Hamnet Movie - Building Hamnet: Designing Chloé Zhao’S Cinematic World Behind the scenes of the landscapes, spaces, and textures that shaped Hamnet.
"A monumental cinematic experience." Starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, directed by Chloé Zhao. Only in theaters this Thanksgiving.
From Academy Award® winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
00:00Welcome back Focus fans, Alicia Malone here with another episode of Real Destinations where we
00:08take you behind the scenes and on location of our upcoming films. Today we're off on a
00:14Shakespearean road trip inspired by Chloe Zhao's Hamnet. I cannot abide waiting.
00:20Tell me a story. What story would you like? Something that moves you. Set at the crossroads of history
00:36and fiction, Hamnet tells the powerful story of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes
00:40as they fall in love and raise a family in the English countryside. But their idyllic life takes
00:46a turn when the unexpected loss of their son, Hamnet, inspires the creation of one of Shakespeare's
00:51most famous tragedies. Based on Maggie O'Farrell's award-winning novel Hamnet and adapted for the
00:58screen by O'Farrell and Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao, this moving drama stars
01:04a show-stopping cast led by Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskell. William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway,
01:12Agnes in the film, were born and buried here in their hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.
01:21As you can see, their Tudor-style houses are still standing and are now popular tourist attractions.
01:26But for Hamnet, the filmmakers felt that Stratford was too modernised for their 16th century setting,
01:32sending them on a country-wide location scout. So, let's hit the road.
01:37Who are you looking for?
01:38William Shakespeare.
01:42According to the Locations team, director Chloe Zhao wasn't only after a picturesque backdrop.
01:48She wanted to find a place with real spirit. And when the team brought her here to the village
01:53of Webley, she knew she had found the one.
01:57Just 90 minutes west of Stratford, Webley's streets aligned with striking black-and-white
02:02timber-framed houses, the signature architecture of Shakespeare's day.
02:06With an incredible canvas already in place, production designer Fiona Crombie and her team
02:11built additional facades, dressed and painted existing storefronts, and covered the roads
02:17in dirt, recreating Henley Street as it might have looked over 400 years ago.
02:22Good day, sir. What brings you to Hewlands?
02:29When it came to finding a home for Hewlands and Yess's family farm, the filmmakers discovered
02:36their ideal match just a few miles outside of Webley, Kumi Farmhouse.
02:41Built in the early 1600s, this Grade II-listed timber-framed house is carefully preserved by the
02:48National Trust.
02:55With its weathered beams, stone-tiled roof and surrounding barns, Kumi offers an authentic
03:01glimpse into rural Elizabethan life, the romantic backdrop for Will and Agnes' fateful meeting.
03:08Welcome to Kumi. Do come in.
03:10Lucy, what was your experience like working with the team from Hamnet?
03:14It was fascinating. Watching Paul Mezcal lean through the window as he spots Jesse Buckley
03:19for the first time. I know that's going to be a really key moment. And to know that I was
03:23literally out of view just as that was happening, that's going to be pretty special.
03:27And quiet in that house.
03:30There have never been so many people on site in a tiny little place like this.
03:35It was wonderful to see how thoughtful and careful they were to this place. Director
03:41Chloe Zhao was so careful about the props they brought in, the way they dressed the set.
03:47Everything they did amped up what was already here. I think that that will absolutely shine
03:52through in the film.
03:53It's not strictly Tudor style.
03:56It's Jacobean, so it's early 1600s.
04:03Timber framing, stone bases, lime plaster, massive fireplaces. We did live very differently
04:12back then.
04:13I was in the field helping Bartholomew.
04:15But at that time, it's the kind of house you dream of.
04:20Despite the abundance of historical homes scattered throughout England, it became clear that in
04:33order to fully realise Chloe's vision, some of the sets needed to be built from scratch,
04:38including the interiors of Shakespeare's Henley Street House.
04:41Your husband was born in his room. He took his first breath there by the window.
04:50Fiona Crombie and her team scouted dozens of period buildings, selecting their favourite
04:55details and assembling them into a seamless set. This level of craft did not go unnoticed
05:01by stars Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskell.
05:04I think it always helps to begin a film and a relationship to the period in a place that
05:08feels period authentic.
05:10Yeah. You could smell the world that she created. The leather that she had was there.
05:15The stones that she laid.
05:17The ground floor was entirely built.
05:19It smelt like Elizabethan wet floor that had been flooded. The minute you stepped into
05:25that house, there was no like, oh, I'm stepping onto a set now. It was a real living place.
05:31I've lost my way.
05:34You need to go to London.
05:36Why London?
05:37Because London is where the whole world gathers.
05:40As Will's playwriting career took him to London, the filmmakers sought a sharp contrast
05:44between the domestic countryside and the bustling city. While many of these scenes were shot on
05:49constructed sets, one practical location helped to illustrate London's gritty texture.
05:55The Charter House, located in the heart of London, feels like a hidden medieval enclave.
06:01With cloisters, courtyards and gardens that have survived centuries of London's turbulent history.
06:13Once an emergency burial ground for victims of the Black Death in 1348, this site later became a monastery and then a Tudor mansion.
06:21In fact, Elizabeth I used the Charter House during preparations for her 1558 coronation, just two years after Agnes' birth.
06:31What do you wish to do Hamlet?
06:33I should be in the theatre.
06:35At the playhouse.
06:37Working with your father.
06:41Of course, we can't talk about William Shakespeare without mentioning the world-famous Globe Theatre.
06:47Although the original theatre burned down in 1613 and its successor was demolished in 1644, this replica has been open since 1997 and stages productions year-round.
07:01Due to the theatre's packed calendar, the production designers opted to build their own replica for the film's moving climax, which depicts the very first performance of Hamlet.
07:11Everyone in town is talking about it.
07:14Do you not wonder what is in it?
07:16With extensive research, the team recreated the theatre with striking accuracy, even borrowing props and set dressing from the real globe.
07:26But for Chloe Zhao and her actors, perhaps the most notable design choice was the hand-painted backdrop.
07:31What Chloe ran with in terms of like the backdrop of the...
07:35Oh my God, that made me cry yesterday.
07:37The one he's like...
07:38Oh, it really...
07:39It's devastating.
07:40It really moved me.
07:41This like tapestry of the woods where they first fell in love.
07:45It like elevates this giant globe to something so personal again.
07:50Yeah.
07:51It's like the globe isn't there to kind of be performatively impressive.
07:54This thing was built for those two characters.
07:56I'm like blown away by Fiona's capacity to translate Chloe's vision.
08:05There is perhaps no writer more famous in the English language than William Shakespeare, but in Hamnet, this larger-than-life figure has been brought down to human size in an incredible story that is equally, if not more so, about his beloved Agnes.
08:19Their romance and the tragedy they endure inspired countless works of art that would withstand the test of time.
08:28This enduring legacy continues to draw visitors to the places where Shakespeare lived and worked, but if you're seeking an untold chapter of his story, don't miss Hamnet.
08:37Only in theatres.
08:38What should I do?
08:39Keep your heart open.
08:40Amazing!
08:41Amazing!
08:42Amazing!
08:43What do you see?
08:44You will live.
08:45I'm Alicia Malone, and I'll see you on the next Real Destination.
09:08You.
09:09I'll see you on the next one.
09:10What can you do?
09:11That's okay.
09:12I'll see you on the next one.
09:13You have a great day.
09:14When you're asking me, where you can move in the next 그럼, or you will show up with a little bit in the next one.
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