Lost in plain sight
2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 20; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s1474-4422(21)00144-7
ISSN1474-4465
Autores Tópico(s)Global Healthcare and Medical Tourism
ResumoSitting on the edge of his bed, Anthony (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins) is wondering what is happening in his flat (figure). Unfamiliar people appear and then disappear. The flat is changing too: “where are these from?” he asks, pointing at chairs, and now also the painting by his favourite daughter Lucy has disappeared. “Where is she by the way?” (Actually, she had died in an accident.) He thinks he is losing all his valuables. “Everyone's just helping themselves…if this goes on much longer, I will be stark naked.”Anthony, a retired engineer, is living in a luxury flat in London, which he thinks is his own. We soon find out that he accused his caregiver of stealing, and he was moved into his daughter's flat—the burdened and fatigued caregiver Anne, brilliantly portrayed by Olivia Colman. Anthony has maintained a regal attitude, is well groomed, and has not shown a disregard for etiquette and bodily hygiene. As is common in people with dementia, music appreciation persists, and he whistles operatic arias. He cannot put on a sweater. He is constantly checking if he has his watch, but often it is nowhere to be found. He has great difficulty remembering names, and chatters incessantly. But he does not see any problems: “Take a good look at me. I can still manage on my own.” Actually, he cannot, and with every new surprise or situation that he cannot comprehend, he retreats to his bedroom for comfort. A more immediate threat looms when Anne announces she is moving permanently to Paris. He is visibly shaken. “You are abandoning me…What is going to become of me?…The rats are leaving the ship.”The Father, by the French playwright Florian Zeller (translated by Christopher Hampton), originated as a multi-award-winning play (Le Père and, later, The Father in London's West End and on New York's Broadway) and was made into a film in 2015 (Floride with the no-less distinctive Jean Rochefort). The protagonist's name changed from André (in the play) to Claude (in Floride) and Anthony in the 2020 film remake. Zeller used Hopkins' name (and his birthdate), hoping he would play the part in his debut direction. All action in the film occurs in the poorly lit apartment and is conducive to sundowning. Zeller posits that dementia causes every day to be filled with sudden surprises and shocks, but never seems to want to explain it to the perplexed disoriented viewer. Gradually, however, he leads us into Anthony's discombobulated world. Is he plagued by hallucinations of strangers? At the doctor's office, Anne denies any intention of moving to Paris (“there has never been any question of me living in Paris”), making it most likely another paranoid delusion. Anthony counters “that is good…they do not even speak English there”.Hopkins is an estimable actor in what may be his best role since the forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (for which role he won a British Academy of Film and Television Art award, a British Independent Film Award, and an Academy Award). Hopkins reveals Anthony as a multi-faceted character running the gamut from irascibility and outrage, to amusing and flirtatious, and finally childlike. We see his charm when he meets his caregiver Laura (Imogen Poots) and tells her (to Anne's astonishment) that he used to be a tap dancer; she is very amused when he demonstrates his skills. Later, when Laura gives him his medication (”Your little blue pill, it is a pretty colour is it not?“), he becomes visibly irritated and fully cognisant of being patronised. “Are you a nun? Why do you speak to me as if I am retarded? Thing is, I am very intelligent, [and] you need to bear that in mind…It is true I am very intelligent; sometimes I even surprise myself.”In The Father, the clinical features of dementia—in some far-along stage (Alzheimer's presumably)—are accurate and simulate the feeling of descending into a strange spatially disoriented world. Zeller achieves this feeling by jumbling the chronology and repeating scenes with slightly different set ups in each one, by maintaining the dialogue but also by having different actors play the same character. With this topic, such a cinematic approach is novel. Filmmakers have typically used other tropes to show dementia in the early stages, such as vacant stares, and in the later stages with detachment, hoarding, and loss of decorum. And in many films they certainly do not want to leave the house. (Anthony is very much the same: “Let me be absolutely clear, I am not leaving my flat.”) Some directors move into the horror genre, and although The Father may seem to start off that way, Zeller rightly avoids that direction. Now, for the first time, we look inside the mind of a person with dementia and can speculate how that must seem. Every time Anthony re-enters a room, the light is different, the furniture has been rearranged, and even the people he meets are not the ones he connects with names. Anthony, with his frequent bewildered eyes, says: ”Believe me, there is something funny going on.” One could argue that such a remark at this stage of dementia could be too much intact reflective consciousness.The Father also adeptly shows the misunderstandings (and risk of elder abuse) by outsiders. Many ask “Have you taken your medication?” even after a minor transgression. Anne's husband Paul (Rufus Sewell) is very doubtful: “Sometimes I think you are doing it deliberately.” He is visibly irritated by having Anthony stay in their flat, which is clearly straining Anne and Paul's marriage, and wants him to go to a nursing home. Paul is verbally (and possibly also physically) aggressive to Anthony and reminds him they cancelled their holiday because of his row with a caregiver. Without a look of pity and sarcastic amusement, Paul asks: “Are you satisfied? You have a daughter that looks properly after you; you are lucky.”One of the first things his key patient August D said after Alois Alzheimer asked her to write her name was “I have lost myself”. Anthony Hopkins, in terms of presence and grandeur, has shown us what that might mean. In the last scene, he says, “I'm losing all my leaves”. Cut to Tarkovskian tree leaves in a breeze. Credits.The Father is an exceptional cinematic depiction of dementia. We feel Anne's weariness, and we see Anthony's anguish and visceral intensity. It is a remarkably multidimensional, penetrating film.The Father Directed by Florian Zeller 2020, Sony Pictures Classics, 97 minsFor more on Alois Alzheimer see Alzheimer A. Über einen eigenartigen schweren Erkrankungsprozeß der Hirnrinde. Neurologisches Centralblatt 1906; 23: 1129–36 Sitting on the edge of his bed, Anthony (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins) is wondering what is happening in his flat (figure). Unfamiliar people appear and then disappear. The flat is changing too: “where are these from?” he asks, pointing at chairs, and now also the painting by his favourite daughter Lucy has disappeared. “Where is she by the way?” (Actually, she had died in an accident.) He thinks he is losing all his valuables. “Everyone's just helping themselves…if this goes on much longer, I will be stark naked.” Anthony, a retired engineer, is living in a luxury flat in London, which he thinks is his own. We soon find out that he accused his caregiver of stealing, and he was moved into his daughter's flat—the burdened and fatigued caregiver Anne, brilliantly portrayed by Olivia Colman. Anthony has maintained a regal attitude, is well groomed, and has not shown a disregard for etiquette and bodily hygiene. As is common in people with dementia, music appreciation persists, and he whistles operatic arias. He cannot put on a sweater. He is constantly checking if he has his watch, but often it is nowhere to be found. He has great difficulty remembering names, and chatters incessantly. But he does not see any problems: “Take a good look at me. I can still manage on my own.” Actually, he cannot, and with every new surprise or situation that he cannot comprehend, he retreats to his bedroom for comfort. A more immediate threat looms when Anne announces she is moving permanently to Paris. He is visibly shaken. “You are abandoning me…What is going to become of me?…The rats are leaving the ship.” The Father, by the French playwright Florian Zeller (translated by Christopher Hampton), originated as a multi-award-winning play (Le Père and, later, The Father in London's West End and on New York's Broadway) and was made into a film in 2015 (Floride with the no-less distinctive Jean Rochefort). The protagonist's name changed from André (in the play) to Claude (in Floride) and Anthony in the 2020 film remake. Zeller used Hopkins' name (and his birthdate), hoping he would play the part in his debut direction. All action in the film occurs in the poorly lit apartment and is conducive to sundowning. Zeller posits that dementia causes every day to be filled with sudden surprises and shocks, but never seems to want to explain it to the perplexed disoriented viewer. Gradually, however, he leads us into Anthony's discombobulated world. Is he plagued by hallucinations of strangers? At the doctor's office, Anne denies any intention of moving to Paris (“there has never been any question of me living in Paris”), making it most likely another paranoid delusion. Anthony counters “that is good…they do not even speak English there”. Hopkins is an estimable actor in what may be his best role since the forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (for which role he won a British Academy of Film and Television Art award, a British Independent Film Award, and an Academy Award). Hopkins reveals Anthony as a multi-faceted character running the gamut from irascibility and outrage, to amusing and flirtatious, and finally childlike. We see his charm when he meets his caregiver Laura (Imogen Poots) and tells her (to Anne's astonishment) that he used to be a tap dancer; she is very amused when he demonstrates his skills. Later, when Laura gives him his medication (”Your little blue pill, it is a pretty colour is it not?“), he becomes visibly irritated and fully cognisant of being patronised. “Are you a nun? Why do you speak to me as if I am retarded? Thing is, I am very intelligent, [and] you need to bear that in mind…It is true I am very intelligent; sometimes I even surprise myself.” In The Father, the clinical features of dementia—in some far-along stage (Alzheimer's presumably)—are accurate and simulate the feeling of descending into a strange spatially disoriented world. Zeller achieves this feeling by jumbling the chronology and repeating scenes with slightly different set ups in each one, by maintaining the dialogue but also by having different actors play the same character. With this topic, such a cinematic approach is novel. Filmmakers have typically used other tropes to show dementia in the early stages, such as vacant stares, and in the later stages with detachment, hoarding, and loss of decorum. And in many films they certainly do not want to leave the house. (Anthony is very much the same: “Let me be absolutely clear, I am not leaving my flat.”) Some directors move into the horror genre, and although The Father may seem to start off that way, Zeller rightly avoids that direction. Now, for the first time, we look inside the mind of a person with dementia and can speculate how that must seem. Every time Anthony re-enters a room, the light is different, the furniture has been rearranged, and even the people he meets are not the ones he connects with names. Anthony, with his frequent bewildered eyes, says: ”Believe me, there is something funny going on.” One could argue that such a remark at this stage of dementia could be too much intact reflective consciousness. The Father also adeptly shows the misunderstandings (and risk of elder abuse) by outsiders. Many ask “Have you taken your medication?” even after a minor transgression. Anne's husband Paul (Rufus Sewell) is very doubtful: “Sometimes I think you are doing it deliberately.” He is visibly irritated by having Anthony stay in their flat, which is clearly straining Anne and Paul's marriage, and wants him to go to a nursing home. Paul is verbally (and possibly also physically) aggressive to Anthony and reminds him they cancelled their holiday because of his row with a caregiver. Without a look of pity and sarcastic amusement, Paul asks: “Are you satisfied? You have a daughter that looks properly after you; you are lucky.” One of the first things his key patient August D said after Alois Alzheimer asked her to write her name was “I have lost myself”. Anthony Hopkins, in terms of presence and grandeur, has shown us what that might mean. In the last scene, he says, “I'm losing all my leaves”. Cut to Tarkovskian tree leaves in a breeze. Credits. The Father is an exceptional cinematic depiction of dementia. We feel Anne's weariness, and we see Anthony's anguish and visceral intensity. It is a remarkably multidimensional, penetrating film. The Father Directed by Florian Zeller 2020, Sony Pictures Classics, 97 minsFor more on Alois Alzheimer see Alzheimer A. Über einen eigenartigen schweren Erkrankungsprozeß der Hirnrinde. Neurologisches Centralblatt 1906; 23: 1129–36 The Father Directed by Florian Zeller 2020, Sony Pictures Classics, 97 minsFor more on Alois Alzheimer see Alzheimer A. Über einen eigenartigen schweren Erkrankungsprozeß der Hirnrinde. Neurologisches Centralblatt 1906; 23: 1129–36 The Father Directed by Florian Zeller 2020, Sony Pictures Classics, 97 mins For more on Alois Alzheimer see Alzheimer A. Über einen eigenartigen schweren Erkrankungsprozeß der Hirnrinde. Neurologisches Centralblatt 1906; 23: 1129–36
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