Anthony Hopkins

Jacques

Registered User
Apr 4, 2020
51
0
Good morning
Yesterday my daughter told me about a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman. It is called The Father. I understand that it is a wonderful portrayal of a man who refuses help whist trying to understand what is happening to him.

There is a trailer on YouTube and it should be available to watch on prime at the end of this week. I will certainly be watching it as anything that can help me gain an insight into my husband's thinking could help with caring for him.
 

Sarasa

Volunteer Host
Apr 13, 2018
7,195
0
Nottinghamshire
I'm looking forward to this. My sister in law works in the film industry so gets to see advanced viewings, tells me it is really good, though I expect it will be heart breaking. I think Hopkins has been nominated for an Oscar for his role
 

Izzy

Volunteer Moderator
Aug 31, 2003
74,001
0
72
Dundee
Even almost 5 years after my husband’s death I still find it very difficult to watch films such as these.
 

jaymor

Registered User
Jul 14, 2006
15,604
0
South Staffordshire
Me too, Friday will be the 5th anniversary of my husband’s death. This anniversary is the one that stays raw, birthdays, wedding anniversaries I can look on as happy memories but not this anniversary. Great that films are being made with dementia as the story line, we need more people to realise what life is like with dementia, but right now not for me, in the future, who knows.
 
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Izzy

Volunteer Moderator
Aug 31, 2003
74,001
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72
Dundee
Will be thinking of you on Friday @jaymor. I’m not far behind you and I know exactly what you mean about memories of the day.
 

Seaholly

Registered User
Oct 12, 2020
113
0
Sounds great - but surely that is just the sort of film that should be on the BBC and freely available to everyone, rather than hidden away where so many people wouldn't even think of looking?
 

MartinWL

Registered User
Jun 12, 2020
2,025
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67
London
The film has been in cinemas and is now available for a small charge on streaming services. I have just watched it so here's my effort as a film critic. It is a gripping powerful and disturbing fim. Hopkins is brilliant, as is the actress playing the daughter, and many symptoms that we discuss in this forum are brought together. It was almost a horror film. The despair of the daughter, the impatience of her husband, ( was he?) and the denial of the patient were all I thought true to life. However I found it rather confusing that delusions and reality were jumbled so that the viewer didn't know which was which. Maybe that was intentional to give us an insight into Anthony's mind. We heard the daughter saying both that she was going to move to Paris, and that she was not. Some key parts of the story were glossed over, especially taking him to the care home. The whole film was set in a wealthy part of London, and Anthony's flat, and the daughter's flat, which was similar, were huge by London standards, and the care home was obviously very expensive too, with staff to do 1:1 care. So not an everyday story of typical family struggles. For anyone, like myself, trying to look after someone with less advanced dementia, it was something of a terrifying tale of what might be to come.
 

northumbrian_k

Volunteer Host
Mar 2, 2017
4,415
0
Newcastle
I haven't seen the film but went with my wife to see it as a stage play in April 2016, before she had a confirmed diagnosis. That sometimes underrated actor Kenneth Cranham was in the lead role.

This is what I wrote in my dementia diary: "We go to see the acclaimed play “The Father” but despite Kenneth Cranham’s fine performance I find the subject of dementia to be too close for comfort. A <my wife> seems unmoved."

On stage there was some sort of sound and/or lights (can't remember exactly) to signify when something in the narrative, such as location or elapsed time, had changed. This became rather tiresome. The film will doubtless have more scope to do things differently but, as others have said, in some ways it was an 'idealised' version of dementia (if such can be said to exist). I'm not a great film goer, nor especially a Hopkins fan so will almost certainly give it a miss.
 

Felixcat1

Registered User
Feb 23, 2021
169
0
Good morning
Yesterday my daughter told me about a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman. It is called The Father. I understand that it is a wonderful portrayal of a man who refuses help whist trying to understand what is happening to him.

There is a trailer on YouTube and it should be available to watch on prime at the end of this week. I will certainly be watching it as anything that can help me gain an insight into my husband's thinking could help with caring for him.
This exactly what I am going through with my dad ?
 

MartinWL

Registered User
Jun 12, 2020
2,025
0
67
London
I also admire Anthony Hopkins but like you I won’t be watching the film. I find it very difficult to watch anything about dementia. As you say - too close to home.
Oh go on be a devil, and watch it. It isn't upsetting, it is sad but the PWD played by Hopkins isn't shown as suffering in any way.
 

Izzy

Volunteer Moderator
Aug 31, 2003
74,001
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72
Dundee
Oh go on be a devil, and watch it. It isn't upsetting, it is sad but the PWD played by Hopkins isn't shown as suffering in any way.

It’s not a matter of being a devil and watching it. I lost my much loved husband 5 years ago after living with dementia for 15 years. I still live with the memories each and every moment of my days. I just can’t watch these films just now. I know that one day I will - but not now.
 

jennifer1967

Registered User
Mar 15, 2020
23,137
0
Southampton
It’s not a matter of being a devil and watching it. I lost my much loved husband 5 years ago after living with dementia for 15 years. I still live with the memories each and every moment of my days. I just can’t watch these films just now. I know that one day I will - but not now.
you dont need to watch the film, you have lived it. i dont think i could relax and sit and watch it as i would be critiquing it all the way through, this is wrong, i recognize that, thats not what happens.
 

MartinWL

Registered User
Jun 12, 2020
2,025
0
67
London
you dont need to watch the film, you have lived it. i dont think i could relax and sit and watch it as i would be critiquing it all the way through, this is wrong, i recognize that, thats not what happens.
For what it's worth, as I am no film critic, I thought it well researched and the characteristics of the lead character reflected many of the postings here.
 

Dunroamin

Registered User
May 5, 2019
418
0
UK
This film was shown at our community cinema last night (full house) I found it immensely moving and powerful. The terrifying confusion of time and place (which I am beginning to experience with my Alzheimers) was excruciatingly realistic and well filmed. The fact that my OH found this confusing, whilst I readily understood the constant context change was illuminating, and an illustration that people WITHOUT dementia are unable to enter my world.

I would encourage viewing of this disturbing film, uncomfortable though it may be.
 

jaymor

Registered User
Jul 14, 2006
15,604
0
South Staffordshire
I lived 11 years of dementia with my lovely husband. He died five and a half years ago and I am another that’s not ready and probably never will be ready to watch this type of film. I’ve lived it from beginning to end
 

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