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"Anthony Hopkins is the best actor in the world. I wrote the role for him."

About six months after winning an Oscar in the screenplay and lead actor categories, the film adaptation of "The Father" is finally coming out in Israel.

Florian Zeller, who based the film on his play, tells why he chose Anthony Hopkins and how he manages to make people shed tears

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• Anthony Hopkins

Avner Shavit

Tuesday, 26 October 2021, 20:16 Updated: 20:39

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Trailer for the movie "The Father" (United King)

The journey of "The Father" began as a theatrical performance, written by the French writer and playwright Florian Zeller. The play was a great success and appreciated, performed around the world and also here at the Beit Lessin Theater, and was crowned as one of the most powerful stage productions of recent years. Its emotional effect is so strong that there have been many stories of spectators leaving the hall wiping away tears, and some even running to hug their father, or at least call him.

Six years ago, the play was the basis for an excellent but rather forgotten French film called "Florida," which was not well-deserved. Philippe Le Gay directed, and Jean Rochefort starred in his last film appearance. Zeller decided to take matters into his own hands, bringing the show to the screen once more - and this time as he stands behind the camera, and as the film speaks English, and Anthony Hopkins stars in it.

Similar to the stage source, the film also manages to shake the viewers in it.

For evidence: At the end of his screening I attended, a woman sitting in a row next to me approached me.

I had never seen her or talked to her before, but she had to share with someone the storm of emotions that "the father" aroused in her, and turned to me saying - "What a sad movie, huh?".

After countless postponements due to the corona and its damage, about six months after its world premiere and after winning Zeller the Oscar for screenplay and Hopkins the Oscar for lead actor, "The Father" comes up with us this weekend.

"Israel is a country that will be especially dear to my heart," Zeller says in a zoom conversation with Walla!

On the occasion of commercial distribution.

"I had the honor of having my plays come up with you, and now it's the turn of the film - and that's what excites me.

More on Walla!

Even thirty years after its release, this film continues to change the lives of those who watch it

To the full article

"What a sad movie, huh?".

From "The Father" (Photo: United King)

It sounds cheeky to say this about such a veteran and multi-talented actor, who made Hannibal Lecter one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time, but let us allow ourselves to say that Anthony Hopkins presents here the performance of his life. He plays a man suffering from dementia, and the film accompanies him in his regression, until he completes the cycle and becomes helpless like a newborn baby. The result is more or less a solo performance of the Welsh star, but it also has several sub-characters, including the protagonist's daughter played by Olivier Coleman, who has recently appeared wherever possible.

"I wrote this story inspired by my grandmother," says Zeller, a native of Paris who still lives there today. "She was a strong woman, who raised me, and when I was 15 she started to suffer from senility. I loved her, but of course I could not really help her, and so I learned how helpless we can be, because love is not enough, not always."

"My grandmother was always in complete control of her life, and it was hard for her and us to internalize that she was losing control. I saw a woman so full of strength slowly fall down the slope and lose everything she had, and that motivated me to write the play. I think everyone "We have either had such a grandmother, or such a father, and my goal was not to tell a personal and specific story, but to share the feelings that this experience evokes."

"For one simple reason - Anthony Hopkins. I wrote the screenplay for him and only for him, and this for two reasons: first of all, because he is the greatest actor in the world. "Of such a strong character would have a shaky impact on the audience. It was not easy for me to write in English, it is not my mother tongue, but Hopkins was worth it."

He's going crazy.

Florian Zeller with the Oscar (Photo: GettyImages, Louis Joey-Paul)

There was a sensation at the last Oscar ceremony: Zeller's victory in the adapted screenplay award was expected, but in the game category the clear favorite was the late Chadwick Bozeman, and it was assumed that the academy would award him the statuette after his death.

His victory is considered so certain that the producers of the ceremony even moved this category to the end of the ceremony, where the best film award is usually awarded, assuming that the post-mortem win will be his highlight.

But Hopkins preyed on the cards, winning the statuette about three decades after he did so on "The Silence of the Lambs."

"I dreamed about this movie because of Hopkins, so the moment of winning the Oscar was a happy moment for me," Zeller says.

"The ending of the ceremony was surprising and special, but above all - exciting."

"Also in the stage version, people would wait for us after the show. Not to cheer 'Bravo', but to tell their personal stories, and that touched me. I think 'The Father' makes people experience a kind of catharsis. Following the film, I get a lot "Comments on Instagram and I try to answer them all, but I will not lie to you - the reaction that moved me the most was not one of the viewers, but Hopkins himself. When I saw how excited he was to watch the film for the first time, my heart expanded."

"I do not think it's a sad movie. It reminds us that we belong to something bigger, and that there is someone to share our fears with, and it's not something sad. I do agree that it's an appalling movie, it puts you in the mind of the protagonist, "And it's a challenging experience."

This is how theater becomes cinema.

From "The Father" (Photo: United King)

This is Zeller's first film as a director, but despite his lack of experience in the field, and despite his theatrical origins, "The Father" is far from being a filmed theatrical performance. The result is cinematic and dizzying, and makes brilliant use of the camera, editing and other means of expression to illustrate to us the protracted consciousness of the protagonist.

"It was important to me that this was not a filmed show," Zeller says. "Usually, to differentiate between a play and a film, new scenes are added that take place outside. I did the opposite: the whole plot takes place in closed spaces, but they not only stand on their own, but symbolize what takes place in the protagonist's mind. It is not only physical space but also space Mentally, and he is constantly changing, and the protagonist and with him the audience lose orientation. The film throws the viewers into a kind of maze. Like the father, who at some point no longer understands where he is, we also see things and do not know what is truth and what is not. A story, but also an experience - and a very cinematic experience. "

The role of his life. Anthony Hopkins in "The Father" (Photo: United King)

The play "The Father" is part of a trilogy that also includes "The Mother" and "The Son," which we staged in the Cameri, and now Zeller is working on his cinematic adaptation. In addition to Hopkins, the cast will feature a host of hot stars - Vanessa Kirby, Hugh Jackman, Laura Daren and others.

I ask Zeller how he maintains humility in all the glory, and that's his answer - "I come from the theater, a world where the screen can go down every second, so I learned to take everything in proportion," he says.

"In the theater, one feels well the extreme fragility of life. When 'The Father' took the stage for the first time, Robert Hirsch starred in it, and fell on stage after the tenth play. "I'll have to settle for ten performances, but we're back on stage and the rest is history. Such is life - everything is very fragile, and we have to appreciate every little thing that happens, because for something to work, we need a collection of little miracles.".

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