The Childhood of a Leader (2015) Reviews

• What happens when a soundtrack and script work against each other.

  MatthewInSydney2016-06-14

  Firstly I have to give credit to the visual design and acting in this film. Despite some too- modern dialogue, and a dull overuse of static shots of people standing talking to each other, the characters look convincingly like they inhabit a darkened between-world-wars Europe lit by dim lights through heavy curtains. It feels like a realistic period piece without the Downton Abbey gloss. And the story itself should have been gripping, but - and I must add a SPOILER warning - unfortunately, due to the strident music telegraphing that this kid is bad news right from the start, the ending loses most of it's power. I'm sure some people will love the music, but a score should serve the story, not detract from it. Maybe the music was pumped up to stop people losing interest during the early parts of the film, which is quite slow and features way too many repetitive scenes of a grouchy child being reprimanded. But there are other ways to keep audiences awake, like working on the dialogue, camera angles, editing etc, rather than loud ominous music that tells the audience more than they should know about where the film is going. The exact nature of the ending still manages to be surprising, but it doesn't have much power, and instead of being frightening it was just a relief to not have to watch more scenes of the cranky kid. The music at the opening of the film will put you on edge more than anything else in the film!

• Ambitious, with a memorable soundtrack and twist ending, but little re-watch value once one already knows the twist

  crculver2017-03-13

  Brady Corbet's 2015 film, THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER, the young actor's debut as a director, bills itself as the story of a little boy who eventually grows up to be a fascist leader. As the film opens we are introduced to Prescott (Tom Sweet), who is wearing angel wings as he rehearses for a Christmas pageant, but is clearly our demon spawn protagonist: simply directing the child to never smile was enough for the filmmaker to underscore how the boy's a bit warped. Prescott has been brought to France in the immediate aftermath of World War I. His cold, strict father (Liam Cunningham) is an American diplomat helping draft the Versailles peace treaty. The boy and his French-born mother (Bérénice Bejo) stay in a manor house in a small town. The film is divided into three "tantrums" where Prescott unleashes violence on those around him, all played out against the backdrop of vicious diplomatic negotiations where the victorious Allies seek to harshly punish the loser Germany -- a humiliation traditionally blamed for the rise of Hitler and other fascist demagogues. Besides the vindictiveness being shown on the international scale among diplomats and men of state, Prescott is also confronted by intrigues within his own home: his father's affair with his governess (Stacy Martin), and his mother's mysterious relationship with his father's friend Charles (Robert Pattinson). Add to this appalling class divisions that make the family masters of an enormous home and the local peasants merely their servants, and there's plenty of cause to lose faith in noble ideals and justice. My interest was originally drawn to this film because its score was supplied by Scott Walker, who started out as a 1960s crooner and gradually became one of the most intense avant-garde pop artists around. Walker's score, purely instrumental (you won't hear his famous voice here) consists of intimidating martial passages for full orchestra and atonal string threnodies. I was initially sceptical that this would work, as I haven't warmed to Walker's earlier purely instrumental work, and I thought his modernist style might clash with the early 20th-century setting. In fact, Walker's score is excellent, boosting the intensity of the action. Lol Crawley's camera work is initially restrained but given free rein as the film reaches its climax, making for some memorable shots. The film makes, I think, an interesting point about people who grow up to be evil in that, even though we are shown various traumatic childhood experiences and cruel or neglectful parenting that we can point to and say "That's what did it", they nonetheless remain a mystery. Prescott's a black box, we are never sure how exactly the events of childhood are processed in his mind so that we end up with the stunning reveal that we ultimately get. Audiences can expect to see the eventual rise of a fascist leader because this was repeatedly underlined in the film's publicity, but Corbet throws a curveball that makes for a shocking twist ending. But my rating for this film eventually had to account for the film's diminishing appeal once one has already seen the twist: there isn't much re-watch value here, as the slow pacing and invariable sombreness of the film grates once it is no longer rewarded by the final jump into action and revelation. And while I love Scott Walker's work, apparently some viewers will consider the music a bad thing. I do take issue, however, with those who want to label A CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER "pretentious". If this film is to some degree a failure, it is nonetheless a noble one because Corbet dreamt of an epic scope and a highly original story in spite of the limited means available to him for his first effort as a director.

• Manipulative and Second-Rate

  BNester2016-07-17

  The film begins with a musical score (by Scott Walker) which is too loud, manipulative, domineering, and pretentious. It takes itself very seriously indeed, but, when listened to closely, is second-rate. The film imitates the music. The story of Childhood of a Leader comprises scenes in the upbringing of Prescott, the rich, spoiled son of an influential American diplomat and his beautiful wife. The father is hammering out the details of what will become the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, and set the stage for the Second. Neither parent has much time for Prescott, and he is raised by servants, who can be dismissed on a whim. Prescott eventually grows up to be (here's the spoiler): a fascist leader. The takes and the scenes go on for far too long, leading to boredom. But the director and writer, Brady Corbet, isn't interested in making a good movie. He wants to deliver a message, even if he has to hit you on the head with it. He wants you to know that there is no free will; that your attitudes and place in society are determined by your class and upbringing; that any child raised under these circumstances would turn out this way. What he fails to notice is that nearly all upper-class children in pre-WWI times were raised like this. Yet somehow they did not all end up leading fascist coups. Childhood of a Leader's only redeeming feature is the acting. It is excellent throughout, especially Liam Cunningham as the father, who expects his orders to be obeyed and his son to be disciplined. Cunningham is completely believable playing this unattractive character. We shouldn't blame director Corbet for making such a second-rate film. Given his class and his upbringing, it was inevitable.

• What did he say? Turn down the music!

  rodney-larios2016-08-06

  This movie might have been decent if I was able to actually decipher some of the dialogue. The French was not subtitled and it was spoken through at least half the movie. The English was whispered behind music that was entirely too loud. But what bothered me most is there was not enough "story". Why did he have mental health issues? His mother seemed to love him, he was cared for by people close to him. He was not poor or abused, give me something! There is not even enough for me to provide a decent speculation. I think it could have been so much better, as much as I wanted to like it, I did not. The music tried to make it more suspend up than it actually was. The people that say this was "art" are just lame and use that as an excuse to give it better reviews. This movie had no substance and no matter how you try and describe it, the fact of the matter is that it doesn't!

• Tosh

  chris_joubert-627652016-08-25

  Pretentious tosh. The most disappointing film I have seen recently, having read the glowing reviews. How can I expand this succinct review to 10 lines? The music is bombastic, the length of the shots self-indulgent on the part of the editor/director, the psychology superficial: "abused child grows up to be a bastard". I have not read Sartre's original, but I doubt whether it was as vapid as this. Some of the supporting actors were good, but Liam Cunningham, in particular, looked very uncomfortable in his sketchy role. The Robert Pattinson character was particularly mystifying: who was he? What was he doing there? Why was the actor used to play the adult Prescott?