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The Childhood of a Leader

  • 2015
  • 1h 55m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
7.2K
YOUR RATING
The Childhood of a Leader (2015)
This fable about the rise of fascism in the 20th Century tells the story of a young American boy living in France in 1918 whose father is working for the US government on the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. What he witnesses helps to mould his beliefs - and we witness the birth of a terrifying ego.
Play trailer2:00
1 Video
60 Photos
Period DramaPsychological DramaDrama

A chronicle of the childhood of a post-World War I leader.A chronicle of the childhood of a post-World War I leader.A chronicle of the childhood of a post-World War I leader.

  • Director
    • Brady Corbet
  • Writers
    • Brady Corbet
    • Mona Fastvold
    • Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Stars
    • Bérénice Bejo
    • Liam Cunningham
    • Stacy Martin
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    7.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Brady Corbet
    • Writers
      • Brady Corbet
      • Mona Fastvold
      • Jean-Paul Sartre
    • Stars
      • Bérénice Bejo
      • Liam Cunningham
      • Stacy Martin
    • 48User reviews
    • 87Critic reviews
    • 68Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 wins & 12 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:00
    Official Trailer

    Photos59

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    Top cast20

    Edit
    Bérénice Bejo
    Bérénice Bejo
    • The Mother
    Liam Cunningham
    Liam Cunningham
    • The Father
    Stacy Martin
    Stacy Martin
    • The Teacher
    Yolande Moreau
    Yolande Moreau
    • Mona
    Jacques Boudet
    Jacques Boudet
    • The Priest
    Robert Pattinson
    Robert Pattinson
    • Charles…
    Tom Sweet
    Tom Sweet
    • Prescott, the Boy
    Sophie Lane Curtis
    Sophie Lane Curtis
    • Laura
    • (as Sophie Curtis)
    Rebecca Dayan
    Rebecca Dayan
    • Edith
    Michael Epp
    Michael Epp
    • Economist
    Kata Petõ
    • Housemaid
    Mark C. Phelan
    • Mr. Advisor
    • (as Mark Phelan)
    Jeremy Wheeler
    Jeremy Wheeler
    • Mr. Deputy
    Andrew Osterreicher
    • Mr. Secretary
    Scott Alexander Young
    Scott Alexander Young
    • Counselor
    • (as Scott A Young)
    Luca Bercovici
    Luca Bercovici
    • Older Foreign Gentleman
    Caroline Boulton
    Caroline Boulton
    • Mr. Advisor's Secretary
    Roderick Hill
    Roderick Hill
    • Older American Gentleman
    • Director
      • Brady Corbet
    • Writers
      • Brady Corbet
      • Mona Fastvold
      • Jean-Paul Sartre
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews48

    6.27.2K
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    Featured reviews

    6ferguson-6

    How about a parenting class?

    Greetings again from the darkness. Brady Corbet has established a pretty nice career as an actor (Melancholia, Funny Games), and along comes his feature film debut as a writer/director (co-written with Mona Fastvold). In this day of remakes and reboots, this one is anything but. The "Overture" sets the mood with video clips of the WWI aftermath and the explosive score from Scott Walker quickly establishes itself as a character unto itself.

    Subsequent title cards are broken into three "Tantrums", as we witness the ever-escalating inappropriate behavior from young Prescott (Tom Sweet). In what on the surface could be classified as a nature vs nurture expose', the film leaves little doubt that Prescott is rebelling against the monotony of his environment and the disengaged parents to which he is tethered. However, it also seems evident that young Prescott is inherently "off". He seems to be cold and emotionally removed as he engages in battles of will with his parents … his father (Liam Cunningham) a US diplomat knee-deep in negotiations that will lead to the Treaty of Versailles, and his mother (Berenice Bejo), a self-described "citizen of the world".

    Two obvious film comparisons would be The Omen (1976) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011). The ominous music and settings leave little doubt that we are headed somewhere very dark here, though it's not in the religious sense of The Omen and it's more global than the intimacy of 'Kevin'. Thinking of this as evil in the making would be a just description, though a different title might have held the ending a bit longer.

    Support work is provided by Stacy Martin as the French teacher and Yolanda Moreau as the housekeeper who has moments of connection with the challenging Prescott, but Robert Pattison fans will be surprised at how little screen time he has – especially for dual roles.

    Young Tom Sweet is fascinating to watch in a very tough role for a child actor, and director Corbet proves he is a filmmaker we should follow closely. His visual acumen is something special, and offsets a script that could have used a bit of polishing. The movie will probably prove divisive – either you will find it mesmerizing and creepy, or you simply won't connect at all. That's often the case with a creative and bold project.
    8rebeccax5

    High art, impulsive, radical

    The film is clearly influenced by some the greatest directors in terms of style. The music is almost old school experimental and very striking. The acting is excellent. The environment is extremely realistic. Remarkable achievement on a relatively low budget.

    The story and plot is challenging and requires full concentration to see into it's message and meaning. It it also like watching part one of a trilogy,

    There is lots of going up and down stairs in steady tracking shots that at times almost feel Escheristic.

    The film will appeal to those who enjoy watching directors that attempt to paint on a cinematic canvas and who appreciate challenging films.
    8mini-zappa

    Amazing.

    Wow. That was amazing.

    The story revolves around a wealthy American (or citizens of the world, as The Mother calls them) family at the end of WW1 in France. The movie centers on the kid, Prescott. He's not a "normal" kid, I guess. He's been acting up ever since they moved to another town. He takes French lessons from the teacher, Ada (played excellently by Stacy Martin), which The Father disapproves of, because he can't speak the language himself and he feels The Father works for the American government, right under President Jimmy Carter, so he goes on a lost of work trips, and he doesn't really care about getting to know the people of the town as much as The Mother does.

    At the beginning of the film the kid got caught throwing rocks at the church members ("A Sign of Thing to Come) and the movie just goes from there. The film is divided in chapter in a really cool way (First Tantrum, Second Tantrum etc.). The whole film is stylized really old school, e.g there's an overture at the beginning and etc. That brings me to the score, oh my god. The score is amazing, it's very unsettling. Quite possibly the best score I've heard this year, Knight of Cups is the only competition.

    All of the performances are fantastic, especially Tom Sweet as Prescott, Bèrènice Bejo as The Mother and Stacy Martin as Ada, or The Teacher. Robert Pattinson is great too as a friend of the family and widower Charles, in the few scenes he shows up in.

    I can't believe this is Brady Corbet's directorial debut, because the film is directed so well. I knew he's a great actor (Funny Games U.S.), I had no idea he could direct. I cannot wait for his next project because this is one of the better directed films I've seen in a while. Everything felt unsettlingly natural and real, the cinematography was fantastic and all the actors were great, even the kid. Or especially the kid.

    Oh yeah, by the way, this is not a horror movie, it has some horror-ish and surreal (although it never goes full Eraserhead or Enemy) elements and it's very unsettling but it's not a horror movie. I think the horror-ish stuff lies in the things we don't see, or the things to come.

    Oh, and no spoiler but the ending was so amazing, holy crap.

    This is the third, possibly second, best movie I've seen so far this year and I'm hoping for Oscar buzz for this film at the end of the year, but it's not likely that will happen though.

    9/10. It's excellent.
    summerssimon

    A flawed but powerful and very promising debut

    A flawed but very promising directorial debut from Brady Corbet. The plot meanders a little, promising more than it ultimately manages to deliver. There are, though, plenty of great moments as the film unfolds and the increasingly oppressive atmosphere of isolation, alienation and menace intensifies. Scott Walker's soundtrack is gloriously weird and over the top, and is used to particularly powerful effect in the set piece sequences that open and close the film. The acting is uniformly excellent. Tom Sweet delivers a fine performance as The Boy, whose increasingly violent tantrums are a sign of grim things to come. This is an intelligent and subtle film. A very good debut, which falls just short of being great.
    6zacknabo

    Well Intended Misfire

    Brady Corbet has assimilated many wonderful visual styles which he has picked up over the past several years working with master directors such as Von Trier and Haneke, but this is all Corbet has accomplished. Reappropriating stunning visual film language does not a good director make, because used haphazardly the images lose their ominous, dark tone and are instead replaced with empty somewhat pretentious images that have nothing story or acting wise holding it up. So all we are left is a misfire. While Corbet is similar to another young director, Xavier Dolan, in that they are trapped exercising their personal influences, Dolan has more innate talent. I would say that Corbet's command of the camera at times is promising. The sad part is he has a great skeleton but no meat and few functioning organs. The performances are a bit flat, though they are only working with what they are giving. Bejo is tiresome and Pattinson is...Pattinson. The best scene is in the beginning where the young boy gets in trouble with snowballs, a possible reference to Abel Gance's Napoleon. Corbet like Napoleon is undone by his ambition. But I do wish more directors were this ambitious in their debuts. If nothing else Corbet swung for the fences...and he should know better: nobody does Haneke better than Haneke.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      This film marks the second collaboration between screenwriters Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, having collaborated in the screenplay for The Sleepwalker. The difference between this two collaborations is that Fastvold directed The Sleepwalker and Corbet directed this one.
    • Goofs
      Prescott's mother writes the French address on an envelope with a modern five-digit postcode. But France has had postcodes only since 1964, and the current five-digit ones only since 1972.
    • Quotes

      Charles: The tragedy is not only that Pontius Pilate betrayed his self but that hundreds in the crowd before him did betray their selves. And that's what I wrote was the tragedy of war. Not that one man has the courage to be evil but that so many have not the courage to be good.

    • Soundtracks
      Oui, Oui, Marie
      (uncredited)

      Written by Fred Fisher, Al Bryan, Joseph McCarthy

      Performed by Arthur Fields

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    FAQ18

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • July 22, 2016 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Canada
      • United Kingdom
      • France
      • Hungary
      • Belgium
    • Official site
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • German
    • Also known as
      • La niñez de un líder
    • Filming locations
      • Buda Castle, Budapest, Hungary
    • Production companies
      • Scion Pictures
      • Bow and Arrow Entertainment
      • Bron Capital Partners
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $3,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $245,546
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 55 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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