The Childhood of a Leader (film)

The Childhood of a Leader
File:The Childhood of a Leader poster.jpg Promotional poster
Directed by	Brady Corbet
Produced by	Brady Corbet Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre Chris Coen Helena Danielsson István Major
Screenplay by	Brady Corbet Mona Fastvold
Based on	The Childhood of a Leader by Jean-Paul Sartre
Starring	Bérénice Bejo Liam Cunningham Stacy Martin Yolande Moreau Robert Pattinson Tom Sweet
Music by	Scott Walker
Cinematography	Lol Crawley
Edited by	Dávid Jancsó
Production company	Bow and Arrow Entertainment FilmTeam Hepp Film Media House Capital MACT Productions Unanimous Entertainment
Distributed by	Front Row Filmed Entertainment
Release dates	September 5, 2015 (2015-09-05) (Venice) August 11, 2016 (2016-08-11) (UK)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United Kingdom France
Language	English French
Budget	$5 million

The Childhood of a Leader is a 2015 historical mystery drama film, written, produced and directed by Brady Corbet, and is Corbet's feature film directorial debut. It is loosely based on Jean-Paul Sartre's short story The Childhood of a Leader, published in 1939 as a collection of short stories titled The Wall, and John Fowles's 1965 novel The Magus. Corbet co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Mona Fastvold, and filmed both an English and a French language version.

Apart from Corbet, Chris Coen from Unanimous Entertainment, Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre from MACT Productions, Helena Danielsson from Hepp Film and Istvan Major also served as producers on the film.

The film chronicles the childhood of a fascist leader during World War I. Production began in early 2015, in Budapest, Hungary. The film had its world premiere in-competition (Horizon section) at 72nd Venice International Film Festival on 5 September 2015 and won two awards at the festival; Best Debut film and Best Director.

Plot

In 1918, an American boy living in France with his parents witnesses the creation of the Treaty of Versailles, which shapes his beliefs and causes him to develop a terrifying ego.

Cast

• Bérénice Bejo as The Mother
• Liam Cunningham as The Father
• Stacy Martin as Ada
• Yolande Moreau as Mona
• Robert Pattinson as Charles Marker / adult Prescott
• Tom Sweet as Prescott, The Boy
• Jacques Boudet as The Priest
• Michel Subor
• Sophie Curtis
• Patrick McCullough
• Michael Epp as Mr. Advisor

Production

"The film takes place in 1919, it stars a child, it's in French and English. Luckily it's not going to be four-and-a-half hours long and it's not going to be black-and-white. But that's it. It's not a very easy pitch. It's sort of about the birth of a megalomaniac and with a maniacal sort of ego at the turn of the century. It's about the birth of fascism that occurred during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles."

—Brady Corbet, director of The Childhood of a Leader, on the film.

Development

Brady Corbet began writing the script of the film ten years ago on his own but later put it down as he considered it "too big" for a debut film. He later pick it up again after support from his partner Mona Fastvold. On 1 April 2013, it was announced that Corbet was set to make his feature film directorial debut with a France-set WWI film, based on the script he co-wrote with Mona Fastvold. Corbet would produce along with French producers Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre and Chris Coen. Film Producer Helena Danielsson of Hepp Film also came on board to get the film additional financing.

In 2015, Corbet said that the script of the film was inspired by Robert Bresson's Mouchette, Maurice Pialat's Under the Sun of Satan, Ermanno Olmi's The Tree of Wooden Clogs, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Day of Wrath and Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon.

Casting

On 10 December 2013, it was announced that Juliette Binoche, Tim Roth and Robert Pattinson had joined the cast of the film. In August 2014, it was announced that both Binoche and Roth had left the project. Roth dropped due to scheduling conflict while Binoche citing the reason that it was "too dark". The same month Binoche and Roth were replaced by Bérénice Bejo and Liam Cunningham.

Corbet talking about the casting and characters in the film said that

I have intentionally not revealed the identity of the (the boy who will become leader) character. And it's a funny thing because it's not for the reasons that people think. One thing I will happily tell everybody is that the character is not Hitler [laughs]. And the character is not Mussolini. It's someone else. And there's the dramatic event where you learn who this person is and that's something I want to save for people. Robert Pattinson is not playing Hitler as you now know [laughs]. I'll go on the record saying that.

Corbet held auditions for the casting of the role of Prescott, describing it as "(we) held simple auditions (one page of text) for the boys reading for the main role. Des Hamilton and his great team found Tom Sweet and brought him in. Tom was everything we had envisioned and more. He is the film’s greatest triumph."

Pre-production

Production was originally slated to start from November 2014 but later moved to January 2015. Pattinson describing the film said that "It's about the youth of a future dictator in the Thirties, like an amalgamation of Hitler, Mussolini and some others." Bejo talking about her character in the film said that "(I'm playing) the character of a mother whose son is very particular, a little awkward and weird. Over the scenes you're realizing that it is not a normal guy, he'll become a monster or something. And it is about the relationship with the mother and father."

Filming

Principal photography began from 30 January 2015 in Budapest and continued till 1 March 2015. On 3 February 2015, filming took place at Buda Castle and Hungarian National Gallery.

Music

Singer-songwriter, composer and record producer Scott Walker composed the score of the film.

Promotion and marketing

On 13 February 2015, Producer Chris Coen released the first image featuring Robert Pattinson, Bérénice Bejo and Liam Cunningham in their costumes. Another still featuring Pattinson, Bejo and Cunningham was released on 8 April 2015. Exclusive footage from the film screened at Marché du Film of 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Two clips from the film were released on 4 September 2015. On 25 October 2015, it was screened at Jacob Burns Film Center. The film is set for theatrical release in UK by Metrodome Distribution in August 2016.

Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews from the critics, with the performances from the cast, Scott Walker's music and Lol Crawley's cinematography were also praised. Metacritic gives the film a score of 69 based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Lee Marshall of Screen International wrote a positive review for the film by saying that "The Childhood Of A Leader is as relentlessly sombre and compelling" and compare it with Michael Haneke's work that "it shares something of Haneke's dispassionate view of human nature, The Childhood of a Leader is in no way derivative. Dominated by dread, veering into arthouse horror at points, this compulsively dark story takes no prisoners." Tommaso Tocci of The Film Stage called it "a huge psychological and tonal balancing act that could crumble at each turn, and yet never does." Guy Lodge of Variety called it "a overweening, maddening but not inconsiderable directorial debut for actor Brady Corbet, which plays as something of a straight-faced parody of a well-upholstered historical biopic." In his review for Eye For Film, Damon Wise said that "It sounds like a slow-paced chamber piece, and some scenes are, but a brilliant framing device involving a stunning orchestral score by, of all people, Scott Walker gives the film a nerve-wracking urgency." John Bleasdale of Cine Vu gave it five out five stars by saying that "(it) is a dark, enigmatic piece of work that hovers between visionary greatness and petty domestic triviality. Corbet's inaugural stint behind the camera marks a stunning debut and the finest film at Venice thus far."

However, Deborah Young in her review for The Hollywood Reporter said that "There is actually a lot of imagination at work in the film, though frustratingly it rarely comes together in an emotionally meaningful way."

Accolades

Year	Group/Award	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
2015	Venice International Film Festival	Horizons (Orizzonti) – Best Film	Brady Corbet	Nominated
		Lion of the Future – Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film		Won
		Horizons (Orizzonti) – Best Director		Won
2015	Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival	TAP Revelation Award – Best Director		Won
2016	Gothenburg Film Festival	International Debut Award		Nominated

External links

• The Childhood of a Leader at IMDb