynous look she becomes the symbol of Weimar ‘gender crisis’.