Peter Viney's Blog

Directed by Florian Zeller
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller

Based on the stage play by Florian Zeller
Music by Ludovico Einaudi

2020

UK Release March 2021 (internet)

DVD 2021

CAST:

Olivia Colman – Anne
Anthony Hopkins – Anthony
Mark Gatiss – The Man
Olivia Williams – The Woman
Imogen Poots- Laura
Rufus Sewell- Paul
Ayesha Dharker – Dr Sarai

We never managed to see the stage version of this, though we have seen Zeller’s The Height of The Storm on stage which explores similar confusion, and onset dementia. Or like any Florian Zeller play, simply ‘What’s real? Who’s real? What’s actually happening? And which version of reality do I go with? This is why Zeller is one of the most important 21st century playwrights so far. See also The Truth and The Lie. All the English translations are by Christopher Hampton, a playwright on his own as well as a translator.

The original French play by Florian Zeller opened in 2012, and was a critical success first in France, then in Britain when the translation by Christopher Hampton opened at the tiny Ustinov Studio in Bath in 2014. The American production in 2016 featured Frank Langella in the lead role. The stage play was festooned with awards, and the film version is catching up fast. Anthony Hopkins received the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the script received Best Adapted Screenplay, Both won the British Academy Awards as well.

Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) has Alzheimer’s / dementia … it’s hard to define. The way the film is constructed we’re in there in the fogging brain with him. It’s filmed in a London mansion flat with a long narrow windowless corridor and rooms off. (Christopher Hampton also translated Carnage, which has a single setting in a New York flat).

We only see windows rarely then the view out is normally soft focus, so it is a physical space matching his mind. It’s stuffed with paraphernalia, pictures on every surface, a room in the distance lined with books. Significantly these have flashes of Penguin orange … books he’s really read, then, not a leather bound library-by-the-yard. In one scene, we see the Oxford English History classic set … the detailed set design is first rate. All this is memory and his past … as he says, he is very intelligent. The double doors at the corridor end are a closet … or think the Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, here a door into the past.

Is it his flat or his daughter’s flat? There are suggestions of both. It gets discussed. One view of the kitchen has small multi-coloured wall tiles, then it has ice-blue wall tiles. Is it the same space? Then a picture by his other daughter appears in some scenes, but has gone later. But there is a mark where it was. The paintings, and the books led me to think it really is his … a telling point is the very good 1970s / 1980s hi-fi system. Anthony is devoted to listening to music, Nora or The Pearl Fishers. It looks like a hi fi he would own – the main rack has turntable, amp, receiver, cassette player. The CD player is at the side … a later (post 1982) addition.

Then two actors appear to be Anne, Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams. Olivia Coleman deserves an award along with Hopkins. She has to be tender, angry, almost murderous, scared, anxious, guilty.

Two actors appear to be Paul, Mark Gaddis and Rufus Sewell. Anthony is shocked to find Paul (Mark Gaddis in the flat. He has no idea who he is. Both discuss the same things, like taking chicken to the kitchen.

Then we hear Paul is her husband of ten years, then her partner, then an unseen Frenchman she is going to live with in Paris. Or maybe that’s Paul. Except she’s not going to live in Paris and has no French boyfriend. But then she has, and the Paul we see is English.

Paul (Rufus Sewell) is getting increasingly angry and fed up and wants Anthony in a care facility.

Anthony takes a liking to the new carer, Laura (Imogen Poots), and gives her whisky and demonstrates a tap dance. But then Laura re-appears played by Olivia Williams instead. Then the nurse is Olivia Williams again.

Zeller is known for his dialogue and interest in Pinter. There’s a scene where Laura is giving him his medication and he instantly picks up on her friendly, sweet but also condescending, patronizing tone and reacts sharply. It’s excellent dialogue writing.

I hope I’m not going his way … I took a female doctor to task ten years ago, when I was in my early sixties, and she cooed, ‘Sit down, dear. Now what seems to be the problem, dear?‘ I will admit I told her it was patronizing, and she could call me Peter, Mr Viney or Sir, but not ‘dear.’ I added that I had written a book on communication skills, which was patronizing on my part.

Talking of which … My mother had the same sort of mental problem, it lasted about nine months before she died. We hadn’t realised that it had started earlier because we had believed what she was telling us about her neighbours. Paranoia is the issue. Then she started seeing fires and hearing IRA bombs detonating. Then she thought we were doing it. The film is harrowing because it gets the details of confusion and distrust spot on … for Anthony, he believes everyone is stealing his watch. In the film, Anthony is mindlessly cruel to Anne … she preferred her sister, Lucy. Anne is not ‘bright.’ That all matches up. Anthony does not accept what happened to Lucy except in one scene. At the end, he has reverted to second childhood wanting his mother. My mother spent the day before she died with her sister and sister-in-law who visited her from Wales, and she thought her father was there too. Suddenly she knew accurately that the day was indeed her father’s birthday. There are weird flashes of clarity. The film gets them as pictures… as suddenly we see the view through a window in sharp focus and Anthony watches a boy playing below.

So, not a cheerful evening’s entertainment, but Anthony Hopkins gives an acting masterclass, ably supported by such a powerful cast. It deserves all the awards.

It’s on streaming services. It’s on DVD – watch buying it at ASDA though, because there was a pile labelled £7 and when I got home the receipt said £10. Still, it was worth it!

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

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LINKS ON THIS BLOG

STAGE PLAYS BY FLORIAN ZELLER
The Lie, Menier Chocolate Factory 2017
The Truth, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
The Height of The Storm, Bath, September 2018
FILM
The Father by Florian Zeller 2021

CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON (TRANSLATOR, ADAPTOR)
God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, also Bath 2018
The Lie, Menier Chocolate Factory 2017
The Truth, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
The Height of The Storm, Bath, September 2018
An Enemy Of The People by Ibsen Chichester2016

ANTHONY HOPKINS FILMS
Noah, 2014

IMOGEN POOTS FILMS
The Look of Love
Centurion

AYESHA DHARKAR STAGE
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2016