Tag: premonition

Hamnet

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 January 2026
2 Comments on Hamnet
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Director – Chloé Zhao – 2025 – UK, US – Cert. 12a – 125m

*****

An imagining of the story of William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, whose name gave rise to the play Hamlet – Maggie O’Farrell’s adaptation of her own novel is out in UK cinemas on Friday, January 9th

According to the opening title card, the names Hamlet and Hamnet were regarded as interchangeable in Elizabethan England. This is curious, since the piece’s female lead (Jessie Buckley from Women Talking, Sarah Polley, 2022; Men, Alex Garland, 2022; Misbehaviour, Philippa Lowthorpe, 2020) appears to be variously addressed as Alice, Agnes or Anyes while the male lead (Paul Mescal from Gladiator II, Ridley Scott, 2024; All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh, 2023; Aftersun, Charlotte Wells, 2022) is not referred to by name as William Shakespeare until well towards the end. Since this is being promoted as the story of William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, whose name gave rise to the play Hamlet – as you can see from the trailer below – audiences will enter the film knowing who the Paul Mescal character is as soon as he appears unnamed.

The outdoors, looking up through the trees of a forest.… Read the rest

Tags actor, adaptation, Agnes Hathaway, barn, bereavement, birth, black void, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, catharsis, Chloé Zhao, city and countryside, cross-dressing, David Wilmot, death, disease, disowned, Elizabethan England, Emily Watson, falconry, fathers and children, forest, Globe Theatre, grief, hamlet, Hamnet, hawk, inseparable, Jacobi Jupe, Jessie Buckley, Joe Alwyn, landscape, Latin, London, Macbeth, Maggie O’Farrell, mothers and children, mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, Noah Jupe, Olivia Lynes, Orpheus and Euridice, outdoors, parents and children, Paul Mescal, plague, play, prank, pregnant, premonition, siblings, stage, stillborn, story, struggle with writing, swordplay, the undiscovered country, theatre, theatre community, tragedy, travesty, tutor, twins, two children, UK, unnamed, William Shakespeare, witches, woods

Features Live Action Movies

Hamnet

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 9 January 2026
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Directed by Chloé Zhao
Certificate 12A
125 minutes
Released 9 January

Shakespeare’s romantic relationship, family life and the tragedy of bereavement resulted in his writing one of his bestknown plays, Hamlet. In Elizabethan England, we are told at the start of Hamnet, the two names were interchangeable. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, this film is well-served by the landscape-friendly sensibilities of the director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland). [Read the rest at Reform magazine…]

[Read my longer review on this site…]

Hamnet is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, January 9th.

Trailer:

Live Action Movies Shorts

Afternoon Clouds

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 March 2025
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Director – Payal Kapadia – 2017 – India – 13m

*****

An old woman, her home and her cat interact in the former’s coastal flat – Kapadia’s first short evidences a sensibility which will inform her debut feature All We Imagine as Light – on the UK Blu-ray/DVD (Dual Format Edition) of All We Imagine as Light, released Monday, March 3rd

A room with two windows looking out on the sea. The constant sound of its roar, the net curtains stir in the breeze. An elderly woman (Usha Naik) holds a bowl of milk as she calls out for, “Koshu”. Elsewhere in the house, a younger woman (Trimala Adhikari) sits, dozing, on a bench, until she hears the older woman calling her name, “Malti”. She opens her eyes.

The older and younger women stand in a room, staring, the elder explaining to the younger that the plant will last two days. As the ginger cat Koshu feeds contentedly, the younger woman Malti limps back to her room. Preparing food in the kitchen, the younger tells the older that three chillis are too much for her. The older protests.

The conversation turns to the older’s medication, the next life, and why not get a plant that lasts longer, asks the younger.… Read the rest

Tags Africa, Afternoon Clouds, apparition, architectural space, Aurobinda Roy Chowdhury, bark, bed, bedroll, bedspread, bench, bowl of milk, breeze, building, cat, Cephas Subba, chanting, chilli, cloud, coastal flat, contentment, docks, dogs, doze, dream, elderly, food preparation, fruit, ghost, ginger cat, giraffes, home, housework, husband, India, insomnia, interior, kitchen, late husband, laundry, limp, magazines, medication, memory, nap, net curtains, network of relationships, old woman, passing train, Payal Kapadia, pet, picture postcard, pillow, plant, premonition, railway train, roar of the sea, room, rot, sea, ship, singing, sleep, stairwell, steam, surroundings, talk, the next life, tidy, tidying, train, Trimala Adhikari, two day life cycle, two days, Usha Naik, windows

Animation Features Movies

Watership Down
(new 4K restoration)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 25 October 2024
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(new 4K restoration)
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Directed by Martin Rosen
Certificate PG
92 minutes
Released 25 October

Reviewed for Reform magazine.

Now fully restored in a new 4K restoration, this 1978 tale of rabbits on the run proved that an animated film need be neither made by Disney nor sugar-coated for children. Watership Down, although a children’s film, came from the producer of the Oscar-winning DH Lawrence adaptation Women in Love (1969), Martin Rosen. He ended up directing it too.

A prologue details the relationship between the creator-god Frith – represented as the sun – and rabbitkind. As with most creation myths outside the Judeo-Christian, there’s quite a bit of sex and violence. The rabbits breed furiously; hitherto non-carnivorous animals are given teeth to keep the rabbit numbers down. The rabbits are given powerful hind legs to outrun their predators.

Having established rabbits as intelligent creatures possessing a mythology and a world view, the main story… [Read the rest at Reform magazine]

[Read my alternative, longer review for this site.]

Trailer:

Directed by Martin RosenCertificate PG92 minutesReleased 25 October

Directed by Martin Rosen
Certificate PG
92 minutes
Released 25 October