Displaying items by tag: Noah June

HAMNET

UK, 2025, 125 minutes, Colour.

Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, David Wilmot, Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe, Olivia Lynes.

Directed by Chloe Zhao.

Hamnet, or Hamlet, the name of Shakespeare’s son, the title of, perhaps, his most famous play.

In fact, we know very little about Shakespeare’s private life. He was from Stratford-on-Avon, he married Anne Hathaway, had an older daughter, Susanna, and twins, one of whom was Hamnet who died of the plague, very young.

What we have in this film, most arrestingly, a Shakespeare’s story from the imagination Northern Ireland’s novelist, Maggie O’Farrell, her 2020 novel. Oscar-winning director for Nomadland, Chloehao, worked with the novelist on the screenplay, presenting a more straightforward telling of the story, especially of Shakespeare’s wife, here called Agnes.

Agnes is a child of nature, a wild child, said to be connected with witches, knowing the seasons, cultivating fruits and able to make potions. And, she is played by Jessie Buckley, one of her many and varied excellent performances (and Jessie Buckley is also Irish, as is Paul Mescal who plays Shakespeare, quietly restrained). Will Shakespeare teaches at the local school, encounters Agnes, is caught up in the magic of her personality and they marry.

This is story has her staying in Stratford, giving birth to her children, sometimes with great stress, loving her husband but knowing that he has a creative talent, likes to write in his room, gives her asent that he should go to London and develop his work in the theatre. (It is only later in the film that Agnes and the audience eventually come to London.)

Agnes delights in her children, especially the twins, and the likeable and lively Hamnet (attractively played by Jacob Jupe. Hamnet is devoted to his father, practices swordfights, the children doing a rendition of the opening speech of Macbeth’s witches.

But, the plague, and Hamnet willing to take the place of his sick sister, the sadness of his death, Shakespeare’s absence, his being away eventually take its toll on Agnes’s emotions.

The major part of the film stays in Stratford, the green wildness of the forests, the glimpse of the Tudor streets and houses and church spire. But, when Agnes does go to London, sees the crowds coming into the Globe theatre, pushes her way to the stage, and the performance of Hamlet begins, this becomes most moving.

For this reviewer, this last part of the film is one of the most deeply memorable in cinema, Agnes watching as the play unfolds, the theme of death, absence, ghosts, the rejection of Ophelia and the emotions, the final confrontation with Laertes and… the rest is silence. Shakespeare himself, playing the ghost, watches Agnes’s response from the wings of the stage, one of the best dramatisations of what catharsis actually means, Agnes, slowly, surprised, coming to terms with all that has happened to her, some kind of purification of her emotions – and a strong reminder that the audience, involved i the n a play, responding to a tragedy, experiences their own dramatic catharsis.

Hamnet has won a number of awards, Best film, and many well-deserved awards for acting for Jessie Buckley.

1. The focus on hand, explanation of the name, Shakespeare’s son, Shakespeare’s play?
2. An imagination of Agnes and will Shakespeare and their children, family life, Shakespeare as a playwright, life and work in London? Not history?
3. The Stratford settings, the opening with the forest, the trees, the grounds, the locks, holes, the sense of nature? The house, interiors, dimly lit? The town square and the church spire? The atmosphere of 16^th-17^th century Stratford? The contrast with London, the dark, the streets, the river, the globe theatre, exteriors and interiors? The atmospheric score and final song?
4. The focus of Agnes, with the Eagle, swooping on the landing on her wrist, her background, her mother and which, of wild child, the sense of nature, this by her father, alienated from her stepmother? Living in the woods?
5. Will, the scene in the classroom, the repetition, his encounter with Agnes, the attraction, for both, the story of Orpheus and you registry, the courting, the opinions of the family, his parents? Bartholomew? The sexual encounter, Agnes and Mary, the questions? The marriage ceremony?
6. Jessie Buckley’s presence and performance as a this? Intense? In the forest, her communications, the background of witchery? Her pregnancy, giving birth in the woods, the difficulties, her daughter? Will’s response?
7. Passing, will and his room, his writing, parchment, his imagination? Like Agnes? The new pregnancy? Will in London? The difficulty of birth, the size of the twin child, the dead child, Agnes’s response? Her power and its revival? Will’s arrival, his joy?
8. Will, dissatisfied, wanting more in life, the decision to go to London? Is in support, his absences, the children, beginnings of alienation? His returns? The children growing up – and the sequence of their playing the role of the witches at the opening of Macbeth?
9. Judith, the older daughter, her place in the household, Hamlet and his sister, the change of clothes, interchangeable? Hamlet and his lover’s father, the sword fighting sequence?
10. Will, in London, his writings, the growing reputation, this is not the focus of the film?
11. The Shadow play of the pestilence, Judas and his illness, Hamlet is generosity, willing to take her place, his illness, suffering, death, the pain for the family? Agnes and her grief? Mary and her support? Will and his return, Agnes upset, the blame? The discussions between the two, the new house, the biggest in Stratford, some compensation, and is in the upstairs room and her memories?
12. The religious beliefs, the question background, the church visit? Yet Agnes and her nature believes? Special powers?
13. Agnes and his stepmother, the poster for Hamlet? Her being upset? The continued support of Bartholomew?
14. The decision to go to London with her brother, arriving, the bewilderment of the city, the globe theatre, the facade, the crowds coming in, the crowds inside,ne, those on the balconies?
15. Will, his group in London, to be or not to be, the rivers edge? The glimpses of the rehearsal, the actor, Hamlet’s attitude towards year, will watching, making repetition, the intensity of his feelings of love and rejection?
16. The play, and his bewildered, the crowds, the opening, the ghost, the beginning of suggestions for linking Hamlet, his illness, his death, afterlife, with the details of the play? The ghost and his speeches, afterlife, the condemnations, his brother and his wife, the fighting with Laertes, the speeches, everybody becoming more involved, the Queen’s death, the death of the king, and to the front of the stage, in Bloom blonde rather than in dark clothes, looking to the audience, the hands or reaching out, Agnes and the touch, the experience of the catharsis, from the plane, from her inner feelings, some kind of healing and understanding?
17. Will, the part of the ghost, the speeches, the intensity of the meaning, his looking at Agnes?
18. The glimpse of Hamlet at the end, the bond between will and Agnes, the impact of his son and death, the play and part is a meaning of catharsis of healing?