The Father<\/i> is a 2020 drama film co-written and directed <\/i>by Florian Zeller, that takes spectators on a delicate journey through the windmills of a human mind, one that is shattering to pieces.<\/p>\n
The film marks Zeller\u2019s feature debut, with the adaptation of his <\/i>2012 play Le P\u00e8re<\/i> \u2014 which won in 2014 the Moli\u00e8re Award for Best Play, amongst others, and was considered as \u201cthe most acclaimed new play of the last decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story is as simple as it is gut-wrenching, and its power resides entirely in the mise-en-sc\u00e8ne. We are introduced to Anthony, an elderly man, who refuses assistance from his daughter as he ages. We follow his perspective, and the reality he perceives, as he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The music is the first clue we are given to the frail fabric of Anthony\u2019s reality. In his London apartment he is listening to Henry Pucell\u2019s King Arthur<\/i>, or The British Worthy<\/i>. The operatic gravitas echoes in the first aria, through the words penned down in John Dryden\u2019s libretto: \u201cWhat power art thou who from below, Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow, From beds of everlasting snow?<\/i>\u201d There is an immediate parallelism between the Baroque semi-opera\u2019s Frost Scene and the contemporary older Londoner\u2019s life. The music describes the moment when Cupid awakens the \u201cCold Genius\u201d (the Spirit of Winter) who, frozen stiff, would prefer to return to his slumber. Meanwhile, we are introduced to Zeller\u2019s Anthony, whose consciousness seems frigidly numbed by his advancing dementia.<\/p>\n The French-British co-production film stars Anthony Hopkins (in the titular role), Olivia Colman (as the daughter), Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams. The cast is outstanding in maintaining a stifle composure, and enhances the vigour of this motion picture, whose charm is characterised by the way it remains truthful to its theatrical originator. The point of view is entirely that of Anthony. We see inside his head, and we see the world through his subjective perception of it.<\/p>\n Through Anthony\u2019s experience of reality, we understand that what is outside of our consciousness can never be truly separated by our perception of it; and no matter how hard we try, even confronting other people\u2019s perception of the world, it might all come down to a figment of our imagination.<\/p>\n Sir Anthony Hopkins delivers a first-class performance that, so far, has won him his third Best Actor BAFTA for his leading role. The Father <\/i>also won the BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay, that went to Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller. The film further collected six Academy Awards nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing), and surely it will bring some Oscar statues home. This marks the sixth Oscar nomination for Anthony Hopkins, including his win for Best Actor in 1992 for Silence of the Lambs<\/i>.<\/p>\n The Welsh actor is utterly the beating heart of this crossover between theatre, cinema and psychoanalysis, as he conveys his extraordinary Shakespearean expertise into the character of Anthony. Hopkins played King Lear in the 2018 television drama, and the correspondence with Zellar\u2019s protagonist is evident: both characters share a conflictual relationship with their daughter, whose love can longer save them from the deterioration of their psyche.<\/p>\n