Page 2 - Ben Smithard News Today

Venice Film Festival 2022: Director Florian Zeller once again explores mental illness in a bolder, less focused follow-up to “The Father”

The COVID-19 pandemic was hard on everyone, not least of all Judd Apatow. Among the many...

02/12/2020 - Anthony Hopkins gives a tour-de-force performance in Florian Zeller's adaptation of his own play

Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in The Father (2020) | Sony Pictures Classics Don’t you remember? This innocuous question, a conversational bridge and a filler in daily speech, becomes a cross that Anthony is increasingly unable to bear. An octogenarian from London, Anthony has begun an inexorable slide into dementia. Time has lost meaning for him, even though he tries to keep up by constantly peering at his watch – if only he could find it. The characteristics of this ...

4 ½ stars (out of 5) "Have you ever walked along a shoreline, only to have your footprints washed away?" legendary basketball coach Pat Summit once asked, describing her struggle with Alzheimers. "The waves erase the marks we leave behind, all the sandcastles." In The Father, its an octogenarian named Anthony whose sandcastles are getting washed away. The character shares the name and birthdate of the actor portraying him (Anthony Hopkins), but the film is not biographical. Instead, writer-d...

Dear Oscar Voters: Dont Forget About These Films and Performances Clayton Davis, provided by FacebookTwitterEmail The Academy has begun its voting for the 93rd Oscars, and many films and performances are vying for spots in various categories. Nearly 10,000 members could cast their ballots by Wednesday, March 10, with nominations set to be announced on March 15. This has been an unpredictable awards season, with few consensuses forming in the 23 categories. We may be in store for this most surp...

Print Every cinematographer prizes those spontaneous, magic moments — what photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment” — when the essence of the film crystalizes before the lens both visually and thematically. For Quyen Tran, Tobias Schliessler Chris Menges and Ben Smithard, their favorite shots from the notable new films they photographed all capture that ineffable yet decisive scene when the actors’ performances deepen our understanding with new layers of meaning...

Now, Zeller has brought The Father to the screen in an adaptation he directed and co-wrote with Christopher Hampton, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. Its one thing for Zeller to attempt this kind of narrative game-playing onstage, where arguably his only peer in that regard is Harold Pinter. By bringing his vision to the cinematic medium, however, he is now competing with the likes of legendary French filmmaker Alain Resnais and, more recently, Christopher Nolan when it comes to exp...