The Father (2020)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Father |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2020 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Florian Zeller |
| script |
Christopher Hampton , Florian Zeller |
| production |
Philippe Carcassonne , Simon Friend , Jean-Louis Livi , David Parfitt , Christophe Spadone |
| camera | Ben Smithard |
| cut | Yorgos Lamprinos |
| occupation | |
| |
The Father is a film drama by Florian Zeller , which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 . The main roles in the father-daughter story were cast with Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman .
action
Anne took care of her 80-year-old father Anthony for years, but she is increasingly losing patience with him. He has to be looked after in the large and tastefully furnished apartment in London, because Anthony is severely demented. Anne tells him that she is moving to Paris to live with the man she loves.
Anthony is completely disoriented in his life. So he notices that changes are constantly being made in his apartment. When the attractive new supervisor Laura takes up her duties, Anthony throws compliments, but Anne warns her that the old man is not always so charming. Laura reminds him of Anne's sister Lucy, who works as an artist and of whom some pictures hang in his apartment.
production
The director was the French author Florian Zeller , who also wrote the script together with Christopher Hampton . It is Zellner's directorial debut in a feature film. The story Le père , conceived by Zellner, was filmed by Philippe Le Guay in 2015 under the title Floride with Jean Rochefort and Sandrine Kiberlain in the leading roles. The piece was originally premiered in France in 2012. Two years later, Zeller was awarded the Molière for the best play. Later performances followed in Great Britain and New York, where Frank Langella received several awards for his leading role. Hampton wrote this English adaptation.
Oscar winner Olivia Colman took on the role of Anne, Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins played her father Anthony, who had dementia. Imogen Poots took on the role of his new supervisor Laura.
The shooting took place in the West London Film Studios, the location was shot against the backdrop of Blythe Road in the London borough of West Kensington. Ben Smithard acted as cameraman .
The film was first shown on January 27, 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival . Sony Classics secured the rights to the film in advance. In September 2020 it will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and was also in a selection of films to be shown at the Telluride Film Festival . It should come to selected US cinemas on December 18, 2020, and the cinema release in Germany is planned for April 22, 2021.
reception
Reviews
The film has so far convinced all Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8.1 out of a possible 10 points.
Owen Gleiberman from Variety writes that as a viewer you can't say exactly which scenario is real and which Anthony is hallucinating about what the film's brilliant move is. In The Father , Florian Zeller transforms a stable-looking reality into quicksand before our eyes, like a mirage and illusions . For orientation in between, the film provides little hints, just to pull the carpet away from under your feet every time, without being sure that you are on the ground now. In this way, The Father does something that few films about intellectual disability in old age could have produced on such a scale, Gleiberman said, because the film puts the viewer in the mind of someone who is losing their mind, making them seem like they are going to be King Ship Lear to the Twilight Zone.
Benjamin Lee of the Guardian writes that for Anthony, life has become a place of ever-disoriented confusion, and in a masterly manner Zeller tells the story from his own eyes as characters and locations change and we become as confused as he is. What begins as a film drama, let Anthony become a character in a trippy thriller that tells of a real drama. The viewer constantly wonders if changes are made to his apartment, so if it is newly furnished from one moment to the next, what could be the real truth. Lee describes this as a brilliant way of communicating the terrible state of mind of people with dementia. Starring Anthony Hopkins, he plays the full range of emotions from outrage to outbursts of anger and never feels like a constructed character, making the actor an early front runner to qualify for the 2021 Oscar race.
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter speaks of an outstanding directorial debut by the French author and says that The Father is the best film about aging since Amour eight years ago and not only takes an insightful and differentiated look at dementia, but also shows what it is for people in the immediate vicinity of those affected. Many films have tried to convey alternate states of mind through a variety of means, such as swirling and distorted camera work, psychedelic special effects, or wild montage, but such memory loss is likely never to have been conveyed as profoundly as in The Father , according to McCarthy.
Awards
- Received the Silver Medallion Award ( Anthony Hopkins )
Web links
- The Father in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Father in the program of the Sundance Film Festival (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Benjamin Lee: The Father review - Anthony Hopkins drives devastating dementia drama. In: The Guardian, January 28, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d Todd McCarthy: 'The Father': Film Review. In: The Hollywood Reporter, January 27, 2020.
- ↑ a b Owen Gleiberman: 'The Father': Film Review. In: Variety, January 27, 2020.
- ↑ a b Anne Thompson: Sundance 2020: 20 Must-See Films and Series At This Year's Festival, From 'Zola' to 'Kajillionaire'. In: indiewire.com, January 16, 2020.
- ↑ a b c David Canfield: How hot Sundance title 'The Father' went from award-winning play to star-studded film. In: Entertainment Weekly, January 20, 2020.
- ↑ Brent Lang: Sundance: Sony Pictures Classics Buys 'The Father' With Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman. In: Variety, January 17, 2020.
- ↑ Here are all the movies set for the Toronto Film Festival's first hybrid virtual edition. In: Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2020.
- ↑ a b Ryan Lattanzio: Telluride Film Festival Reveals 2020 Selections: 'Ammonite', 'Nomadland', Werner Herzog, and More. In: indiewire.com, August 3, 2020.
- ↑ The Father. In: boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ↑ Start dates in Germany. In: insidekino.com. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
- ↑ The Father. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed July 31, 2020.