The Childhood of a Leader

The Childhood of a Leader

2016 "Witness the birth of a terrifying ego."
The Childhood of a Leader
The Childhood of a Leader

The Childhood of a Leader

6.1 | 1h56m | NR | en | Drama

The chilling story of a young American boy living in France in 1918 whose father is working for the US government on the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. What he witnesses helps to mold his beliefs – and we witness the birth of a terrifying ego.

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6.1 | 1h56m | NR | en | Drama | More Info
Released: July. 22,2016 | Released Producted By: Hepp Film , Bow + Arrow Entertainment Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

The chilling story of a young American boy living in France in 1918 whose father is working for the US government on the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. What he witnesses helps to mold his beliefs – and we witness the birth of a terrifying ego.

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Cast

Bérénice Bejo , Liam Cunningham , Robert Pattinson

Director

Nóra Takács

Producted By

Hepp Film , Bow + Arrow Entertainment

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Reviews

bobapples24 Non-story doesn't mean artistically brilliant. When you have a lot of arty looking pictures thrown together, that isn't a film, that's called visual masturbation. Might as well just go to a photography exhibition instead, not a cinema. Not for everyone? Not for anyone either. Maybe that's the whole idea, the intended audience is nobody in particular. It tries to be too clever, high brow or just disappear up its own backside. Shame because there are some good actors involved, or should I say, wasted on this. I know WW1 history and its ramifications, and this film doesn't really say anything about it, more like a pretentious mess that lumbers along for far too long. If anything, the dictators and their underlings all directly participated in the war, which shaped the future of history.
darren-153-890810 This is a brilliantly brave attempt to make a challenging and striking piece of art.On that level it works. The opening credits and first 10 minutes are intense. The Scott Walker soundtrack really pulls you in and immediately makes you think this is no ordinary film. And for that I loved it.The acting is absolutely superb. Not at any stage do you think they are actors. The boy, the mum and the tutor are the stand outs.The cinematography is superb, particularly near the end with the camera circling a dome, beautifully simple. The overall look and feel reminded me of The Duke Of Burgundy (One of my fav films of recent)There's not a lot of love in this family, thats for sure. The film is rather dull and slow though. I did find myself snnozebusting.The ending made no sense either. It wasn't until I chatted to the guys in the cinema that we sort of worked it out.I really respect the director for making a film like this. Im looking forward to his next film. Lets just hope more interesting stuff happens.If you liked the Witch, you'll love this.
plocploc Not convinced by the movie. Some here say that the photography is good: I'd say that it's overly sombre, giving a sense of foreboding that never get realised. The place of the action is unrealistically shabby, which gets out of place with the proposed occupation of the father, and speaks of a miserable childhood, where it seems the realisator wanted to show a born psychopath revealing himself. This part is the most perturbing of all: I may be influenced by my readings, but it seems to me that either this child is not beaten up enough (to become an actual psychopath) or the realisator still thinks that babies are born dictators.... which is against all scientific knowledge on actual childhoods of actual dictators, including GW Bush.The movie is heavily alluding to the rise of a famous early XXth century German leader, but lacks realism if this is the actual model: A. Hitler has been considerably beaten up, living with a mother who had to get over various infant deaths (alluded in the film with the scene of the bed and missed love)without support, while his father had a much more violent attitude towards him and cultivated the secret and shame upon his origins. The movie describes uncaring parents, without ever getting in line with what we know of the infancies of, say, Staline or Sadam Hussein or said German leader, without even getting close to what educative violence was in those years post WWI in Europe (or sadly still is sometimes in the US). Some side plots are not used to their full extent (the dismissal of the carer, the would-be affair between the father and the repetitor), the relationship between mother and son is only rougly drafted, but never gets to its full extent (eg: a sick sensual relationship is half suggested between the mother and the son, by his girl attire-also an allusion to a famous Hitler picture?-, or his mother exclusive attention), The sexual repression of young Prescott could have been exploited more -didn't 19th century Americans widely used circumcision as a way to make sex hurtful?- the young Prescott relations -or lack thereof- with the other village kids could have been used) As it is, the movie goes along the line: "young kid feels alone, gets trashed once, gets sexually aroused by his repetitor, who scolds him, hits his mother and becomes sadistic leader. This may seems a bit lame for anyone with a superficial knowledge of European history (Europe, land of horror stories)
Rodney Larios 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!