Actor Brady Corbet is making his transition to the other side of the camera with his directorial debut The Childhood of a Leader, based on a screenplay he penned with writer Mona Fastvold. Corbet has assembled quite the cast for this blend of drama, horror, and mystery, with Robert Pattinson, Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, and newcomer Tom Sweet. With 45 Years cinematographer Lol Crawley and an original score by Scott Walker, all the pieces are in line for an impressive debut.
Demonstrating its filmic grain under an unsettling orchestral score and one messed up family dynamic, this new U.S. trailer suggests Corbet has a strong visual eye for the unflinching and a real promise in the director’s chair. We said in our review, “For all its showiness, Childhood remains fluid and subtle in depicting the uncomfortable side of family relationships – thus nailing the central point of Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story of the same title that I assumed Corbet was adapting. While that turned out to be mere inspiration, the film retains its unrelenting desire to test the boundaries of the uncanny, and present a child’s every interaction as a live grenade of morbid implications.”
See the new trailer and a poster below.
A child’s angelic face conceals a budding sociopath in the audacious, senses-shattering feature debut from actor Brady Corbet. A powerhouse international cast led by Robert Pattinson and Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) headlines this dark domestic nightmare. Set amidst the turmoil of World War I and its aftermath, it follows the young son of an American diplomat living in France as he learns to manipulate the adults around him—a monstrous coming of age that ominously parallels the rising tide of Fascism in Europe. A stylistically fearless tour-de-force, The Childhood of a Leader reaches fever-pitch delirium thanks to ravishing cinematography and a thunderous score by legendary, boundary-pushing musician Scott Walker.
The Childhood of a Leader hits theaters July 22nd.