'Hamnet', the traumas of the Shakespeare family in a film full of ghosts and emotions
Chloé Zhao's new feature film starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal arrives in cinemas
Changing the point of view to which we are accustomed: this is what Chloé Zhao does with 'Hamnet - In the name of his son', a film that tells the figure of William Shakespeare through the eyes of his wife.
It is based on the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell, published in 2020 and quickly becoming a success. Set in 16th century rural England, the film immerses us in the daily life of the couple, who are raising three children, Susanna, Judith and Hamnet. When the premature death of the latter strikes the family, grief drives the mother to confront the loss: it is through her sensitive and penetrating gaze that we witness the rift that opens up in the family, and the attempt to piece together the fragments of a devastated life.
It is not the story of Shakespeare as an isolated genius, but as a man marked by private grief, which would eventually be reflected in his most famous work. At the time, the names Hamnet and Hamlet were considered interchangeable, and the film plays with this historical ambiguity to suggest how his son's tragedy triggered the birth of the theatrical Hamlet.
Chloé Zhao
Chloé Zhao's is a film of ghosts, a feature-length film in which we end up forgetting we are watching a story about the Bard and instead immerse ourselves in an intimate affair, marked by tragic bereavement, in which the female figure becomes the beating heart of the narrative.
Now in her fifth feature film, the 1982-born director confirms the talent she had shown in her early works and in the highly successful 'Nomadland' (2020), thus leaving behind the mediocre outcome of 'Eternals' (2021), a film that was decidedly far from her depth.
