Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2015: #35. Brady Corbet’s The Childhood of a Leader

Published on January 8, 2015

The Childhood of a Leader

Director: Brady Corbet // Writers: Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold

Working with the likes of Bonello, Östlund, Assayas, Hansen-Løve and Baumbach, when you count the 2014 festival release year alone, actor Brady Corbet (Mysterious Skin; Funny Games U.S.; Simon Killer) has built quite the impressive resume working with the auteur set. While The Childhood of a Leader is his feature length directing debut, this counts as back to back years working in the filmmaker capacity when you take into account his writing creds in Mona Fastvold’s overlooked ’14 title, The Sleepwalker, and the soon to be premiered Sundance short Rabbit, by filmmaker Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre. Initially announced as starring Juliette Binoche (Corbet’s co-star from Clouds of Sils Maria), she was later replaced by Berenice Bejo. It goes without saying that most of the attention will be placed on Robert Pattinson, continuing his tour of difficult, auteur driven and inspired cinematic projects, but Corbet also nabs Tim Roth and Nymphomaniac star Stacy Martin in the lineup. Set in 1919, this story tells the tale of a ‘would-be-fascist,’ and the screenplay is inspired by a wide range of authorial pillars, from John Fowls to Jean-Paul Sarte with a bit of Volker Schlondorff’s 1966 classic Young Torless (which also served as a point of comparison for Haneke’s The White Ribbon). The film has been described as partially about a family that relocates to France for the Paris Peace Conference and about the events leading up to the Treaty of Versailles. Early descriptions of the film also point to elements of horror.

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Berenice Bejo, Stacy Martin, Tim Roth

Producers: Brady Corbet, Chris Coen (Jane Got a Gun), Helena Danielsson (Call Girl), Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre (Salvo)

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available.

Release Date: With filming set for this January, the Venice Film Fest organizers must be eagerly awaiting a chance at showcasing this film.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.