Chloé Zhao & Affonso Gonçalves On Editing The Play To “Weave Towards A Catharsis” For The Ending Of ‘Hamnet’

Chloé Zhao & Affonso Gonçalves On Editing The Play To “Weave Towards A Catharsis” For The Ending Of ‘Hamnet’

As the co-editors of Hamnet, Affonso Gonçalves and director Chloé Zhao say they found the ending of the film to be the most difficult to put together. Not necessarily just because they wanted an emotionally powerful ending, but also because Zhao decided to film much more of Hamlet than is shown on screen. “The play was the hardest one to cut,” says Gonçalves. “It’s about 35 to 40 minutes long in the first version and we shot Ophelia scenes… …

Behind-the-Scenes on How "Hamnet" Was Adapted from the Page to the Screen

About two-thirds into Hamnet, the film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name, there is a scene in which Agnes (William Shakespeare’s wife, and mother to the titular character) is witnessed expressing an unimaginable amount of pain. All fidgeting and commotion on both sides of the screen halts. We watch the veins on Agnes’s throat constrict, see her face contort in utter devastation, and witness her wailing die into a sound that…