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| Terence Davies: Benediction (GB 2021) starring Jack Lowden (as young Siegfried Sassoon). |
Les Carnets de Siegfried
2021
Film de Terence Davies · 2 h 17 min · 6 mars 2024 (France)
Genres : Biopic, Drame, Guerre, Historique
Pays d'origine : Royaume-Uni
Viewed at UGC Danton, 99 bd Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris, 9 March 2024.
Condor: " En 1914, le jeune Siegfried Sassoon, poète en devenir, est enrôlé dans l’armée britannique. De retour du front, révolté par ce qu’il a vu, il devient objecteur de conscience. Ses pamphlets pacifistes lui valent une mise au ban par sa hiérarchie, mais aussi une forme de reconnaissance artistique, lui ouvrant les portes d’une nouvelle vie mondaine. Mais dans cette société du paraître, Siegfried se perd, tiraillé entre les diktats de la conformité et ses désirs de liberté... "
Toronto 2021: " The latest from writer-director Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives; The House of Mirth; TIFF ’16 selection A Quiet Passion) is a sumptuous portrait of 20th-century English poet Siegfried Sassoon, and the first time the filmmaker has explicitly portrayed love and desire between men. "
" Benediction’s form is a lyrical stream of consciousness, following associations of memory rather than chronology. Davies crafts Sassoon’s experience of the First World War in layers of heroism (he was decorated for bravery on the Western Front), loss, and unfathomable trauma. His attempt at conscientious objection to the war leads to his being committed to a Scottish hospital, where he meets and mentors fellow poet and soldier Wilfred Owen. Davies tracks much of Sassoon’s life after the war as a chain of fraught romances — most notably with actor and homme fatale Ivor Novello — and ongoing questions of sexual identity, social mores, and integrity both artistic and personal, leading to Sassoon’s late conversion to Catholicism and struggle to connect with his son. "
" Benediction is a master class in cinematic craft. The performances, most especially those of Jack Lowden (TIFF ’17 selection Dunkirk) and Peter Capaldi as the younger and older Sassoon, respectively, are at once delicate and brimming with unruly emotion. Cinematographer Nicola Daley fills the screen with elegant camera choreography and chiaroscuro imagery while Davies seamlessly weaves archival materials into his narrative, incorporating a pair of astonishing moments when we see a youthful face age decades in seconds. "
" The indignities of aging haunt many of Benediction’s characters, yet Davies’ recent string of exquisite films speaks to the artistic grace that can accrue with time, rigour, and experience. " Official Selection, 2021 Toronto International Film Festival
AA: Benediction is the best film of Terence Davies (1945-2023). It is also one of the best films of the recent years. It is hard to define its release year: the festival premiere took place in Toronto 2021, but the international release was prolonged because of the pandemic so that the French premiere took place only this week.
As a pacifist masterpiece it compares with two recent outstanding movies: A Hidden Life and Ikuiseen rauhaan. All three films are based on true stories.
In his last films, Terence Davies was at its best. Like Benediction, Sunset Song (GB 2015) was about coming to terms with WWI. Like Benediction, A Quiet Passion (BE/GB 2016) was a portait of a great poet (Emily Dickinson incarnated by Cynthia Nixon). I had the privilege to interview Terence Davies at his masterclass at the 2016 Love & Anarchy / Helsinki International Film Festival, where both films were screened.
Benediction is the story of a Siegfried Sassoon, a war hero who turns into a war objector, having witnessed the senseless carnage and wholesale slaughter of a generation obeying the masters of war. Refusing to continue on the warpath, Sassoon does not become a coward but an even greater hero. He wants to speak out officially and in public but is consigned to a madhouse.
This is the story of the Lost Generation, and as a poet, Siegfried Sassoon becomes its major voice in Britain, other talents such as Wilfred Owen having perished on the front.
This is also a story of a young man of distinguished Jewish origins (from his father's side) who converts to Catholicism, following his mother.
It is also a story of a homosexual artist who represses his urge, gets married with an understanding wife and has children. But violent repression transforms the bright and shining young man into a bitter and tortured old man.
Benediction the movie is both intimate and epic. It discusses its topics directly and poetically. The performances are deeply engaging. The transformations are conveyed by a device already present in A Quiet Passion: digital morphing. They work perfectly in the film. There is a lot of WWI newsreel footage, apparently taken from the classic BBC series The Great War (GB 1964). The clips are great in content and inferior in visual quality: there would be better quality at the Imperial War Museum.
Benediction conveys very well the sense of time, private and public. We hear a lot of the poetry, both by Siegfried Sassoon and his best friend, Wilfred Owen. Quoting from the IMDb comment section: "Seven of Siegfried Sassoon's poems were narrated in the film: Concert Interpretation, Died of Wounds, When I'm among a Blaze of Lights, To my Mother, To my Brother, Attack, and Invocation." --- " Two of Wilfred Owen's poems were narrated in the film: Anthem for Doomed Youth and Disabled. "
As always with Terence Davies, the soundtrack is very moving (see detailed credits beyond the jump break). During the final credits there is symphonic music that evoked Sibelius to me, a favourite composer of Terence Davies. But it is a passage from Ralph Vaughan Williams, connecting deeply with the film. Vaughan Williams was also a WWI veteran, one of the Lost Generation.
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: MORE DATA:
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: MORE DATA:
06 MARS 2024
LES CARNETS DE SIEGFRIED
Un film de Terence Davies
GENRE Drame, Guerre, Historique
SYNOPSIS
En 1914, le jeune Siegfried Sassoon, poète en devenir, est enrôlé dans l’armée britannique. De retour du front, révolté par ce qu’il a vu, il devient objecteur de conscience. Ses pamphlets pacifistes lui valent une mise au ban par sa hiérarchie, mais aussi une forme de reconnaissance artistique, lui ouvrant les portes d’une nouvelle vie mondaine. Mais dans cette société du paraître, Siegfried se perd, tiraillé entre les diktats de la conformité et ses désirs de liberté.
Toronto
The latest from writer-director Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives; The House of Mirth; TIFF ’16 selection A Quiet Passion) is a sumptuous portrait of 20th-century English poet Siegfried Sassoon, and the first time the filmmaker has explicitly portrayed love and desire between men.
Benediction’s form is a lyrical stream of consciousness, following associations of memory rather than chronology. Davies crafts Sassoon’s experience of the First World War in layers of heroism (he was decorated for bravery on the Western Front), loss, and unfathomable trauma. His attempt at conscientious objection to the war leads to his being committed to a Scottish hospital, where he meets and mentors fellow poet and soldier Wilfred Owen. Davies tracks much of Sassoon’s life after the war as a chain of fraught romances — most notably with actor and homme fatale Ivor Novello — and ongoing questions of sexual identity, social mores, and integrity both artistic and personal, leading to Sassoon’s late conversion to Catholicism and struggle to connect with his son.
Benediction is a master class in cinematic craft. The performances, most especially those of Jack Lowden (TIFF ’17 selection Dunkirk) and Peter Capaldi as the younger and older Sassoon, respectively, are at once delicate and brimming with unruly emotion. Cinematographer Nicola Daley fills the screen with elegant camera choreography and chiaroscuro imagery while Davies seamlessly weaves archival materials into his narrative, incorporating a pair of astonishing moments when we see a youthful face age decades in seconds.
The indignities of aging haunt many of Benediction’s characters, yet Davies’ recent string of exquisite films speaks to the artistic grace that can accrue with time, rigour, and experience.
Official Selection, 2021 Toronto International Film Festival
...
Titre français : Les Carnets de Siegfried
Titre original : Benediction
Réalisation et scénario : Terence Davies
Direction artistique : Adam Tomlinson
Décors : Alison Harvey
Costumes : Annie Symons
Photographie : Nicola Daley
Montage : Alex Mackie
Société de distribution : Condor (France)
Pays de production : Royaume-Uni
Langue originale : anglais
Format : couleur — 35 mm — 2,39:1 — son stéréo
Genre : biographie, drame, guerre
Durée : 137 minutes
Dates de sortie :
Canada : 12 septembre 2021 (Festival de Toronto)1
Royaume-Uni : 15 octobre 2021 (Festival du film de Londres)1 ; 20 mai 2022 (sortie nationale)1
France : 6 mars 2024
Distribution
Jack Lowden : Siegfried Sassoon jeune
Peter Capaldi : Siegfried Sassoon âgé
Jeremy Irvine : Ivor Novello
Simon Russell Beale : Robert Ross
Kate Phillips : Hester Gatty
Calam Lynch (en) : Stephen Tennant
Tom Blyth : Glen Byam Shaw
Gemma Jones : Hester Sassoon (Hester Gatty) âgée
Geraldine James : la mère
Julian Sands : Chief Medical Officer
Anton Lesser : Stephen Tennant âgé
Ben Daniels : Dr Rivers
Lia Williams : Edith Sitwell
Suzanne Bertish : Lady Ottoline Morrell
Richard Goulding (en) : George Sassoon (en)
Matthew Tennyson (en) : Wilfred Owen
Jude Akuwudike (en) : le prêtre
...
Wikipedia: Handlung
Die Filmbiografie erzählt in nonlinearer Form das Leben des britischen Dichters Siegfried Sassoon vom Jahr 1914 bis in die 1960er-Jahre. Immer wieder werden auch Gedichte von Sassoon in die Handlung und die Dialoge eingeflochten.
1914 lebt der aus wohlhabender Familie kommende, junge Dichter Siegfried Sassoon in London und besucht an diesem Tag des Jahres 1914 mit seinem jüngeren Bruder Hamo eine Aufführung von Strawinskys Le sacre du printemps des Ballets Russes. Wenige Tage später ziehen die jungen Männer in den Ersten Weltkrieg. Siegfried kehrt nach Hause zurück, nachdem er eine Reihe von Männern auf dem Schlachtfeld gerettet hat. Für seine Tapferkeit wird ihm ein Ehrenkreuz verliehen. Er jedoch schreibt einen Brief an seinen Kommandanten, in dem er auf die politischen Fehlentscheidungen der britischen Regierung und die Lügen dieses Krieges hinweist, die für den sinnlosen Tod unzähliger Soldaten sorgen würden. Auch sein Bruder Hamo ist bereits gefallen. Wegen dieser pazifistischen Äußerungen, in denen er sich gegen eine Fortsetzung des Krieges ausspricht, könnte Siegfried sogar hingerichtet werden.
In Anbetracht dieser Gefahr sorgen einflussreiche Freunde dafür, dass er statt eines Prozesses für psychisch krank und damit nicht mehr kriegsverwendungsfähig erklärt wird – entgegen seines Wunsches, da er seine Kritik am Krieg gerne öffentlich üben würde. Er wird im Craiglockhart War Hospital bei Edinburgh untergebracht, wo er sich mit dem verständnisvollen Psychiater Dr. Rivers und dem ebenfalls dort untergebrachten Dichter Wilfred Owen anfreundet. Er und Owen inspirieren sich gegenseitig zu Gedichten, in denen sie das Grauen des Krieges ausdrücken, und erleben eine intime Freundschaft. Später kehren beide wieder in den aktiven Kriegsdienst zurück. Während Wilfred Owen fällt, überlebt Siegfried eine schwere Kriegsverletzung.
Nach dem Kriegsende ist Siegfried Sassoon ein berühmter Dichter geworden und gern gesehener Gast auf Feiern der britischen Oberschicht. Trotz seines nach außen hin angenehmen Lebens plagen Sassoon weiterhin Erinnerungen an den Ersten Weltkrieg. Im Verlaufe der 1920er- und 1930er-Jahre führt er mehr oder weniger geheime homosexuelle Beziehungen, darunter mit dem Film- und Bühnenstar Ivor Novello sowie dem aus aristokratischer Familie kommenden Salonlöwen Stephen Tennant aus der Gruppe der Bright Young Things. Sassoons Versuch, mit einem anderen Mann eine längerfristige und liebevolle Beziehung aufzubauen, scheitert. Sein Streben nach künstlerischer Perfektion in einer Welt der Gebrauchskunst sowie seine Traumata aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg können von Novello und Tennant nicht nachvollzogen werden.
Nach seinen enttäuschenden Beziehungen mit Männern heiratet Siegfried im Jahr 1933 Hester Gatty, und sie werden Eltern eines Sohnes namens George. Auch die Ehe bringt Sassoon nicht das erhoffte Glück, sein Verhalten gegenüber Hester ist schon bald von großer Distanz und Lieblosigkeit geprägt. Als älterer Mann lebt Siegfried weitgehend zurückgezogen außerhalb von London. Er ist melancholisch und verbittert, ihn plagen immer noch Erinnerungen an den Krieg. Als der zuvor narzisstische, nunmehr gealterte Stephen Tennant ihn aufsucht und ihm von seiner Einsamkeit berichtet, hat Siegfried dafür nur Spott übrig. Siegfried konvertiert im Alter auch in die römisch-katholische Kirche, immer auf der Suche nach einem dauerhaften Glück für sein Leben.
Biografisches
Im Mai 1915 kam Siegfried Sassoon als Offizier der Royal Welsh Fusiliers nach Frankreich
Der später als Dichter und Erzähler bekanntgewordene Brite Siegfried Sassoon entstammte väterlicherseits der angesehenen jüdischen Kaufmannsfamilie Sassoon, seine Mutter Theresa Thornycroft stammte aus einer anglokatholischen Künstlerfamilie. Er wuchs in einer ländlichen neugotischen Villa auf, die zuvor dem Künstler Harrison Weir gehört hatte.
Zwischen 1905 und 1907 studierte er Jura und Geschichte am Clare College in Cambridge. Nachdem er dieses ohne Abschluss verlassen hatte, lebte er von einem Einkommen, das er aus Vermögen bezog, bei seiner Mutter in Kent. Im August 1914 meldete er sich freiwillig zum Kriegseinsatz und kam im Mai 1915 als Offizier der Royal Welsh Fusiliers nach Frankreich. Dort freundete er sich mit Robert Graves an, der seine Liebe zur Lyrik teilte. Im Juli 1916 wurde er mit dem Military Cross, der höchsten Tapferkeitsauszeichnungen der Britischen Armee, ausgezeichnet.
Sassoon wurde auch für seine Kriegsgedichte bekannt, die ihm zu seiner Zeit und danach öffentliche und kritische Anerkennung einbrachten.[1] So veröffentlichte Edward Marsh im Jahr 1917 in der Sammlung Georgian Poetry Sassoons Gedichte. Im Dezember 1933 heiratete er, obwohl homosexuell, Hester Gatty. Aus der Ehe ging ein Sohn hervor. Von Mitgliedern der Aristokratie sowie von Stars der Londoner Literatur- und Bühnenwelt verehrt, ging Sassoon Affären mit mehreren Männern ein.
...
Song Credits
"Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) Part I: L'adoration de la terre (The Adoration of the Earth)"
Written by Igor Stravinsky
Performed by Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Orchestra & Rahbari, Alexander (Conductor)
(c) Copyright 1912, 1921 by Hawkes & Son (London) Ltd
"And Her Mother Came Too"
By Ivor Novello and Dion Titheradge
Ascherberg Hopwood & Crew Ltd (PRS)
"En Famille" from Façade: An Entertainment
Music by Sir William Walton and Words by Dame Edith Sitwell
All rights licensed by Oxford University Press
"A Shropshire Lad: Loveliest of trees"
Performed by Benjamin Luxon, David Willison
Composed by George Butterworth, Lyrics by Alfred Edward Housman
Courtesy of Argo Records
Under License from Universal Music Operations Ltd
"If Thou Let This Man Go (Tango)"
Composed by Benjamin Woodgates
Copyright Control
"Waiting At The Church"
Words and Music by Fred W Leigh, Henry E Pether
Published by Francis Day & Hunter Ltd / EMI Catalogue Partnership
"Till We Meet Again"
By Raymond Egan and Richard Whiting
ADMINISTERED by Round Hill Carlin on behalf of Redwood Music Ltd., and Warner Chappell North America Ltd.
"Charleston"
By James Johnson and Cecil Mack
WC Music Corp. (ASCAP) and Redwood Music Ltd (PRS)
All rights administered by Warner Chappell North America Ltd. And Round Hill Carlin on behalf of Redwood Music Ltd.
"Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend)"
Written by Stanley Jones
Published by Memory Lane Music Group on behalf of Stan Jones Music
(admin. By Atlas Music Publishing) and Edwin H. Morris & Company, A Division of MPL Music Publishing, Inc. (ASCAP)
Performed by Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra featuring Vaughn Monroe and The Quartet
Courtesy of RCA Records by arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment
"Love Is Here To Stay"
Written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
Published by Downtown Music Publishing, Nokawi Music (ASCAP), Frankie G. Songs (ASCAP), Ira Gershwin Music (ASCAP) and Chappell & Co. Inc. (ASCAP)
All rights administered by Warner Chappell North America Ltd.
Performed by Abe Lyman & his Orchestra
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment
"Tea for Two"
By Irving Caesar and Vincent Youmans
All rights administered by Warner Chappell North America Ltd.
Performed by Marion Harris
Courtesy of Brunswick Records
Under license from Universal Music Operations Ltd.
Symphony No. 3, "Pastoral Symphony" II. Lento moderato – Poco tranquillo, tempo rubato – Tempo I
Composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Published by Chester Music Limited t/a J Curwen & Sons and Faber Music Limited
Performed by Hallé Orchestra, soprano Sarah Fox & conductor Mark Elder
Licensed courtesy of Halle via Naxos Music UK
"Walkin' Back to Happiness"
Written by Mike Hawker, John Schroeder
Published by Universal/Dick James Music Ltd.
Performed Helen Shapiro
Licensed courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd.
"Typically English"
Written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
Published by TRO Essex Music, Ltd., Songs of Steve Peter (BMI), Downtown DMP Songs (BMI) and Ludlow Music (BMI)
"Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"
Composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Published by Chester Music Limited t/a J Curwen & Sons and Faber Music Limited
Performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Adrian Boult
Licensed courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd.
"Concert-Interpretation"
Written by Siegfried Sassoon
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
...
POEMS
"Anthem for Doomed Youth"
Written by Wilfred Owen
"Died of Wounds"
Written by Siegfried Sassoon
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
"When I'm among a Blaze of Lights"
Written by Siegfried Sassoon
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
"To my Mother"
Written by Siegfried Sassoon
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
"To my Brother"
Written by Siegfried Sassoon
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
"Attack"
Written by Siegfried Sassoon
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
"Invocation"
Written by Siegfried Sassoon
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
"How Beautifully Blue the Sky"
Written by W. S. Gilbert
"Disabled"
Written by Wilfred Owen
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