The Twentieth Century

Movie
Original title	The Twentieth Century
Country of production	Canada
original language	English
Publishing year	2019
length	90 minutes
Rod
Director	Matthew Rankin
script	Matthew Rankin
production	Ménaïc Raoul , ; Gabrielle Tougas-Fréchette
music	Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux , ; Peter Venne
camera	Vincent Biron
cut	Matthew Rankin
occupation
	Dan Beirne : William Lyon Mackenzie King ; Catherine St-Laurent : Ruby Eliott; Brent Skagford : Arthur Meighen ; Kee Chan : Dr. Milton Wakefield; Mikhaïl Ahooja : Bert Harper; Sarianne Cormier : Miss Lapointe; Seán Cullen : Lord Muto; Emmanuel Schwartz : Lady Violet; Louis Negin : mother; Richard Jutras : Father; Trevor Anderson : Mr. Justice Richardson; Satine Scarlett Montaz : little Charlotte; Annie St-Pierre : J. Israël Tarte ; Charlotte Legault : Angel of Britain; Marc Ducusin : AA Heaps;

The Twentieth Century is a satirical tragic comedy by Matthew Rankin that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019 . It's a bizarre biopic about former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King , who was prepared all his life to become Prime Minister of Canada and suffered a series of professional and personal humiliations along the way.

action

In 1899 visited William Mackenzie King in Toronto little Charlotte in a hospital for war wounded. Suffering from tuberculosis, she hopes King will win the election campaign to run for prime minister. There he also meets Harp-playing Ruby Eliott, with whom he suddenly falls in love. Ruby is the daughter of His Excellency, the Canadian Governor General Lord Muto, the viceroyal representative of the monarchy. King was prepared all his life by his mother to one day become Prime Minister of Canada . With her visionary skills, she even made a painting of a woman who looks a lot like Ruby and who will one day make her son prime minister. His mother has been bedridden since he was born and suffers from migraines. She hates his father, who hid on the lower floor of the house and recently bought a parrot named Giggles. He's put all his money into her Willy's political career, and his son promises him a great job should he become Prime Minister. The housemaid Miss Lapointe, however, loses her job in the Kings household when she is fired by her mother.

In order to find a suitable Prime Minister, who has held real power in Canada for 33 years , candidates must sit an exam at the Dominion School of Nationhood, overseen by Judge Richardson. They must demonstrate their leadership skills in such disciplines as cutting red ribbons, using handwriting with their own urine in the snow, and killing pups . Many of the around a dozen candidates are not up to the test. King and Arthur Meighen finish in second place together, while preppy Bert Harper wins the competition. Harper does not want to accept the honor at first, because in his opinion it is due to King, but when Lord Muto explains to the people that Mother England needs Canada to fight the Boers, it is Harper who is sent by ship to Africa to Johannisburg destroy. Lord Muto's daughter Ruby bravely accompanies him.

In the Onsington Ice Shelf, King meets Miss Lapointe who has baked him a cake because she, too, firmly believed that he would win the competition. Frustrated, he sets off on a ship to one of the islands of Winnipeg , where you can buy drugs and live out your desires and fetishes. He buys a boot for a lot of money that Ruby is said to have worn while on duty in Africa. On the island, King is led by Dr. Milton Wakefield caught inflagranti. He wants to report him for violating national dignity if King does not go to his sanatorium.

At the invitation of Miss Lapointe, King goes to Quebec and proposes marriage to her because he doesn't think he can still become Prime Minister. When he asks his mother for her blessing for the marriage back in Toronto, she speaks to his conscience. King no longer believes in his mother's visions and dreams until the news unexpectedly spreads of Harper's death, which his mother also foretold. In order to find a new candidate for the office of prime minister, the runner-up King and Meighen should now compete against each other. At a state banquet, King also finds out that the rumors of Harper's death were premature. After their experiences in the war against the Boers in South Africa, he and Ruby defected to the rising political thinker Joseph-Israël Tarte from Quebec and turned against Mother England and Lord Muto. King gets a new chance, because the loyal monarchists and their opponents have to compete in a competition in the ice maze, which decides on the political direction of Canada and the appointment of the new prime minister. Ruby and Harper fight on one side and King and Meighen on the other. His fiancée Miss Lapointe once again proves her loyalty here.

Biographical

William Lyon Mackenzie King studying at Harvard (1899)

The film uses mostly fabricated stories to tell from the life of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King when he was younger. In the first half of the 20th century, Mackenzie King was one of the most important politicians in his country. He was politically active at the federal level for 32 years, including 22 years as Prime Minister. During this time Canada transformed from a semi-colonial dominion of the United Kingdom to an autonomous state within the Commonwealth. He led the country through the expansionary phase of the 1920s, the Depression of the 1930s and World War II. His maternal grandfather was William Lyon Mackenzie , the first mayor of Toronto and leader of the failed Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.

He attended elementary school and high school in Berlin, and began studying political science at the University of Toronto in 1891, earning five university degrees in the course of his studies. In the summer of 1899, the year the film is set, he was the tutor of Peter G. Gerry , later Senator of the US state of Rhode Island . The money he earned enabled him to travel to Europe for several months, and so in the spring of 1900 he spent two months in the German capital Berlin , where he did research for his doctoral thesis.

production

Director and screenwriter Matthew Rankin

It was directed by Matthew Rankin , who also wrote the script. The director himself sees his film as an unrestrained surrealist epic, as a rebellious attack on the form of the biographical film and as a lament for the nihilism of the 21st century: “I would rather call The Twentieth Century a nightmare, the Mackenzie King 1899 could have had, because as a strictly fact-based biographical film. ”He also wanted to annoy his Canadian compatriots. Real characters and events from King's actual life are fed in through a oneiric prism and appear completely transformed in the film, according to Rankin. He does not see this film as a political film, even if it is all about the exercise of power.

Dan Beirne took on the role of Mackenzie King. The actor previously only had a supporting role in the television series Fargo and was featured in an episode of the television series The Handmaid's Tale . Brent Skagford plays his rival Arthur Meighen . He was previously only seen in a few smaller roles. Mikhaïl Ahooja, on the other hand, who plays his competitor Bert Harper, has previously appeared in a number of Canadian television series and films and embodied people of various nationalities. The intended Henry Albert Harper was a good friend of Mackenzie King.

The film premiered on September 10, 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival , where it was screened in the Midnight Madness section, before it was released in selected Canadian cinemas on December 13, 2019. In February 2020, it was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in the Berlinale Forum, where it was also shown as part of the Teddy Awards , a separate competition. In July 2020 there was a screening at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival . At the end of August 2020, the film was presented at the Molodist International Film Festival , which took place in a hybrid version, as well as at the virtual Outfest Los Angeles, an LGBTQ + film festival. The independent film distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories, founded by Adam Yauch , secured the distribution rights for the film in the USA.

reception

Reviews

The film has received rather positive reviews from 91 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics so far .

Jonas Bickelmann from Tagesspiegel thinks that Matthew Rankin made one of the most entertaining Berlinale films and that the director managed a wonderfully whimsical, almost Dadaist account of the national myth of his country: "Rankin shows what is lying, gaudy and immoral about nationalism For all of his neuroses, Mackenzie King does not become a laughing stock in The Twentieth Century . The topic is too topical and serious for that. "