A few weeks ago, at the end of a press screening of his new semi-autobiographical film, "Belfast," in Los Angeles, Kenneth Branagh delivered an exciting personal speech.
The veteran actor-director has chosen to connect the film with the fragile state of the world since the outbreak of the plague.
"For the first time in my life I feel a passion I have never felt, to create a natural connection with the audience in a more personal way," he said.
"Throughout the making of the film I was accompanied by the hope that it would give people food for thought about their lives and the things they had to sacrifice during them. It is important for all of us to find perspective, like the one I found when I restored my childhood and background."
This week, exactly two months after his 61st birthday, and riding the wave of success at Belfast, Brana made history in Hollywood, announcing his nominations for the Oscars in late March.
"Belfast" garnered nominations in seven categories, three of them for Brana himself: Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay (the film is also nominated for awards in the actor and supporting actress categories, theme song and sound design).
Thus Brana became the first person ever to be nominated for an Oscar in seven different categories during his life.
At the previous peak, of nominations in six categories, hold Walt Disney, George Clooney and Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón.
Brana has been nominated five times to date, but has never won: in 1989 in two categories - director and lead actor, for "Henry V" (his directorial debut);
In 1992, in the category of the short film about "The Swan Song" directed by him;
In 1996 for the adapted script for Shakespeare's Cement;
And in 2011 in the supporting actor category for his role in "My Week with Marilyn."
"The importance of awards in our industry is more than ever related this year to the importance of cinema in our lives in general," says Brana.
"The awards are related to the empowering and exciting feeling of watching a film on the big screen - just as I feel tremendous excitement when I attend the screening of my film in front of an audience."
• • •
Belfast's plot, based on Brana's childhood memories, takes place in Northern Ireland in 1969 - the period of conflict between the Unionists (mostly Protestants), who supported Northern Ireland's stay in the British Crown, and the nationalists (mostly Catholics), who wanted Irish unity.
At that time the conflict took the form of acts of terrorism and violent riots, which lasted for nearly three decades.
The film, shot in black and white, is told from the point of view of 9-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill), a member of a Protestant working-class family, whose father (Jamie Dornan, "50 Shades of Gray") works far away in England and is considering moving the family to England. , Given the tense situation in Belfast.
The film also stars Judy Dench as Buddy's grandmother.
Like many other films in the last two years, "Belfast" is the result of the Corona plague.
Brana says he has dreamed for years of telling his family's history, and only during the first closure did he find the time to sit down and write the most personal screenplay he has written.
"It was an eight-week process plus 50 years. For decades I wrote down notes and little things about the family story that accompanied me. The quarantine made me pour everything out, the timing was just accurate.
"A significant part of our journey in life is to discover who we are. Often the truth is covered with weeds, which must be uprooted to reach the tree trunk of our existence, but it is always there. And when you discover it, it is done in the purest way.
"Pretty early on I realized that in the center I need a character of a little boy, that all the revolutions are taking place before his eyes. A kid running around a little street that has a few shops and everyone knows everyone, and that's basically his little world.
"I went with the script to my brother and sister. It was important to me that they read first and give their blessing because it deals with our family and what we went through as children. They were also the first to watch the film when I finished working on it. It all depended on their reaction. further.
"I grew up around a lot of family reunions. Of course it was long before multi-channel TV, not to mention the internet. My mother had 11 siblings, my father five, and I remember always spending time with dozens of cousins. In reunions, family members were always telling stories. "Everyone has a story, from old stories from the days of ancient Belfast to all sorts of tales about trolls and giants. I well remember that the stories became a family pleasure, which I took with me into my professional life."
• • •
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September, where it won the Audience Choice Award.
He was included in all the film critics' lists of the ten best films of 2021, was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and won the Original Screenplay Award, and is nominated for the Actors Guild and Directors Guild ceremonies, to be held next month.
His main competition will be opposite the western drama "The Power of the Dog" by Jane Campion ("The Piano") which garnered 12 nominations, the "sandy" fantasy film by director Danny Willenbe who received 10 nominations, and Steven Spielberg's remake of "The Suburbs Story" he received 7 nominations.
"I grew up in a place where it seemed to rain a lot, but there was a lot of sun in the hearts of the people," Brana said after the screening in Toronto.
"We laughed a lot at silly things and cried following serious incidents. In general, as a community, we were there for each other and one for all.
"Then, as they say, things changed. What happened to me at age 9 changed my life forever, and affected many others in profound ways that resonate to this day. All my life I waited to bring this story to the screen, and all the while I heard over and over again the beautiful cacophonous noise of the city. This one in my head.
"The Corona raised big questions in my mind about who I was, and I realized that Belfast was the last time I felt a sense of belonging. The move to Reading, when I was 9, changed us. awful".
With Jude Hill on the set of "Belfast."
"A figure of a little boy, with all the revolutions before his eyes", Photo: Rob Youngson / Focus Features
The Corona also gave its signals in the production of the film.
"The timing of the start of filming was particularly exciting because we were the first production in the UK to launch under the Corona Restrictions. Before filming we were in solitary confinement for two weeks, and when we started filming we closed together in a capsule, with separate enclosures, all wearing masks.
"It was a very unusual situation to make a film, but we all felt lucky to go back to work, and we re-evaluated what we had. In conversations between us we talked about the little things in life, and how much they actually are the basis of our lives and our family.
"It immediately connected to the plot of the film, in which the family's freedom is taken from it. The freedom that stopped at once was something we all felt when the plague broke out two years ago, and from this place it was only natural to sail nostalgically to comforting memories. For all those seemingly silly things that become deep and meaningful when we no longer have them.
"These are the conversations I had, for example, with Jamie Dornan (who is also Irish; usually), who plays the father in the film.
For us, the Irish, the charged past of what happened in our country led us to seek peace in the bosom of the family, at home, at a time when half of the nation was looking to escape. "
• • •
In the past decade, Brana has directed several high-budget films, including "Thor" from Marvel's "Avengers" corporation, a $ 450 million blockbuster, and a new version of "Cinderella" with Cate Blanchett, which grossed $ 542 million.
This week, "Death on the Nile" directed by him, the second film in a series of film adaptations for Agatha Christie's library, was released.
The first was "Murder on the Orient Express" from 2017, in which Brana starred as the mustachioed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
The ensemble of actors in "Death on the Nile" is led by Gal Gadot as Lint Ridgeway, the high society woman whose celebration of her marriage to the slick Simon Doyle on a steamship on the Nile becomes a murder mystery.
"Lynette's character demands an actress with dazzling beauty, with playfulness and compassion - and we found all of that in the wave," Brana said during the film's promotion.
"She is excellent in the role and full of color and depth, just like the character."
Gadot, for her part, said that "working with Kenneth was an amazing experience for me. I learned so much from his acting and his training as a director. He is so ready and organized, which leaves almost no room for mistakes, and yet gives players a lot of freedom. He has the ability to make everyone To feel special, and his charisma and charm go a long way. "
Gadot's partner is played by Armie Hammer ("The Social Network"), who got involved about a year ago in a sexual harassment scandal that shattered his career.
Hammer, 35, who even before the affair was revealed to be separated from his wife, was immediately kicked out of the acting agency that represented him and fired from all of his acting jobs.
"Death on the Nile" was filmed as early as 2019, but its release was delayed due to the first eruption of the corona, and was eventually postponed for an entire year, following the scandal surrounding the Hummer.
Watching the film shows that it has been re-edited so that the hammer will appear on the screen as little as possible.
"These are very serious allegations that require serious treatment," Brana said in an interview with Variety.
"I do not have much information about what is happening. I think the police should be allowed to investigate."
"Dazzling beauty."
Gal Gadot in "Death on the Nile", Photo: 20th Century Studios
• • •
Sir Kenneth (Charles) Brana was born in 1960 in Belfast, where his father, William, worked as a plumber and construction worker, and his mother, Frances, raised the children.
He was drawn to the stage already in high school, and later was accepted to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, an acting school that is considered the most prestigious in the world.
In his second year there, when he was only 20, he was chosen by the director of the academy to perform a monologue from "Hamlet" to Queen Elizabeth II, who had come to visit the place.
In the 1980s he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in successful plays, and at the same time became famous for his appearances in two television adaptations of plays broadcast on the BBC.
Brana also brought his rich experience with Shakespeare to "Henry Fifth," which he adapted into his debut film as a director, and at the same time starred in the lead role alongside rising actors such as Christian Bale and Emma Thompson.
“I wanted to rediscover Shakespeare, in contemporary cinema, in a different and contemporary way,” Brana says.
"I did not yet understand exactly what it involved, but her mother and I were young and innocent, and it was lovely.
"I'm happy to play, but sometimes I also want to sit in the director's chair," he says.
"There are also times when studio executives turn to me and offer to direct. I love to create, and making films is a rare privilege, which I will continue to do as long as I can."
Thompson also continued to star in his subsequent films, the dramas "Murder from the Past" and "Peter's Friends," and the cinematic adaptation of the Shakespearean comedy "Much Ado About Nothing," which also starred Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves and Michael Keaton.
Brana and Thompson married in 1989 and divorced in 1995, following Brana's affair with Helena Bonham Carter, who starred alongside him in "Frankenstein."
The relationship with Bonham Carter lasted until 1999, followed by a brief affair with Alicia Silverstone, who starred in his film "Do Not Fool in Love," and then Brana met Hart director Lindsay Bernock.
They married in 2003, and had no children.
"There's no mysterious reason why, it's just something that did not happen," he said in the past.
Brana says he and his wife love to travel the world.
"I enjoy traveling like a kid admiring when he gets on a plane or boat. It may sound silly, but I enjoy the food served on the plane. When a dish arrives in a cute little box, it excites me."
When not directing or traveling, Brana focuses on the other great love of his life: the Tottenham Hotspur football team.
"It's a sports club that relies on commitment and style, and that always manages to show off top players and play quality football with courage," he said in an interview with the team's fans' magazine.
In his next role, Brana will play British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a mini-series for Sky Channel, which deals with Johnson's hospitalization after he was infected with Corona in April 2020, when he was less than a year in office.
He himself does not often express himself in political matters, but during the promotion of his new film he addressed the political polarization in recent years.
"The notion of 'you are with us or against us' is illogical and is rapidly degenerating into violence, as we saw in the onslaught on the Capitol building in Washington last year," he said in an interview with TheWrap.
"In Britain they have tried to dwarf polarization into a simple yes or no vote on the Brexit issue, out of a supposed insistence on getting our country back. It was done without giving room for discourse and understanding, which is a shame. It does no good to any of us."
dcaspi@goldenglobes.org
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