Director Steven Spielberg made a surprise appearance at the London Film Festival premiere of Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet on Saturday night, praising his latest film.
The audience at the Royal Festival Hall cheered when Spielberg took to the stage and explained how he first met Chao at an Oscar-nominated directors’ dinner the year after he won the award for Nomadland.
“We became friends, we had lunch together at Amblin, and she just amazed me,” Spielberg said, before discussing what makes Chao such a special filmmaker.
“I truly believe that the earth has a heartbeat. Earthquakes cycle 24/7, and we are all connected to this heartbeat that occurs beneath our feet. But Chloé Zhao is deeply connected to it, because that is where her art comes from,” the legendary director continued. “It’s something she brings to set every day, and it’s something she anoints every day and shares with the cast. And I truly believe that when you watch ‘Hamnet,’ you can feel the heartbeat of the earth because of Chloé Zhao.”
Spielberg is a producer on the historical drama, which, according to the film’s synopsis, tells “the powerful story of love and loss that inspired Shakespeare’s timeless classic Hamlet.” Paul Mescal plays William Shakespeare and Jesse Buckley plays his wife Agnes.
“Hamnet” had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last month to great acclaim, generating Oscar buzz and winning the People’s Choice Award at TIFF. Chief film critic Peter DeBrugge wrote in a review for Variety that the film was “emotionally raw and at times excruciating.”
“Jesse Buckley gives a heroic performance as the mother of Shakespeare’s wife Agnes and their children. But as presented, she could be the mother of all of us, but she plays a spirit closer to a down-to-earth shaman who is forced to come to terms with the death of her son Hamnet.” “Paul Mescal, on the other hand, plays Shakespeare, channeling his sadness into the “Danish play,” but both actor and character are overshadowed by the story’s feminine elements. ”
“Hamnet” will be released in limited theaters by Focus Features in the U.S. and Canada starting November 27th, followed by a nationwide release on December 12th. It will be released in the UK on January 9th through Universal Pictures.
