William Shakespeare's Hamlet was the subject of at least thirteen silent films, yet Asta Nielsen's 1921 Hamlet, directed by Svend Gade and Heinz Schall, was unique on several levels, with none of the play's familiar language nor the visual icons one would expect. No film adaptation captures the tragedy's thematic ambition as masterfully through the same interrogation of light and dark that the original play realises through words. In this article, I explore the film's strategic use of chiaroscuro in tandem with props and costuming, and its continuing influence on the visual reception of Shakespeare's play. Keywords Shakespeare, Hamlet, Silent Film, gender, Weimar cinema Résumé La tragédie Hamlet, de William Shakespeare, a inspiré au moins treize films muets. Pour autant, la version de 1921, dirigée par Svend Gade et Heinz Schall, et produite par Asta Nielsen, était unique à plusieurs égards, dont l'absence de toute référence au texte si familier et des icônes visuels qu'on pouvait attendre. Aucune adaptation filmique ne capture l'ambition thématique de la tragédie de manière aussi magistrale, livrant cette interrogation de la lumière et de l'obscurité que le texte déploie dans les mots. Cet article analyse l'utilisation stratégique du clair-obscur en association avec les accessoires et les costumes, pour ouvrir sur l'influence encore actuelle de ce film sur la réception visuelle de la pièce. Mots clés Shakespeare, Hamlet, film muet, genre, cinéma de Weimar Like the play at hand, I begin with a question. How can we comprehend Shakespeare's playsthe insight of his dialogue and the delight of his poetry-in silence? As film became an increasingly accessible medium, filmmakers looked to Shakespeare for stories, trusting audience familiarity to bring the sound and cadence of his language to the moving images. Hamlet, the longest of Shakespeare's plays, was adapted into at least thirteen silent films that could make