Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

"A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."

1991 1h 57m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

🍅

61%

FRESH

⭐

7.3

IMDB

★6.9TMDB · 335🍅61%Rotten Tomatoes★7.3IMDB · 25,556

ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, minor characters from the play 'Hamlet', find themselves on the road to Elsinore Castle at the behest of the King of Denmark. The duo encounter a band of players before arriving to find that they are needed to try to discern what troubles the prince Hamlet. Meanwhile, they ponder the meaning of their existence.

“A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.”

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Cast

Gary Oldman
Rosencrantz
Tim Roth
Guildenstern
Richard Dreyfuss
The Player
Iain Glen
Hamlet
Ian Richardson
Polonius
Donald Sumpter
Claudius
Joanna Miles
Gertrude
Joanna Roth
Ophelia

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Tom Stoppard
Writers: Tom Stoppard
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 32% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

35 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Tom Stoppard, shot by Peter Biziou. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Stanley Myers. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Nicolas Gaster shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Gary Oldman and Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Tom Stoppard directs. Peter Biziou behind the camera. Stanley Myers scores. Nicolas Gaster cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 32% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
335 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
5Directed by Tom Stoppard, shot by Peter Biziou. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Stanley Myers. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Nicolas Gaster shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Gary Oldman and Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.".
10IMDB entry: tt0100519 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Peter Biziou
Original score: Stanley Myers
Editing: Nicolas Gaster
Production design: Vaughan Edwards
Costume design: Andreane Neofitou
Makeup / hair: Maria Dziewulska
Sound: Kevin Tayler
Runtime: 117 min · 1h 57m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,500,000
Box office: $805,104
Return: 32% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1991)
Rotten Tomatoes: 61% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.3/10 · 25,556 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

3 wins & 2 nominations total

Golden Lion

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2023-10-06
★ 4/10
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern must remain in the theater. This film is perhaps the proof that not all successful plays are good enough to work in the cinema. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two characters from “Hamlet”, by William Shakespeare, but it is difficult for anyone to remember them without being very knowledgeable about the literary work in question. They really barely matter to the action. Here, they are the main actors, and we are invited, in a way, to see things through their eyes. In theater, this is interesting. In the cinema, and for a general audience that doesn't know “Hamlet” so well, this doesn't seem like a good idea. Gary Oldman and Tim Roth brought the main roles to life with great panache and value, and the film ends up not being an absolute waste of time thanks to these two magnificent and valuable actors, full of talent. There is a high dose of “nonsense” in the dialogues between the two, and this can become tiring, but it generally works without surprising. The rest of the cast does not have such good material and opportunities to stand out, thus leaving the film somewhat devoid of good characters other than the protagonists. On a technical level, the emphasis is on the costumes and sets. I can't say that there is great historical rigor here: historically, Hamlet's life is located in Denmark in the Year One Thousand and what we see is Renaissance, much more suited to people and figures who would be contemporary with Shakespeare. But I didn't have any problems with that, and that's not even a problem because all of this is fiction and can be situated in time whenever you want. Much more difficult to bear is the slight feeling that we are watching a kind of recorded play instead of a film.

Production companies