The Father (2020)

Florian Zeller: The Father (GB/FR 2020) with Olivia Colman (daughter Anne) and Anthony Hopkins (father Anthony).

Isä
    GB/FR © 2020 New Zealand Trust Corporation as Trustee for Elarof. PC: F Comme Film / Trademark Films / Cine@. P: Simon Friend, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt, Christophe Spadone.
    D: Florian Zeller. SC: Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller – based on the play Le Père (2012) by Florian Zeller. DP: Ben Smithard – colour – 2.39:1 – AXS-R7 – source format: X-OCN ST (6K) – master format: 4K. PD: Peter Francis. AD: Amanda Dazely, Astrid Sieben. Set dec: Cathy Featherstone. Cost: Anna Robbins. Makeup and hair: Tahira Herold. VFX: Umedia. M: Ludovico Einaudi. S: Sandy Notarianni. ED: Yorgos Lamprinos.
    Soundtrack selections:
    – Henry Purcell: King Arthur, or The British Worthy (1691), Act 3: What Power Art Thou?, perf. Andreas Scholl, Accademia Bizantina, Stefano Montanari.
    – Vincenzo Bellini: Norma, Act 1: "Casta diva", perf. Maria Callas.
    – Georges Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de perles – Romance: "Je crois entendre encore", perf. Cyrille Dubois, L'Orchestre National de Lille, Alexandre Bloch.
    Cast (as edited in Wikipedia):
Anthony Hopkins as Anthony
Olivia Colman as Anne
Rufus Sewell as Paul
Imogen Poots as Laura / Lucy
Olivia Williams as Catherine / Laura / Anne (credited as The Woman)
Mark Gatiss as Bill / Paul (credited as The Man)
Ayesha Dharker as Dr. Sarai
Roman Zeller as Boy
    Loc: West Kensington, London, May 2019.
    Festival premiere: 27 Jan 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
    US premiere: 26 Feb 2021.
    Finnish premiere: 13 Aug 2021, released by Atlantic Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Kauppila / Heidi Nyblom Kuorikoski.
    Academy Awards 2021: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Anthony Hopkins), Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller).
    Helsinki corona emergency security: 2 meters distancing, face masks, hand hygiene.
    Atlantic Film press screening at Finnkino Tennispalatsi 2, Helsinki, 22 June 2021 at 10 am.

Previous film adaptation: Floride / Florida / Matkalla Floridaan (FR 2015, D: Philippe Le Guay, C: Jean Rochefort, Sandrine Kiberlain).

AA: Florian Zeller's The Father is an adaptation by Zeller and Christopher Hampton of Zeller's acclaimed play. In Finland it had its premiere at the Helsinki City Theatre in 2012 as Isä, starring Jari Pehkonen and Vuokko Hovatta.

As the source material is a chamber play taking place entirely indoors, it is remarkable how well the play has been transformed into cinema. It is a feat that can be compared with the best, such as Alf Sjöberg's legendary Miss Julie (1951).

Zeller's work has affinities with the the dream play. There is an original and ingenious double perspective: we observe the ageing Anthony as outsiders, but we also share his consciousness and delirious perceptions.

It is a story of universal interest and wisdom. The roles are reversed between father and child as the ageing Anthony slowly moves into his "second childhood".

The story of dementia is profoundly moving because the boundaries of sanity and dementia keep shifting, even within a single sentence. We can empathize and identify with Anthony who is losing his grip on the categories of time and space and has difficulties recognizing people.

This film is also about the philosophy of perception, the precariousness of existence and the increasing instability of memory. First Anthony fails to recognize his daughter Anne. Then he does not know where he is. From the question "What am I doing here?" he soon proceeds into: "Who exactly am I?"

In the startling finale Anthony is calling for his mother and states that he is "losing his leaves, the branches, the wind and the rain".

This story is also about the solace of music in advanced age. Anthony keeps enjoying his favourite opera arias, which bring a dimension of timeless grandeur to the tragedy.

In Finland we keep hearing stories about the parlous conditions in nursing homes. In this movie it is the other way around: the nurses are excellent professionals, and it is Anthony who is the monster.

This is a play for two great actors, and Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman lead the sterling cast brilliantly. They face the horror of dementia honestly, and they fill it with a sense of humour and compassion and a sense of something universal: this is a story about us all. Somehow I was thinking about Luis Buñuel's book of memoirs, Mon dernier soupir, which he starts by discussing his mother's dementia. When we lose our memory, we lose ourselves.

The production values are great. The production design subtly supports the dream mode: "I had to remember from the outset that one place had to serve as many places. We decided to gradually shift the colours and tone from golds, creams, yellows and brown towards blues", tells Peter Francis, the production designer.

The cinematography was conducted in 6K by Ben Smithard. The high technical quality has resulted into an unobtrusively subtle and sophisticated visual approach of the movie.

...

P.S. 14 Aug 2021  The Father revisited at Finnkino Strand 4, Lappeenranta, premiere weekend. The cinema was well attended. The corona restrictions are not severe today. This is a film of many surprises and revelations. On second viewing we know a bit more about what to expect, and the experience becomes more profound. The subtle interplay of the actors and the refined production design and cinematography can be even better appreciated on repeat viewings. The final sequence is now even more powerful in intensity. It belongs to the great endings in the movies.

P.S. 15 Aug 2021  I keep thinking about The Father in the morning after. The Father has a dimension of the horror film: the horror of losing one's identity. But also in another way, because Anthony is a monster. He treats everybody horribly. He has personal charm but is completely selfish and narcissistic. He wants everybody to love him, but does not love back. He has only negative things to say about his daughter Anne, and he treats his nurses terribly. They have the grandeur of spirit to overlook that. Anthony's wife is dead; also her Anthony discusses only in demeaning and belittling remarks. The only woman whom Anthony has loved is his mother, or his infant memory of her. Nobody can compare. He has never grown to love another completely, and the dementia reveals this emptiness nakedly. The subtext is the fear of death. Leo Tolstoy thought that the fear of death (as discussed in The Death of Ivan Ilyich) is fundamentally about the fear of the revelation that we have never learned to live.