{"id":105749,"date":"2025-08-31T23:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/105749\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T23:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:18:07","slug":"chloe-zhaos-pic-hamnet-is-talk-of-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/105749\/","title":{"rendered":"Chlo\u00e9 Zhao’s Pic ‘Hamnet’ Is Talk of Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHamnet<\/a>, the latest work of the wonderful Chinese filmmaker Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, who won best picture and director Oscars for 2020\u2019s Nomadland, is an adaptation, written by Zhao and Maggie O\u2019Farrell, of O\u2019Farrell\u2019s bestselling 2020 novel of the same name about the Shakespeare family. A tearjerker of the first order, it has become \u2014\u00a0in the wake of its Aug. 29 world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and subsequent screenings here, including the one that I caught on Saturday at the Werner Herzog Theatre\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the most talked-about film at the fest. It also has generated a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score (including a THR rave<\/a>) and widespread Oscar buzz, not least for its lead performers.<\/p>\n

\n\tPaul Mescal<\/a>, an Oscar nominee for 2022\u2019s Aftersun, plays William, a man of words, and Jessie Buckley<\/a>, an Oscar nominee for 2021\u2019s The Lost Daughter, plays Agnes, a woman of nature. Both emanate from troubled families, happen upon each other, fall in love almost instantly, and quickly begin having children \u2014\u00a0Susannah (Bohdi Rae Breathnatch), and then twins, Judith (Olivia Lynes) and Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Then, after a few years of happiness, tragedy strikes, claiming the life of Hamnet \u2014 a name which, it turns out, was interchangeable in the 16th century with the name Hamlet, and, according to this story, inspired the play with that title.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs is also the case with another film at the fest, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, there is not a lot of joy in Hamnet \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s primarily a film about heartbreaking loss and crippling grief \u2014 but it is beautifully shot by the Oscar-nominated cinematographer \u0141ukasz \u017bal (Ida and Cold War); features stunning sets by the Oscar-nominated production designer Fiona Crombie (The Favourite); is bolstered by a memorable score by Max Richter (Arrival); and showcases affecting performances by Mescal and Buckley. Along with the film, director and screenplay, all of the above seem like top-tier contenders for Oscar nominations, at the least.<\/p>\n

\n\tI would just caution that, while there are clearly many fans of the film in Telluride, I have also encountered a number of people from the industry who quietly profess to have not connected with it at all, with the term \u201ctrauma porn\u201d coming up more than once. Plus, Telluride attendees have been known to get a bit of a Rocky Mountain high, on occasion, about films that later came back to earth \u2014 see 2021\u2019s C\u2019mon C\u2019mon and Cyrano, 2022\u2019s Empire of Light and Women Talking, 2023\u2019s Saltburn, and yes, 2024\u2019s September 5. So I will be very curious to see how Hamnet plays in the weeks and months to come \u2014 its next stop is the Toronto International Film Festival, and then Focus Features will begin rolling it out in theaters on Nov. 27\u00a0\u2014 when people will see it in the wake of such huge hype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamnet, the latest work of the wonderful Chinese filmmaker Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, who won best picture and director Oscars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[46821,96,50284,46823,2839,46825,50349,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-105749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-chloe-zhao","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-hamnet","11":"tag-jessie-buckley","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-paul-mescal","14":"tag-telluride-2025","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}