Sound and fury signify everything in Scott Walker’s score for this pulchritudinous period drama. Maybe it’s ageist to mention that Walker is 73. Let’s just say that the Sixties legend (who may well be nominated for an Oscar next year) is on pugnacious form.
The plot concerns feral, precocious, cross-dressing rich kid Prescott (fabulous, preternaturally poised British newcomer Tom Sweet), stuck in a mouldering mansion near Versailles in 1918, while his distracted, uptight
American diplomat dad (Liam Cunningham) tries to broker peace and his lonely, bitter mum (Berenice Bejo, pictured) tries not to implode.
American director Brady Corbet clearly wants us to view Prescott as an attention-seeking Hitler/Mussolini/Stalin type, deformed by casually cruel parenting. Actually, Prescott just seems like a typical only-child (I can say this, because I am one).
His domestic woes are affecting in a soapy sort of way. Yet because they carry so much symbolic weight you find yourself resisting the narrative thrust. Corbet’s take on political terror boils down to the idea that the powerful are endlessly fascinating pioneers, which doesn’t so much deconstruct the cult of personality as demonstrate that we’re no closer, in the 21st century, to moving beyond it.
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Still, the film is never dull. Cinematographer Lol Crawley (45 Years) makes sure every smooth cheek and crumbling edifice looks like it’s tumbled out of a Visconti movie (The Damned and Death in Venice in particular). Wonky shots of Prescott, with his beautiful nanny, also recall the uncanny work of Jack Clayton on The Innocents, and the adult cast (including Robert Pattinson, in two non-showy roles) are solid.
Is it ageist to mention that Corbet is 28? The one-time actor may or may not have what it takes to become a cinematic trailblazer but he’s certainly got our attention.
Cert 12A, 115 mins
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