The Childhood of a Leader (2016) (English & French Language)

Review

116min

Genre:      Drama

Director:   Brady Corbet

Cast:        Robert Pattinson, Liam Cunningham, Bérénice Bejo…and more

Writers:    Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold

-Synopsis-

In the backdrop of war-torn rural France at the end of the First World War; an American diplomat negotiating the terms of German surrender relocates to a French village with his European wife and young son, but as the boy’s behaviour becomes erratic and family dynamics are strained, troubling events reveal a glimpse of a dark future in this stylistic parable about the rise of 20th century European Fascism.

Ever since its award-winning preview at last year’s Venice Film Festival, general audiences have been waiting for the best part of a year for actor-turned-writer/director Brady Corbet’s debut at the helm of a feature film; and with ‘The Childhood of a Leader’ he delivers an unsettling family drama and eerie psychological study, weighed down by the heavy burden of recent European history.

‘The Childhood of a Leader’ is loosely based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story of the same name, and is no doubt inspired by the events after World War I which led to the rise of modern Fascism. But as Corbet has continuously stressed, this isn’t even a loosely based biopic about the origins of Adolf Hitler or any other specific 20th century demagogue, rather a hypothetical diary about the makings of a tyrant.

But by revolving the narrative around the Treaty of Versailles, and despite the differing chronology where he would have been a corporal in the German army, there are inevitable parallels with “The Führer” here.

Nevertheless this “Leader” is his own terrible man (or boy), and the film works because of the foreboding sense it gives an audience who knows what the end result will be. But the narrative of ‘The Childhood of a Leader’ is for the most part detached from the boy’s destiny; ultimately this is a dark family drama about a psychologically troubled boy, whose fate is compounded by parental neglect and an adversarial relationship with his mother.

Young Tom Sweet stars as the young leader in an utterly convincing performance as a troubled loner, struggling with adapting to a new life and increasingly showing signs of anger, impulsiveness and a strength of will which are developmental calling cards of a worrying personality.

Meanwhile Bérénice Bejo features as the boy’s mother; a young woman in a melancholy existence who struggles to control a defiant son, alongside Liam Cunningham as the stern and often absent father and U.S. government official, more concerned with moulding a post-war Europe and his own impulses than raising a son. Also, you can’t fail to notice the brief but ultimately impactful appearances by a certain Robert Pattinson.

Despite being an unsettling straight drama, along the lines of but not quite as disturbing as 2011’s ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’, it’s easy to see why many have confused this for a horror film. Corbet uses dimly lit locations and immaculate production design to give an eerie and authentic period quality to the visuals, and combines it well with the “Damien”-like ‘Omen’-esque feel of the boy.

The creepiness circle is completed by a jarring Bernard Herrmann-inspired score from Scott Walker, an original composition which wouldn’t be out of place in a 60’s horror flick; slightly over dramatic, deliberately loud and often using strings to skin-crawling effect.

‘The Childhood of a Leader’ is no doubt a psychological portrait of a tyrant in the making and the hypothetical roots of 20th century fascism; more importantly it’s about a version of totalitarianism which, lest we forget, can involve either extreme of the political spectrum and religious ideology as well.

But it’s a stylistic portrait and a rather shallow character study;  by focusing on a small part of the boy’s life, the audience has only a brief glimpse of his psychological history. This is compounded by a narrative structure that takes a massive and sudden chronological leap forward at the very end, towards an abstract finale that’s missing decades of context.

The film also fails to dig into the “nurture vs. nature” balance and debate over psychopaths and those who commit callous acts; there’s no real attempt to cover the complexities of geopolitics here, or consider the simple notions of timing and chance which conspire with a certain type of personality to create a demagogue.

This slow and tense contemplative drama is not without its faults; but the mere fact that a 28-year-old actor, for his directorial debut, would tackle this subject matter within a historical but depressingly contemporary context, is impressive enough. And the fact that Corbet has managed to create such an original, striking and memorable piece of work on his first attempt is certainly commendable.

The Bottom Line…

Writer/director Brady Corbet plunders the darkest recesses of 20th century European history to paint a hypothetical psychological portrait of a tyrant, in the form of an unsettling period family drama. ‘The Childhood of a Leader’ might not be as profound we’d like, but thanks to solid performances and meticulous execution, not to mention a final sting in the tail, it’s an impressive debut from a filmmaker we look forward to following closely.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Tilda Swinton stars as a mother struggling to cope with the atrocities committed by her teenage son, as she looks back at the childhood of a deeply troubled child in this unsettling adaptation of the bestselling Lionel Shriver novel.

Directed by Lynne Ramsay and starring Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller and John C. Reilly among others.

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